Fine Print

Fine Print Knowledge Center

The online guide to print and design.

Introduction
A Brief History of Printing
PrePress
Planning and Strategy
Design Tips
Color Management
File Submission
Proofing
Materials and Stocks
Inks
Platemaking
Types of Printing
Offset Lithography
Digital Printing
Screen Printing
Gravure
Thermography
Flexography
Letterpress
Large Format
Specialty Printing
3D Printing
Promotional
Security Printing
Green Printing
Types of Finishes
Coatings
Binding
Folding
Scoring
Die Cutting
Embossing
Foil Stamping
Perforations
A-PEN

Annealed Polyethylene Naphthalate

A polyester material used as the base on Advanced Photo System film; thinner, stronger and flatter than the acetate base traditionally used in consumer photographic roll films.

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A/W

An abbreviation for Artwork.

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A4

ISO Paper Size

210mm x 297mm (8 1/4” x 11 11/16), most commonly used for letterheads.

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AA

Author’s Alteration

Any change made by the customer after copy or artwork has been submitted to the service bureau, separator or printer.

The change could be in copy, specifications or both.

Also called AA, author alteration and customer alteration.

The cost of making such alterations is charged for, in contrast to printer’s errors or house corrections.

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AAA

Association of Authors’ Agents

A body representing the interests of UK literary agents.

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AAAA

American Association of Advertising Agencies

Founded in 1917, The American Association of Advertising Agencies is the national trade association representing the advertising agency business in the United States.

Its membership produces approximately 80 percent of the total advertising volume placed by agencies nationwide.

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AAAL

American Academy of Arts and Letters

An organization of 250 artists, writers, composers, sculptors and architects elected for life. Maintaining a consistent number of members, replacements occur when members die. The purpose is to foster sustained interest in Literature, Music and Fine Art through awards and prizes, exhibitions, performances and gifts to museums.

The AAAL was founded in 1898 with the name of National Institute of Arts and Letters with the goal of recognizing those Americans of the highest artistic achievement.

Early members were William Dean Howells, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, John LaFarge, Mark Twain and Henry James. Each member was assigned a chair in the order of election. Incorporation of the Institute was 1913 by an Act of Congress, and three years later The Academy was incorporated by Congress and signed by President Woodrow Wilson.

In 1976, the two organizations merged but had two levels of membership and operated as the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. In 1993, they chose one name—- American Academy of Arts and Letters.

The headquarters are in Manhattan at 633 West 155th Street in a building designed by the architecture firm of McKim, Mead & White—-all three were members. A second building is located near the Headquarters and houses a 730-seat auditorium is for performances.

Both structures are in the Audubon Terrace Historic District. The archives have correspondence among members, original manuscripts and works of art. In 1946, the Academy began a purchase program with the goal of placing works by living American artists in museums across the country.

Many of these purchases are made during their annual exhibitions, held in May. This project was instituted by Maude Hassam, the wife of member Child Hassam, with a bequest of 400 of his works. She stipulated that proceeds from the sale be used to establish a fund to purchase works on paper.

Other bequests were made by members Eugene Speicher, Louis Betts, and Gardner Symons. Academy Awards are given at the May exhibition and include the Award of Merit of $10,000.00, Jimmy Ernst Award of $5,000.00 and the Richard and Hinda Rosethal Foundation for $5,000.00.

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AAEA

American Academy of Equine Artists

Organized in 1980 by ten equine artists, the goal of the AAEA is to maintain standards of excellence within the subject matter and “to promote the academic representation of the equine form in drawing, painting and sculpture.”

Patterned somewhat after the Royal Academy of Arts in London, the organization has the purpose of educating the public and creating a broad awareness and appreciation of contemporary equine art as fine art.

Full membership is awarded to artists who meet certain standards in their artwork and also teach others through workshops, classrooms, seminars, etc. In addition, the must show skill not only in equine anatomy but with other subjects that may combine with equine depiction such as the human figure, landscape and backgrounds.

