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
UCA

Under Color Addition

A method of darkening areas of a printed image by adding colored inks, used when making color separations from RGB to CMYK data.

The process works as follows: cyan, magenta and yellow portions are added in shadows and black is accordingly removed.

Under color addition is generally done to make the blacks look darker which increases the tonal range.

Not all achromatic portions, however, are replaced with black, rather a portion of black is generated according to the principle of chromatic composition from the primary colors cyan, magenta and yellow.

The aim is to enhance neutral image depths (gray tones) where the density of black is insufficient.

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UCR

Under Color Removal

A technique for reducing the amount of magenta, cyan, and yellow in dark and neutral areas and replacing the amounts of CMY with black.

The technique works in the following way: colored ink is used up to a certain value, after which black is added in order to improve the dark areas of an image, so that total ink coverage (TIC) is not exceeded.

The image reproduction will appear normal but will use less ink, the shadows will have more detail, and trapping will be improved.

Cyan, magenta and yellow are removed as far as they are identical and replaced with the equivalent amount of black.

The depth of colors is thus improved and the total amount of printing ink reduced.

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UCR

Under Color Removal (Under Color Reduction)

A technique for reducing the amount of magenta, cyan, and yellow in dark and neutral areas and replacing the amounts of CMY with black. The technique works in the following way: colored ink is used up to a certain value, after which black is added in order to improve the dark areas of an image, so that total ink coverage (TIC) is not exceeded.

Cyan, magenta and yellow are removed as far as they are identical and replaced with the equivalent amount of black. The depth of colors is thus improved and the total amount of printing ink reduced.

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UDDI

Universal Description, Discovery and Integration

A specification for development of global online directories and registries of Web services.

UDDI allows organizations to register their technical specifications (such as integration profiles and capabilities) and then identify the specifications of others.

This will enable universal interoperability of B2B transactions for a variety of e-business services.

Three types of information are registered:

1) Company names and primary services offered.

2) the company category based geographical location and SIC code universally used by U.S. government and United Nations.

3) company interactions with other companies.

http://www.uddi.org.

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UDP

User Datagram Protocol

The TCP/IP protocol that allows packets of data, or datagrams, to be sent from one Internet application to another.

UDP is a “connectionless” protocol, because, unlike TCP, it does not require the sender and receiver to establish a connection before data is transmitted.

It’’s considered “unreliable,” because it doesn’‘t guarantee that datagrams will arrive in the same order they were sent, or even that they will arrive at all.

If reliability is desired, it’’s up to the application using UDP to provide it.

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UL

Underwriters’’ Laboratories USA

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Ultra-Removable

An adhesive that allows a label to be reapplied in another area and is not limited to the number of times it can be repositioned.

Repositionable adhesive does not gain permanency over time.

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Ultra-Removable Adhesive

An adhesive that allows a label to be reapplied in another area and is not limited to the number of times it can be repositioned.

Repositionable adhesive does not gain permanency over time. Also called repositionable.

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Ultrabold Type

A type style that is heavier than bold, sometimes referred to as black type.

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Ultraviolet Ink

UV Ink

Printing inks cured with ultraviolet light.

These inks contain no volatile substances, but instead, in addition to color pigments, individual molecules and short molecular chains that can link to form polymers and so-called photo-initiators.

The latter decompose when exposed to UV light and form highly reactive fragments.

These radicals trigger a polymerization process in which stable, three-dimensional network structures are formed. UV inks are primarily used to print non-absorbent materials, such as metal (sheet metal) and plastic, but also high-quality paper boards and labels.

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ULWC

ULWC, SC, MWC, MFC, LWC, HWC

Standard international acronyms for weights and grades of papers used in rotary offset and letterpress printing.

Coated stock can be identified HWC (heavy-weight coated), MWC (medium-weight coated), LWC (lightweight coated), or ULWC (ultra-lightweight coated).

All are wood pulp-based, but available in many varieties. MFC (machine-finished coated) paper is made primarily from ground wood pulp, has a grammage of 48 to 80 gsm, and may be high volume.

LWC paper is particularly lightweight stock for use on rotary offset machines. SC (supercalendered) paper is an uncoated wood pulp stock based mainly on ground wood and recycled content.

It features an additional finish applied by a separate supercalender.

