Glossary

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Acid Free: (Neutral pH of 7.0) If prepared properly, papers made from any fiber can be acid free.

Acrylic: A type of plastic used for flat and formed surfaces.

Adhesion: The measure of the strength by which two materials bond together.

Adobe RGB (1998) - a universally accepted color space used by most giclee printers. Has a much broader color gamut than sRGB.

Archival Inks: Inks used in fine art reproduction that have been optimized for permanence.

B

Brightness: The value of a pixel in an electronic image, representing its lightness value from black to white. Usually defined as brightness levels ranging in value from 0 (black) to 255 (white).

C

CMS: (Color Management System) A software program (or a software and hardware combination) designed to ensure color matching and calibration between video or computer monitors and any form of hard copy output.

CMYK
CMYKcm
CMYKOG
One of several color encoding systems used by printers for combining primary colors to produce a full-color image. In CMYK, colors are expressed by the subtractive primaries (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). Black is represented by K since black keyline text appears on this layer. Two other common acronyms for 6 colors are CMYKcm (light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow, and black) and CMYKOG (cyan, magenta, yellow, black, orange, and green).

Coatings: A clear coating provides protection from smudging, fingerprints, and water droplets. It does not improve the permanence of the print because most fading is due to visible light. On some material, such as canvas, coating can render a print water-resistant, allowing it to be framed without glass.

Cold Pressed: A paper surface with slight texture produced by pressing the finished sheet between cold cylinders.

Colorfast: (Lightfast) A paper color that is resistant to fading due to aging, or the action from external agents such as light, acids, heat, chemicals and other adverse conditions. Lightfast and sunfast are variations of the term.

Color Gamut: A range of colors that can be reproduced by a given system.

Color Saturation: Color Strength. A measure of color purity, or dilution by a neutral.

Color space: The color spectrum that is available in a particular file. sRGB is a limited color space with a smaller color gamut (range) than Adobe RGB (1998). Typically, images from digital cameras are in sRGB. Also, images on the Internet only display in sRGB.

Continuous Tone: An image in which brightness appears consistent and uninterrupted. Each pixel in a continuous tone image file uses at least one byte per red, green, and blue value. This permits 256 density levels per color or more than 16 million mixture colors.

D

Deckled Edges: Fine watercolor papers have natural deckles on two or four sides. Frequently the look of a print is improved by tearing the paper rather than cutting it, creating "torn deckles." After tearing, a bone knife is used to smooth the edge and create the deckle edge look.

Density: The degree of opacity of an image; A measure of reflectance or transmittance equal to log10 (1/reflectance) of log10 or (1/transmittance); The ability of a material to absorb light; the darker it is, the higher the density. Density measurements of solid ink patches are used to control ink on paper.

DPI: (Dots Per Inch) The measurement of resolution of a printer or video monitor based on dot density. For example, most laser printers have a resolution of 300 DPI, most monitors 72 DPI, most Post Script imagesetters 1200 to 2450 DPI. The measurement can also relate to pixels in an input file, or line screen dots (halftone screen) in a prepress output film.

Dye: Colored soluble substance that imparts a more or less permanent color to another material by staining or by chemical reaction with substrate.

Dynamic Range: The measurable difference between the brightest highlight and the darkest value.

E

Enhancement: The improvement of an image either through color and/or density change.

F

Fading: The loss of or change of color density, generally accelerated by exposure to sunlight.

G

Giclee: A common term used to describe fine art digital prints (Fr. "a spraying of ink"). Giclee care tips.

Gloss: Spectral reflection of light from a surface.

GSM: (Gram per square meter) The gram weight of a hypothetical square meter of a particular type of paper, a good comparative measurement because it does not vary with sheet size.

H

Head: A printing term used to describe the firing point of an ink jet machine. Heads are used in Piezo (Epson/Xar) and Thermo (HP/Encad) technology printers.

Heat Transfer: The movement of a printed image from a holding (or donor) substrate to another surface by applying a certain temperature and pressure.

High Resolution Scan: Professional scan at an output resolution of 150 DPI or 300 DPI using color optimized for archival inks on fine art media.

Hot Pressed: A paper surface that is smooth, produced by pressing a finished sheet through hot cylinders.

Hue: A term used to describe the entire range of colors in a spectrum; hue is the component that determines just what color you are using. In gradients, when you use a color model in which hue is a component, you can create rainbow effects.

HVLP: (High Volume Low Pressure) In the context of fine art coating, HVLP is usually used to describe a type of industrial spray gun that is suitable for apply large amounts of coating over a large area quickly.

I

ICC Profile: ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles represent the color space of a specific substrate, ink, printer, monitor or capture device. Each of these elements have their own unique color gamut. This is due to the fact that every element is able to achieve a different level of color. ICC profiles can be applied in the edit process or the RIP software.

