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
Template

A guide for positioning pages or parts of pages consisting of a series of lines to indicate final trim size, bleed, head margin, back margin, type page size and other elements.

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Tensile Strength

The ability of the paper to withstand the stress and strain applied to it before breaking down and pulling apart.

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Tenting

When continuous glue lines used to glue the parts of a continuous form together causes it to bunch up at the folding perfs, pushing the perfs upward in the shape of a tent.

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Tera

1000 Gigabytes.

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Terabyte

TB

One trillion bytes.

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Terahertz Waves

The electromagnetic waves found in the spectrum between microwaves and infra-red light with a frequency of approximately 300 GHz to 10 Terahertz (wavelengths of 1 mm to 30 mm).

In addition to fast data communication and measuring applications in atmospheric research and astrophysics, new imaging methods are just one of the future areas of application for this segment of the spectrum.

Scientists are working on a method of making the content of books visible without having to open them.

This work is intended to make it possible to look at manuscripts that are already so damaged that opening them would destroy them completely.

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Tertiary

The six colors created from the three primary and three secondary colors.

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Tertiary Color

A color rendered from the mixing of three primary colors.

Examples include brown, olive and ochre.

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Test

Different trial versions of a direct mail package sent to a select number of prospects used to determine what works to get customers to respond to an offer and who will buy the product.

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TeX

Pronounced “tech”

A typesetting program developed by the American computer scientist Donald E. Knuth in the late 1970s specifically for scientific texts.

Unlike today’s standard layout software, such as Quark Xpress or InDesign, TeX is not based on a graphic user interface, but processes texts containing formatting instructions.

The software is available for numerous computer types and uses its own fonts that are developed using the Metafont program.

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Text

The body content of a page as compared to the heading or illustrations.

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Text Block

The signatures of a book, sewn and trimmed, but without covers, endpapers, or a binding.

Also known as book block.

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Text Paper

Paper stock used for products such as books, pages of reports, and other items that do not require the stiffness of card stock.

Generally is a higher quality sheet.

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Text Spacing

The adjustment of the space between letters in a text.

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Text Wrap

Text wrapping around an object on a page.

Text lines are shortened to varied lengths to fit around the object.

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Textile Adhesive

An adhesive that removes cleanly from fabric.

If left on the fabric for extreme periods of time, staining may occur.

Should not be used on velvet, furs, suede, leather or plastic.

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Textured Inks

Inks with special structures that create their color impression in part or whole by their physical structure and not by their dyes or pigments.

Such inks can contain elements that selectively reflect light of a certain wavelength with the aid of interference effects.

Textured inks create shimmering color effects that can vary, depending on the viewing angle. This kind of color generation has its model in nature, where it is found in insects and some species of birds.

It cannot be reproduced by conventional means, which is why textured inks are often used for documents where forgery protection is desired.

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TFT

Thin Film Transistor

Refers to technology employed in flat screen monitors, in which minute transistor elements control the alignment of liquid crystals in such a way that light is allowed to pass through or is blocked.

Within the TFT element, the total brightness and color reproduction are simultaneously controlled.

The light for every pixel passes through a color cell consisting of three color filters (red, green, blue), and every filter is equipped with a transistor that can be driven separately and controls the transmittance of light of every color element.

See also LCD

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TFTP

Trivial File Transfer Protocol

A less complex and easier to program version of FTP that lacks the authentication services FTP provides and relies on UDP rather than TCP for data transport.

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The International Organization for Standardization

ISO

An international standard-setting body composed of representatives from national standards bodies.

Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization produces world-wide industrial and commercial standards, the so-called ISO standards.

While the ISO defines itself as a non-governmental organization (NGO), its ability to set standards which often become law through treaties or national standards makes it more powerful than most NGOs, and in practice it acts as a consortium with strong links to governments.

The mission of ISO is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity. ISO’s work results in international agreements which are published as International Standards.

Established standards for paper sizes based on the metric system (millimeters). The standards have been grouped into three different series of requirements.

The “A-series” is for general printing.

ISO

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Thermal Binding

A binding process similar to hot adhesive perfect binding which applies hot liquid adhesive to bind the sheets.

Instead of a liquid adhesive, thermal bindnig uses an adhesive strip which is attached to the binding edge of the sheets.

As heat is applied, the adhesive on the strip bonds with the sheets.

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Thermal Erosion

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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Thermal Labels

Thermal labels are pressure sensitive labels that use a heat process when imprinted.

There are two different types of thermal labels, thermal transfer and direct thermal.

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Thermal Paper

Paper that has a special heat sensitive coating applied.

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Thermal Printer

A nonimpact printer that uses a special heating process when imprinting.

There are two different types of thermal printers; thermal transfer and direct thermal.

A thermal transfer printer uses a ribbon and heat in the printing process, where as direct thermal uses heat along with a special heat sensitive paper in the printing process.

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Thermal Transfer

A printing process where the print head is heated and then comes in contact with a special ribbon material that is running on top of the sheet.

The heat from the print head causes the coating from the ribbon to be transferred to the sheet, creating an image.

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Thermal Transfer Labels

Pressure sensitive labels that use the thermal transfer printing process for imaging.

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Thermochromic Ink

Ink that changes color when exposed to heat and then changes back to its original color when cooled.

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Thermochromic Printing Inks

Inks that change color or disappear completely as the temperature changes, including as a result of brief exposure to body heat.

Such inks are used to protect documents against forgery, and as temperature indicators for drinks and medicines, as well as for the monitoring of heating and cooling units.

Another application is the indication of potential damage to heat-sensitive products, since certain thermochromic printing inks change color permanently at certain temperatures.

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Thermography

A printing process that works along with another printing process by the use of a resin powder, the printed ink, and heat.

The powder is applied to the ink while it is still wet and then is sent through a heating process.

The powder only sticks to the printed area.

When it goes through the heat process, the powder swells and creates a raised image in the printed area.

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