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UN/EDIFACT

United Nations/Electronic Data Interchange For Administration, Commerce, and Transport

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Unbleached

Paper or pulp that has not been through the bleaching process.

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Unbound

Refers to a book which has never been bound.

Until the 19th century, books were sold as unbound leaves that were bound to a buyer’s specifications.

This term might also refer to a book in an advanced state of publication, such as a galley.

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Uncalendered Paper

Paper that has not been sent through the stack of polished steel rollers used in the calendering process which smooths the surface of the paper.

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Uncoated Paper

Paper that has been manufactured without the use of coating materials.

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Uncut

Refers to the untrimmed pages of a book – the edges appear rough and uneven.

In early bookbinding, the unbound pages of a book were left uncut until the binder trimmed them flush and smooth as part of the binding process.

Today the terms uncut and unopened are often used synonymously. See also deckle edges.

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Undeliverables

Any mail that is declared undeliverable by the USPS due to incomplete delivery address information.

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Under Color Addition

UCA

A method of darkening areas of a printed image by adding colored inks, used when making color separations from RGB to CMYK data.

The process works as follows: cyan, magenta and yellow portions are added in shadows and black is accordingly removed.

Under color addition is generally done to make the blacks look darker which increases the tonal range.

Not all achromatic portions, however, are replaced with black, rather a portion of black is generated according to the principle of chromatic composition from the primary colors cyan, magenta and yellow.

The aim is to enhance neutral image depths (gray tones) where the density of black is insufficient.

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Under Color Removal

UCR

A technique for reducing the amount of magenta, cyan, and yellow in dark and neutral areas and replacing the amounts of CMY with black.

The technique works in the following way: colored ink is used up to a certain value, after which black is added in order to improve the dark areas of an image, so that total ink coverage (TIC) is not exceeded.

The image reproduction will appear normal but will use less ink, the shadows will have more detail, and trapping will be improved.

Cyan, magenta and yellow are removed as far as they are identical and replaced with the equivalent amount of black.

The depth of colors is thus improved and the total amount of printing ink reduced.

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Underbasing

When silk screening on dark shirts, the print normally needs a white layer of ink under the colors to allow the colors to be bright on the garment.

This layer of ink is called an Underbase. Most underbases are white and need to be flash-cured before another color can be printed on top. Some designs have more than one white underbase.

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Undercolor

The cyan, magenta and yellow that is present in the dark neutral tone areas of a process color image.

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Underexposure

1. An image sensor which receives insufficient light and provides an image that is very dark in appearance.

2. A condition in which too little light reaches the film, producing a thin negative, a dark slide, or a muddy-looking print.

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Underlining

The pen or pencil markings where the previous owner marked a book to highlight words, sentences, and/or passages of text.

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Underruns

The quantity of pieces that a printing run is short of the original order quantity.

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Unders

Underruns, the quantity of pieces that a printing run is short of the original order quantity.

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UNESCO

United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization

A specialized agency of the United Nations established in 1945.

Its stated purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration through education, science, and culture in order to further universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and the human rights and fundamental freedoms proclaimed in the UN Charter.

In total, 191 nations belong to UNESCO. The organization is based in Paris, with over 50 field offices and several institutes and offices throughout the world.

Most of the field offices are “cluster” offices covering three or more countries; there are also national and regional offices. UNESCO pursues its action through five major programmes: education, natural sciences, social and human sciences, culture, and communication and information.

Projects sponsored by UNESCO include literacy, technical, and teacher-training programmes; international science programmes; the promotion of independent media and freedom of the press; regional and cultural history projects, the promotion of cultural diversity; international cooperation agreements to secure the world cultural and natural heritage and to preserve human rights; and attempts to bridge the world-wide digital divide.

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Unicode

A standard method of coding characters for electronic processing using 16-digit binary (16-bit) numbers.

Unlike ASCII and other codes, which work with eight-bit numbers, Unicode is capable of representing 65,536 different characters.

This covers all characters and commonly used scripts in the world.

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Uniform Resource Locator

URL

The human-readable address of a source of data located on the World Wide Web.

URLs consist of “http://host/directory or file name”.

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Uninterruptible Power Supply

UPS

A backup power supply the contains a battery that will maintain power in the event of a power line failure.

A UPS generally has enough stored power to keep a system running for a few minutes.

This gives you sufficient time to save your work and shut down your system properly.

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