Inkjet Printer: A type of printer that sprays tiny streams of quick-drying ink onto a substrate.

Intensity: The amount of light reflected or transmitted by an object with measured as black with the lowest intensity and white with the highest intensity.

J

K

L

Lamination: Bonding one product to another by pressure for protection or appearance.

"or greater in width.

M

Matte Finish: A low-gloss finish, with little reflective quality.

Media: Any digitally printable substrate. The materials to be printed on, such as watercolor paper, canvas, copper, wood veneer, cotton, plastic and exotic papers like Japanese Kochi.

Mould made Paper: Paper made by a slowly rotating machine called a cylinder-mould that simulates the hand papermaking process. Fibers become more randomly intertwined in machine made papers, producing a stronger, more flexible sheet or roll.

N

Nozzle: Early inkjet printers used pressure released through a small opening to spray ink, that area of release was concealed in the nozzle.

O

OEM: Original Equipment Manufactures

"show through" of printed matter on the reverse side of the paper and the sheet's hiding power of printing or any dark material on an adjacent sheet. As basis weights are reduced, it becomes increasingly difficult and costly to maintain sufficient opacity. The higher the opacity reading the more opaque the sheet.

Orange Peel: The failure of ink or clear coat to flow out smoothly, leaving a textured surface that appears much like an orange skin.

P

Piezo/Micro-piezo: A printer head technology that uses micro-electric firing of crystals to control the flow of ink to the substrate.

Pigment: A finely powdered coloring material used in paints and inks. Pigments are used in paper to alter physical properties as well as to add color and improve brightness and opacity. A pigment is insoluble in the liquid vehicle with which it is mixed

Pixel: A single unit of color on a RGB monitor.

Pixelation: Graininess in an image that results when the pixels are too big.

Print File: The file used to produce a final proof that is archived for producing current and future printings of an edition.

Printmaker: The person who does the actual printing of a digital image. A printmaker uses a printer (the equipment) to make a digital print.

Print on Demand: The digital process enables the economic and efficient reproduction of prints over a long period of time with consistency, allowing orders of small numbers of prints whenever needed. While the process offers a high degree of consistency, editions that require exact matching should be printed one at a time.

Proof: A smaller print - often 8 x 10 inches - used to evaluate a file prior to printing.

Pulp: Any cellulose plant fiber (cotton, linen, wood, Japanese plants) cleaned and beaten into a wet mixture and used to form sheets of paper.

Q

R

Resize: It is generally possible to resize files so prints can be made either smaller or larger. Significant enlargement is usually not successful, but an adjustment of up to 20 percent is acceptable.

"fineness" of detail of a reproduction given in line pairs per mm, or pixels per inch. A definition of resolution in terms of pixels per inch.

RIP: (Raster Image Processing) A piece of hardware or software that converts object-oriented graphics and fonts into the bitmaps required for output on a vector-based printer.

Rough: A heavily textured paper surface produced by placing wet sheets of paper against textured blankets or by air drying (or both).

S

Saturation: The degree to which a color is undiluted by white light. If a color is 100 percent saturated, it contains no white light. If a color has no saturation, it is a shade of gray.

Scanning: Digitizing an analog image. The process of converting a transparency, negative, slide, original or print to a digital file.

Sheet/Substrate: The sheet of paper or other material that will be printed on.

Solvent: A substance capable of dissolving something. A substance that dissolves another to form a solution.

T

Thermal Transfer: A printer technology that uses heat to transfer colored dye, wax or resin onto paper.

"x5" or 8"x10", not a 35mm slide. The pre-press process creates a print that looks as close as possible to the transparency, not the original, so the transparency should reflect the original as accurately as possible.

Tru Decor: A less stringent quality mark affirming that the print adheres to the quality standards synonymous with the trademark, Tru Decor. For more information visit www.gpa.bz/trudecor

Tru Giclee: An extremely high quality mark affirming that the print and printmakers adhere to the standards associated with the the trade mark, Tru Giclee. For more information visit www.gpa.bz/trugiclee

U

U.V. Curable Ink: Inks that become fixed/set by exposure to a ultra violet source.

V

Vellum: A paper surface that is finely textural. Vellum is also used to designate heavy weight, translucent drawing, or drafting papers.

W

Weatherability: The ability of a material to withstand the effects of exposure to weather conditions, significant change in physical or chemical properties.

Canvas

Ink

Coatings

Paper

Specialty Media

Equipment

Glossary

A

B

C

D

E

F

G

H

I

J

K

L

M

N

O

P

Q

R

S

T

U

V

W

X

Y

Z