Lacquer 

A clear resin/solvent coating, usually glossy, applied to a printed sheet for protection or appearance.

Laid finish 

Simulating the surface of handmade paper.

Laid 

Paper which shows thick and thin lines at right angles to each other, made by the wires used in the paper making process. Usually considered high quality.

Laminate 

To bond a plastic film by heat and pressure to a printed sheet for protection and appearance.

To cover with film, to bond or glue one surface to another.

Landscape 

An image or page in which the width used is greater than the height. Also refers to the orientation of pages, tables or illustrations that are printed horizontally or "sideways." Also see portrait.

Lap Register 

Register where ink colors overlap slightly.

Large-format imagesetter 

In-house equipment to output computer files, typically full impositions, to strippable films 23" x 35" or larger.

Layflat 

See Eurobind.

Layout 

A drawing that gives the general appearance of the finished piece and usually indicates the relationship between illustrations and copy.

Leading 

(ledd-ing) The linespace, or white space, between lines of copy measured in points.

Leaf 

One sheet of paper in a publication. Each side of a leaf is one page.

Letterpress 

A method of printing where the wrong-reading raised surface of a printing plate is inked and impressed directly onto the paper. There are four types of letterpress presses; platen, flatbed cylinder, rotary and belt.

Line Copy 

High contrast images or type without shading which do not require halftone screening.

Lines per inch 

The number of rows of dots per inch in a halftone.

Lithography 

Method of printing using plates whose image areas attract ink and whose non-image areas repel ink. The images are first printed onto a rubber blanket and then offset to paper.

Live Matter 

The vital parts or elements of a printed piece which must not be trimmed off.

Logo 

A specially designed company name that's considered part of a corporate image.

Loupe 

A magnifying glass used to review a printed image, plate and position film.

Lens built into a small stand. Used to inspect copy, film, proofs, plates and printing.

M 

The abbreviation for magenta in the four-color process. Also the abbreviation for "one thousand".

Magenta 

One of the three subtractive primary colors of process printing. 

Makegood 

The rerun of an ad or printed piece by a publisher or printer because of their error.

Makeready 

All the activities required to prepare a press for printing.

The process of setting up and adjusting a printing press for a particular ink, paper and set of printing conditions prior to a press run. Also, the paper used during these adjustments.

Margin 

The blank space around the image area of a page, also referred to as a gutter.

Marginal words 

Call outs for directions on various parts of a business form.

Margins 

The non-printing areas of the page.

Mask 

An opaque overlay placed over any part of a photo or separation negative that should not be exposed to light.

Blocking light from reaching parts of a printing plate.

Master 

To etch pits (tracks) into the Glass Master (acts like a negative) from which a CD-ROM "stamper" is made.

Mastering/pressing CD-ROMs 

Preparation of compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) discs from customer-supplied materials as alternative or value-added sales opportunity.

Matchprint ™ 

3M's negative or positive single sheet proofing system which simulates SWOP specifications.

The output of a computer printer, or typed text sent for typesetting.

Matte finish 

A dull surface.

Dull paper or ink finish.

Mechanical separation 

Mechanical art overlay for each color to be printed.

Mechanical 

A board or paper containing all camera-ready elements.

Complete pages, with text, line art and crop marks in position, ready to be photographed or output to film.

Megabyte 

Mb or MB. A unit of measure for digital data which is 1024 kilobytes or 1,048,576 bytes.

Metameric Colors 

Colors that can change their perceived hue depending on the different lighting conditions.

Metric System 

A decimal system adopted by most countries for solid, liquid and distance measurements.

Micrometer 

Instrument used to measure the thickness of different papers.

Middle tones 

The tones in a photograph that are approximately half as dark as the shadow area.

Midtone 

The tonal values of an image that fall midway between the highlight and shadow dots.

Modeling 

The apparent detail in a picture indicating that the objects are three dimensional; having surface texture or relief such as the ripple on an orange peel or the texture of a woven fabric.

Moire 

Objectionable patterns that appear at regular frequencies when two or more screen patterns are placed over one another. May be caused by misalignment, incorrect screen angles, slipping or slurring.

Occurs when screen angles are wrong causing odd patterns in photographs.

Mottle 

Spotty or speckled printing.

Negative 

The film image of a completed page from which plates will be burned. The light and dark parts of the image are tonally revised from the original copy.

The image on film that makes the white areas of originals black and black areas white.

Neutral Gray 

Any level of gray from white to black with no apparent color cast or hue.

Non-heatset 

Web printing process whereby porous paper goes through the press and the ink dries naturally.

Non-reproducible Colors 

Certain colors in nature and photography cannot be reproduced using process inks. An example of non-reproducible color is a very dark, deep, rich, wine red.

Non-reproducing blue 

A blue color the camera cannot see. Used in marking up artwork.

Nudge 

To make small, precise adjustments in the placement of objects on a page.

Oblong 

A booklet or catalog bound along the shorter dimension.

Off-press Proof 

A color proof that is similar in appearance to the finished printed product but is made without the aid of a printing press.

Offset Lithography 

A popular printing method offered by almost every printer. Used to print any variety of different textured materials, this process uses ink economically and requires little time to set up the press.

Offset paper 

Term for uncoated book paper.

Offset Printing 

Usually refers to offset lithography. The image prints by transferring ink from a flat plate or cylinder to a rubber blanket that deposits the ink onto the substrate instead of directly from plate to paper.

Offsetting 

Using an intermediate surface used to transfer ink. Also, an unpleasant happening when the images of freshly printed sheets transfer images to each other.

Ok sheet 

Final approved color inking sheet before production begins.

One-up 

Having only one image of each item (see two-up).

Opacity 

Characteristic of paper or other substrate that prevents print on one side from showing through to the other side. Also, the characteristic of ink that prevents the substrate from showing through.

The amount of show-through on a printed sheet. The more opacity or the thicker the paper the less show-through. (The thicker/heavier the paper the higher the cost.)

Opaque 

To paint out the portions of a negative that are not wanted on the plate.

Optical Centering 

Positioning material a little above center when it is desired to make it appear centered with respect to top and bottom.

Optical Gain 

An effect caused by printing on a rough-surfaced paper in which halftone dots appear larger than actual size, resulting in image degradation.

Orthochromatic 

A term applied to photographic materials that are sensitive to green, blue and ultraviolet light.

Outline Halftone 

A photo reproduction in which the background around the primary subject has been removed.

Removing the background of a picture or silhouetting an image in a picture.

Overlay Proof 

Color proof which simulates the appearance of the printed piece. It consists of sheets of film dyed or pigmented with the color and image of each plate to be used in the print run. The film is stacked so it is in register and in the order the inks will be printed.

Overlay 

A tissue over the base keyline for writing corrections and instructions such as indicating color breaks.