Glossary - C

Caliper

The thickness of sheet of paper or board expressed in microns (millionths of a metre). Also the name of the tool used to make the measurement.

Camera ready

Artwork or pasted up material that is ready for reproduction.

Cap height

Height of capital letters in one type size of a font.

Caps and small caps

A style of type that shows capital letters used in the normal way while the body copy is set in capital letters which are of a slightly smaller size.

Carbonless

Paper coated with chemicals and dye which will produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required).

Cartridge

A thick general purpose paper used for printing, drawing and wrapping.

Case bound

A hardback book made with stiff outer covers. Cases are usually covered with cloth, vinyl or leather.

Character count

The number of characters; i.e. letters, figures, signs or spaces in a piece of copy, line or paragraph used as a first stage in type calculations.

Character Identifiers (CID)

A new type of font that has a simplified internal structure and a compact file size, resulting in improved performance for large character sets such as Chinese, Cyrillic, Japanese, and Korean.

Choke

A method of altering the thickness of a shape by overexposure in processing or by means of a built-in option in some computer applications.

Coated

Printing papers which after making have had a surface coating with clay etc, to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity.

Collate

To gather separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding.

Colour Management System (CMS)

Software that allows applications and printer drivers to access information about the colour characteristics of monitors, printers, and scanners. The Colour Management System uses the colour information to provide accurate and consistent colour to the output device.

Colour separations CMYK

The division of a multi-coloured original or line copy into the basic (or primary) process colours of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. These should not be confused with the optical primaries; red, green and blue. Column inch - a measure of area used in newspapers and magazines to calculate the cost of display advertising. A column inch is one column wide by one inch deep.

Colour correction

The process of adjusting an image to compensate for scanner deficiencies or for the characteristics of the output device.

Colour proof

A representation of what the final printed composition will look like. The resolution and quality of different types of colour can vary greatly.

Column inch

A measure of area used in newspapers and magazines to calculate the cost of display advertising. A column inch is one column wide by one inch deep.

Column rule

A light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type.

Composition

The assembling of characters into words, lines, and paragraphs of text or body matter type for reproduction by printing.

Computer-to-Plate (CTP)

A technology that allows for the delivery of digital data directly to a plate for printing. CTP efficiency eliminates conventional films and stripping to significantly reduce prepress materials and costs, and allow for significant productivity benefits over other commercial printing solutions.

Compression

A method of packing data in order to save disk storage space or download time. JPEGs are generally compressed graphics files. Compression is a technique to make a file or a data stream smaller for faster transmission or to take up less storage space.

Concertina fold

A method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect.

Condensed

A style of typeface in which the characters have an elongated appearance.

Continuous tone

An image in which the subject has continuous shades of colour or gray without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced in that form for printing but must be screened to translate the image into dots.

Contrast

The degree of tones in a photograph ranging from highlight to shadow.

Copy

1) For an editor or typesetter, all written material. 2) For a graphic designer or printer, everything to be printed - art, photographs and graphics, as well as words.

Copy editor

Person who checks and corrects a manuscript for spelling, grammar, punctuation, inconsistencies, inaccuracies, and conformity to style requirements. Also called line editor.

Copyright

The right of copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without express permission or acknowledgement of the originator.

Crop marks

Lines near the edges of an image indicating portions to be reproduced. Also called cut marks and tick marks.

Cropping

The elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.

Cursive

Used to describe typefaces that resemble written script.

Cut flush

A method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to the pages.

Cross head

A heading set in the body of the text used to break it into easily readable sections.