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
Gripper Edge

The leading edge of a sheet which is grabbed by the grippers to be pulled through the press.

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Gripper Fold

The protruding part of a folded signature, which can easily be gripped for production with inserts. The width of the gripper fold is in most cases approximately 8 millimeters, but must be accurately specified in accordance with postpress processes.

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Gripper Margin

The unprintable area of the page where the printing press grippers come in contact with the paper.

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Grippers

Metal finger like clamps that grab the paper to pull it through the press as the sheet is being printed.

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Gross Weight

The weight of the container or packaging material plus its contents. Net weight plus the tare weight equals the gross weight.

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Grotesque Face

Refers to fonts, the letters of which have a constant weight and are free of serifs. Examples of sans-serif fonts of this kind are Futura, Helvetica, Arial, Optima, Univers, Franklin Gothic and Frutiger.

Grotesque faces are generally regarded as functional and modern, and are generally used for aesthetic reasons. From the point of view of legibility, they are less suitable for running text than serif typefaces.

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Groundwater contamination

Chemical or petroleum product contamination of water that is dispersed in soil or rock strata.

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Groundwood Paper

Paper that is made up of 10% to 75% mechanical (groundwood) pulp. It is an economical hi-bulk paper but will not be as bright as a free sheet paper. It will also age faster than paper that does not contain groundwood pulp.

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Groundwood Pulp

A wood pulp that contains the natural wood impurities and has not been chemically processed. Also known as mechanical pulp.

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Groupware

Computer software designed to assist in collaboration among users and to organize their activities such as scheduling, data conferencing, and document and task management.

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GSM

Grams Per Square Metre

A method of indicating the substance of paper on the basis of weight in grams per square metre.

Global System for Mobile Communications

The most popular standard for mobile phones in the world.

GSM service is used by over 2 billion people across more than 212 countries and territories.

The ubiquity of the GSM standard makes international roaming very common between mobile phone operators, enabling subscribers to use their phones in many parts of the world.

GSM differs significantly from its predecessors in that both signaling and speech channels are Digital call quality, which means that it is considered a second generation (2G) mobile phone system.

This fact has also meant that data communication was built into the system from the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

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gTLD

Generic Top-Level Domain

Atop-level domain used (at least in theory) by a particular class of organization.

These are three or more letters long, and are named for the type of organization that they represent (for example, .com for commercial organizations).

The following gTLDs currently exist (as does .arpa, which is sometimes considered a gTLD):

.aero – for the air transport industry

.biz – for business use

.cat – for Catalan language/culture

.com – for commercial organizations, but unrestricted

.coop – for cooperatives

.edu – for post-secondary educational establishments

.gov – for governments and their agencies in the United States

.info – for informational sites, but unrestricted

.int – for international organizations established by treaty

.jobs – for employment-related sites

.mil – for the US military

.mobi – for sites catering to mobile devices

.museum – for museums

.name – for families and individuals

.net – originally for network infrastructures, now unrestricted

.org – originally for organizations not clearly falling within the other gTLDs, now unrestricted

.pro – for certain professions

.travel – for travel agents, airlines, hoteliers, tourism bureaus, etc.

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Guard

A narrow strip of paper or linen pasted to a single leaf to allow sewing into a section for binding.

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Guard Bars

The bars that are at both ends and center of UPC and EAN symbols. They provide reference points for scanning.

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Guerrilla Marketing

An aggressive, highly targeted and sometimes subversive, street-level promotional campaign intended to create unexpected and memorable encounters between a product and its consumers.

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GUI

Graphical User Interface

A particular case of user interface for interacting with a computer which employs graphical images and widgets in addition to text to represent the information and actions available to the user.

A computer program code that enables the user to have quick and easy access to program features such as buttons, icons, graphics and pull-down menus without having to learn complex programming.

Usually the actions are performed through direct manipulation of the graphical elements.

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Guide Edge

The edge of a printed sheet at right angles to the gripper edge, which travels along a guide on the press or folder. This edge, like the gripper edge, should never be altered or mutilated between the printing and folding operations. It is the shorter edge of the sheet.

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Guide Marks

A cross mark printed on the sheet, used to indicate where the sheet needs to be trimmed, to help register colors and to center copy. Also referred to as register marks.

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Guide Roller

Sometimes called a cocking roller. Located on the roll stand between the roll of paper and the dancer roll. Can be cocked to compensate for certain paper roll conditions.

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Guide Side

The side the press uses to guide the sheet to the exact side toward the operator; also known as operator or control side.

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Guilloches

Derived from the French guilloche (graver), term used for fine, interwoven geometric patterns of lines often printed on banknotes, certificates, etc., to make forgery more difficult. Guilloches are also often used as screen lines for illustrations, and works of art made of metal are not seldom decorated with guilloches engraved either by hand or machine.

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Guillotine

A machine used to cut or trim sheet stock.

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Gum Arabic

A chemical used to desensitize the non-printing areas of a printing plate.

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Gum for Live

When the envelope glue strip begins 1 1/2” to 2” from the left edge. The glue is not applied in this 1 1/2” to 2” area so that the envelopes can have a live stamp affixed to them before other components are inserted. The glue strip is kept out of this area because the moisture from applying the stamp can cause the flap to seal prematurely.

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Gum Streaks

Streaks, particularly in halftones, produced by uneven gumming of plates which partially desensitizes the image.

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Gum-Bichromate Print

The gum-bichromate process was popular among pictorialists like Steichen and Demachy for its painterly qualities.

Gum prints are produced by brushing onto a sheet of textured paper a gum arabic solution mixed with potassium bichromate and a suitable pigment. When dry, the sheet is exposed in contact with a negative.

The print is then developed during which the photographer can manipulate the print with a brush, sponge or spray of water. Multiple gum prints, usually more than one color, are made by additional printings of the same negative, in register, on the original sheet.

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Gummed Paper

See Dry Gum

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Gummed Stock

Paper or similar material that has a remoistenable or self-sticking adhesive applied to one side of the stock. If the adhesive is self-sticking, the stock includes a backing paper called a “release liner” which is applied over the adhesive when the paper is manufactured.

The release liner protects the adhesive from sticking to other surfaces during processing. Stock coated with a remoistenable adhesive must have moisture applied to activate the adhesive and does not require a liner over the adhesive.

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Gumming

In platemaking, the process of applying a thin coating of gum to the non-printing areas of a lithographic plate.

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Gusset

An expansion pleat folded and scored into a pocket to give it greater capacity when filled.

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