Membership is open to persons of all nationalities. An annual exhibition is held with submissions by guest artists as well as members. At the Kentucky Horse Park in Lexington, a workshop is held each year each year for drawing, sculpting and painting equine subjects.

The Horse Park is also the site of an Academy Artist in Residence program. Members include Anthony Alonzo, Don Prechtel, Veryl Goodnight, Cammie Lundeen and Carol Peek.

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AAP

Association of American Publishers

AAP’s mandate covers both the general and the specific broad issues important to all publishers as well as issues of specific concern to particular segments of the industry.

The Association’s “core” programs deal with matters of general interest:intellectual property; new technology and telecommunications issues of concern to publishers; First Amendment rights, censorship and libel; international freedom to publish; funding for education and libraries; postal rates and regulations; tax and trade policy.

Directed by standing committees of the Association, these programs, along with a host of membership services including government affairs, a broad-based statistical program, public information and press relations, are the “core” activities of the Association.

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ABA

American Booksellers Association

Founded in 1900, the American Booksellers Association is a not-for-profit organization devoted to meeting the needs of its core members of independently owned bookstores with retail storefront locations through advocacy, education, research, and information dissemination.

The ABA actively supports free speech, literacy, and programs that encourage reading.

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Abbozzo

An Italian word that in English means ‘sketch’.

In fine art, the term refers to the initial drawing or outline on the canvas or the first under-painting; in sculpture the Abbozzo is the material, such as a lump of clay or chunk of wood, that has the rough form of the final piece.

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Abbreviation

A shortened form of a word or phrase.

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Abhesive

A material having the capability of resisting Adhesion.

Surfaces are coated with abhesive substances to reduce sticking, heat sealing, and the like. Silicone paper is an example of an abhesive material.

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Abilene Art League

An art organization of Abilene, Texas dating from 1930 to the end of the 1940s with 24 initial members.

By 1933, it was part of the Abilene Woman’s Club and held continuous exhibitions and lectures.

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Ablation

A technique for the imaging of offset plates, by which a thermal erosion layer is removed.

The printing plates then only require mechanical treatment and in some cases can be rinsed with water.

The main disadvantage of this system is that it produces debris which must be removed from the CtP system.

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ABM

American Business Media

An association of publishers with business-to-business publications in print and electronic form.

The ABP conducts research, disseminates industry information, conducts educational seminars and classes, and promotes business publications in general on behalf of its members.

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Above the Fold

The editorial space visible after the publication has been folded in half.

Is considered top placement for articles.

A mostly newspaper term but also used in trade news tabloids.

Also used on websites to signify the space visible without scrolling, especially on the home page.

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Abrasion Resistance

The level of resistance to withstand repeated rubbing and scuffing.

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Abrasiveness

The level wear, resulting from friction, that paper, ink and coatings cause on dies, cutting blades, plates, etc.

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Absentee Bid

An auction bid by a person not attending the auction. Called an ‘Order Bid”, it can be placed by using a printed absentee form at the end of an auction catalogue or by a phone-in or email method or other arrangement, depending upon the way auction house handles this type of transaction.

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Absorbency

The ability of paper to absorb or take in liquids.

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Absorption

A term used in the adhesive industry to indicate the capillary or cellular attraction of a surface to draw off a liquid adhesive into the substrate.

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Abstract Art/Abstraction

Terms with wide-ranging meaning, but always descriptive of artwork in which the realistic depiction of objects ranges from secondary to non-existent. Although it could be argued that the dramatic landscapes of many of the Hudson River painters were exaggerated (abstracted) to emphasize emotion rather than visual reality, Impressionism was the first major step into Abstraction and a critical break with Realism that shocked many viewers and stirred widespread critical commentary in Europe and America.

Of the tension created among many Americans when they first encountered abstraction, Ruth Appledoorn Mead, founder of the Martha’s Vineyard Art Association, said contemporary and realistic art belong together. “Learning to appreciate distortion is like learning to appreciate olives and clams.” (Old Sculplin Gallery) Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism continued the march of Abstraction into the 20th Century.

