Printing Glossary
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Deboss: Image pressed into paper so it lies below the surface.
Density: The degree of darkness of light absorption or opacity of printed images.
Descender: The part of a lower case letter which extends below the main body, as in “p”.
Die-Cutting: Process of using sharp metal rules on a wooden block to cut out specialised shapes such as pocket folders or unusual shaped flyers etc
Digital Printing: Printing by plateless imaging systems that are imaged by digital data from prepress systems. Benefits are for very short runs or for personalised print. However some feel that the quality is not yet to the standard of offset litho.
Dot Gain: A printing defect in which dots print larger than intended, causing darker colours or tones; due to the spreading of ink on stock. The more absorbent the stock, the more dot gain. Can vary by type of ink also.
Dots Per Inch (DPI): Measurement of the resolution of output devices such as monitors, laser printers, and imagesetters. The more dots the device is able to print to the inch, the better it is able to faithfully reproduce the desired text or image
Duotone: A method of enhancing a mono image using two colours.
Drilling: Drilling of holes in product which will allow insertion over rings or posts in a binder of some sort.
Dummy: A mock-up made to resemble the final printed product which uses the proposed grade, weight, finish and colour of paper.
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