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
Casein

A milk byproduct used as an adhesive in making coated papers.

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CASS

Coding Accuracy Support System

A service offered, by the U.S. Postal Service, to mailers, service bureaus and software vendors to improve the accuracy of the address information in the mailing list. It checks the accuracy of the delivery point codes, ZIP+4 Codes, 5-Digit ZIP Codes and carrier route codes

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Cast Coated

Paper or board with a coating that is allowed to harden while in contact a highly polished chrome surface. This results in an exceptionally glossy coated finish, usually only on one side. Because the high gloss finish is obtained without calendering, the cast coated paper is of high bulk and has high ink obsorbency.

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Cast Film

Plastic sheeting manufactured by the casting process, as opposed to the extruding process.

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Cast Off

A calculation determining how much space copy will take up after it has been typeset.

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Cast Shadow

A cast shadow is similar to a drop shadow with added emphasis on perspective. Cast shadows can be rotated, stretched, and skewed to create a realistic 3D effect.

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Cast Vinyl

Vinyl sheeting manufactured by coating a liquid vinyl acetate or similar ester onto a casting paper and curing in a heated oven.

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Cataloging in Publication

CIP

The purpose of the Cataloging in Publication (CIP) program is to prepare prepublication cataloging records for those books most likely to be widely acquired by the nation’s libraries.

For further information about the CIP program and how your publishing house may apply for participation in the program, write to:

Library of Congress, Cataloging in Publication Division COLL/CIP (4320) Washington, DC 20450-4320

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Catching Up

A term that describes a condition in lithography in which the non-image areas of a press plate begin to take ink or scum.

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Catchline

A temporary headline for identification on the top of a galley proof.

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Cationic

A chemical substance in which the active constituent is a positive ion, thus having an infinity for other compounds or elements that have a net negative charge.

Cationic dyes are now commonly used in the papermaking industry.

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Causticizing

The process in which Green Liquor is converted into White Liquor. Technically speaking it is the process of converting sodium carbonate in to sodium hydroxide.

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Cavity

Usually refers to the engraving on a rotary die cutter that die cuts a single shape.

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CB Paper

Paper that has the carbonless coating applied to the back. The CB paper will transfer an image to the CFB or to the CF paper.

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CCD

Charged Coupled Device

The digital camera’’s image sensor which changes the light it senses into numbers or data that represent different levels of brightness. The sensor measures the level of red, green and blue and makes a color interpolation, assigning values to each image pix

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CCD Raw Format

To preserve image quality, some digital cameras will record a raw image (also called CCD raw image format) as an uncompressed file or uninterpolated data on the camera’’s sensor where the pixels are built for the final file. This type of file format is not as common as TIFF or JPEG and may provide some difficulty for use with computer programs that alter or re-purpose the images.

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CCL

Common Command Language

A standard text retrieval query language proposed by the International Organization for Standardization.

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ccTLD

Country Code Top-Level Domain

Atop-level domain used and reserved for a country or a dependent territory.

These are two letters long, and most of them correspond to the ISO 3166-1 alpha-2 country codes.

There are over 243 ccTLDs.

Most ccTLDs correspond to the two-letter ISO 3166-1 country codes, but there are several differences, explained below.

Each country appoints managers for its ccTLD and sets the rules for allocating domains. Some countries allow anyone in the world to acquire a domain in their ccTLD, for example Austria (at) and Cocos (Keeling) Islands (cc).

Other countries or dependent territories allow only citizens to acquire a domain in their ccTLD, for example Canada (ca).

Lenient registration restrictions on certain ccTLDs has resulted in domain names like I.am, start.at and go.to.

Other variations of ccTLD usage have been called domain hacks, where the Second-level domain and ccTLD are used together to form one word or one title.

This has resulted in domains like blo.gs of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (gs), del.icio.us of United States of America (us), and cr.yp.to of Tonga (to).

(Non country code TLDs have also been used, like inter.net which uses the .net gTLD, probably the first domain hack ever.)

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CD-I

Compact Disc Interactive

A data format on CD that is geared toward the consumer, requiring a specialized player which is connected to a television or on a computer. The CD can be accessed in the same manner as a computer memory. The format is backed by Phillips, Sony, Matsushita, and others.

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CD-R

Compact Disc Recordable

This is a recordable compact disk storage device. Two-thirds the diameter of a standard CD disk, this type of storage device can be read or connected into any CD drive and can hold 156MB.

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CD-RDX

Compact Disc Read-only Data eXchange

A proposed standard, focused on the interoperability of CD-ROMs, for full-text retrieval database systems.

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CD-ROM

Compact Disc-Read Only Memory

A compact disk used for the storage of digital data and is capable of playing both visual and audio information. It cannot be randomly accessed like a CD-I. Capacity is generally in excess of 500 MB.

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CD-V

CD-Video

The compact disc format that combines analog full-motion video images with digital audio.

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CD-WO

Compact Disc-Write Once

Volume and file structure for Read-Only and Write-Once Compact disk media used for information exchange.

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Cell

The storage location of one unit of data such as a character, bit, or word. It is also used to describe the intersecting coordinates of a specific row and column in a spreadsheet program.

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Cellulose

A high molecular weight, stereoregular, and linear polymer of repeating beta-D-glucopyranose units. It is the chief structural element and major constituents of the cell wall of trees and plants.

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Cellulose Acetate

An acetate salt of cellulose, produced from cotton linters and used in archival work.

1. As a photographic film base (often called “safety film” since it is not readily combustible

2. In conjunction with an adhesive, such as one of the polyvinyl resins, in laminating, heat sealing, etc.

Cellulose acetate is manufactured in a wide variety of thicknesses, ranging from 0.001 to 0.005 inch, and is clear, hard and glossy.

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Cellulose fiber

An elongated, tapering, thick walled cellular unit, which is the main structural component of woody plants. Fibers in the plants are cemented together by lignin.

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Center Spread

Any article, ad or other element that covers the two facing center pages of a publication.

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Center-Weighted Metering

In digital photography, it refers to measuring the light by averaging the tonal values around the center of the subject matter and adjusting to a middle gray value in order to create the proper exposure.

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