Synonymns of Abstraction include Non Objective and Non Representational. Pure Abstraction or Non Objective is any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and whose aesthetic content is expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines, and colors. In other words, most Non-Objective artwork is based upon the assumption that a work of art, a painting for example, is worth looking at primarily because it presents a composition or organization of color, line, light, and shade.

The first purely abstract painting in the modern tradition is usually held to be a watercolor produced by Wassilj Kandinsky in about 1910. A major division has existed between between Non-Objective artists and sculptors who attempt to reduce natural objects to their essential forms, such as Brancusi and the Cubists, and those who maintain that shape, line, and color have an aesthetic and emotional value independent of any reference to the natural world.

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Abstract Expressionism

A term referring to an art movement in the 1940s an 1950s where the essence of the work was the artist’s personal involvement that was based on emotion and not the desire for realistic depiction.

Many consider Abstract Expressionism the first truly American art movement, although it had roots both in America and Europe. Some European artists who had fled the Hitler regime to America such as Max Ernst, Fernand Leger, Hans Hofmann and Piet Mondrian were involved along with Americans Willem de Kooning, and Jackson Pollock.

There were two aspects. Action Painting and Abstract Image Painting. Art writer Robert Coates first used the term Abstract Expressionism to describe contemporary paintings in the March 30, 1946 issue of “The New Yorker” magazine. Great proponents of the movement were critics Harold Rosenberg and Clement Greenberg.

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Abstract Figurative

A style description of an image that implies the shape of a human figure but in a way that is not completely realistic.

The term is somewhat ambiguous because figurative has two meanings, one being a the figure depicted realistically and the other being the figure with abstract elements.

So the wording Abstract Figurative simply clarifies that the figure is not totally recognizable as a figure. However the suggestion of figure as subject is there.

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AC

Author’s Correction(s)

Abbreviation for Author’s Correction(s)

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Academic Art

Taught according to established rules in official art schools or academies, which began to proliferate from the early 18th century in Europe.

London’s Royal Academy and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris offered structured curriculums focused on history painting, portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and genre in that order of importance. Instruction progressed from drawing from classical statues or plaster casts to modeling from nudes to applying paint to original work.

Because the 19th-century academies in Europe and America tended to be conservative and dominated by males, the term Academic Art has come to mean that which is traditional and which is the opposite of innovative or creative.

In the 20th century with the advent of abstraction, the term Academic Art has negative connotations suggesting that a work is long on knowledge and technical expertise and lacking in emotional inspiration.

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Academician

One who belongs to one of the art academies such as the National Academy of Design in New York

Also the term applies to artists who adhere to academic or traditional styles that are taught in academies.

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Academy des Beaux-Arts

Academy of fine arts associated with the Institut de France in Paris.

It is the sponsoring organization of the Ecole des Beaux Arts and of the Paris Salon or annual art exhibition.

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Academy of Art

Academy, the Greek word meaning ‘garden’ and specifically the garden where philosopher Plato did his teaching.

From that time, the term has come to reference a variety of state-sponsored teaching institutions. During the Renaissance, art academies began to form in Europe beginning with Italy in the late 16th century, France in the 17th, England in the 18th and the United States in the 19th century.

With these entities, the word Academy took on the meaning of a formal body of artists associated with unified purposes. These shared goals included the promoting of their national art, certain tenants of creating and exhibiting that art, and the conferring of special distinction with election to Academy membership—-hence the word, academician.

Academies are often rebelled against by innovative artists because of tendencies of academy members to embrace status quo or traditional work. Before the early 20th century, artists rebelling against the academies in America and Europe had few places to exhibit their work because museums and galleries were seldom open to rebellious movements.

However, the advent of modernist galleries and museums provided venues for experimental art. In New York City, places welcoming modern art included Gallery 291 operated by Alfred Steiglitz, the Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art.

Today there is coexistence with modernist venues and the more conservative academies including the National Academy of Design in New York, the Royal Academy in England and the Ecole des Beaux Arts in France.

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