It Ain't Mumbo Jumbo, Baby. It's Printing!

Believe me when I tell you that some of the terminology I learned as a new print buyer gave me pause. Work-and-turn? Work-and-tumble? What was this, a circus?

Printing has a language all its own, and print customers need to jump on board the lingo train if they want to know what's what.

In no particular order, here are some printing terms that seem to come from a whole other planet:

Bleeds - when printing extends all the way to the edge of the paper, as in "the ink bleeds off the sheet." An job that bleeds can cost you more.

Choke - to reduce a printing image slightly so you don't have a darker overlapped border on a lighter background.

Creep - also called "push out," it happens when the middle pages of a folded signature extend a little bit beyond the outside pages. Your printer has to compensate for it during layout and imposition. Otherwise you'll be stuck with a little creep. And who needs that?

Dummy - a preliminary mock-up of the final piece, showing images and text. Sometimes it's just blank pages or paper, made up in advance to simulate the final size and format of a print project.

Hickeys - these are small spots or imperfections that occasionally show up in printing, due to dirt on the press. Hickeys are bad news no matter where they show up.

Kiss cut - a die cut that just barely cuts through the paper. Also, there's the kiss impression, one that's light enough to leave a mere hint of itself.

Moiré - no, it is not when the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie. A moiré is an undesirable pattern that might make you think your vision's in trouble. Such a pattern is caused by incorrect screen angles for printed colors. I went online to LL Bean to see a sweater I wanted to buy. Talk about a moiré. I crossed my fingers and hit "Purchase."

Scum - a film of ink printing in the non-image areas of a plate where it shouldn't print. I take offense that "scum" is part of printing's lexicon. The cluck who thought of it probably came up with creep and dummy, too.

Verso is the left-hand and Recto is the right-hand page of a book or magazine. Latin makes everyone sound smarter. Use these terms and impress your friends.

Web printing - sorry, it has nothing to do with the worldwide web. Web presses are massive presses used to print jobs from rolls (or webs) of paper, as opposed to paper precut into sheets.

Can't you tell that printing is fun business? These are just a hint of the wild and wonderful terms that connect us all.

And now, for your reading pleasure, we've just added a Print Buyer Glossary to our web site. It's seeded with hundreds of traditional printing terms, and every now and then I've been adding terms that buyers use and/or really need to start using.

Want to contribute a term or two? This Print Buyer Glossary is by nature a work in progress. You are invited to add terms using our online form.

Think of it as a wiki for printing. Please submit words you think buyers need to know, and we'll fold them into the glossary on a regular basis. Remember, it's under our Resources tab. A sub-glossary on green printing terms is next in line.

Enjoy!