We realise that not everyone knows some widely used terms within design and advertising, so here are just some of the more common ones requested for clarification.
This page is intended for clients or other people who might need clarification when dealing with a design company or ad agency.
Printing
CMYK
Abbreviation used for Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black - the four coloured inks used in the ordinary 4-colour printing process.
SPOT Colour
Normally refers to one 'special' colour, eg a red being added to something that may be predominantly black.
SPECIAL Colour
Sometimes an extra 'spot' colour is added on top of the cmyk printing process, making it a 5 colour print.
Saddle stitch
Binding publications by putting a staple through the spine.
Perfect binding
Folded and gathered sections are glued into the spine - minimum thickness before you can do this is about 6mm.
Art paper
Paper with a hard, smooth surface caused by an even coating of china clay compound on one or both sides. Gloss art is commonly used for leaflets and flyers.
Gloss Laminate
A high gloss 'film' added over the final printed item. Protects the surface and gives colours a visual 'lift'
Matt Laminate
Matt film added over the final printed item. Can give a sophisticated appearance to Annual Reports, corporate literature, etc. More expensive than gloss laminate.
UV varnish
Similar in finish effect to a gloss laminate and can be more cost effective.
Spot Varnish
Specific areas on a page are varnished to pick them out visually. Can be very effective when used over a Matt laminate.
Text
Ranged left
Text that lines up down the left hand side.
Ranged right
Opposite to above
Justified
Text that aligns both right and left hand sides by altering the spacing between words.
Images
JPEG (.jgp)
An image file that has been compressed. The format for photographs and some pictures that have lots of different colour when used on web pages as well as a way of delivering large file sized images by email. Photo-libraries normally deliver images in this way. Compression is 'lossy' which means that some of the image is lost in the compression. Subsequent re-saving will lose more data and the quality will suffer as a result depending on the amount of compression. It's okay to do this once from the original and not compress the image too much.
TIFF (.tif)
An image file which is the preferred format for printing from. Can be compressed without loss of image quality, but remains a bigger file size compared to JPEG.
GIF (.gif)
Image file suitable for web use only. Note that pictures pulled from websites in this and JPEG format aren't suitable for reproduction in printed matter.
PDF
Portable Document Format - refers to a file which although created in almost any program, can be read on any computer that has Acrobat Reader installed. The originator has to save it in a PDF format before distribution or sending. Most computers will have Acrobat Reader (a free download) already on them. Most journals and newspapers are working towards a 'pdf workflow' for adverts meaning that the pdf is the preferred option for supplying ads. Needs to be saved with the correct settings for this.
