Here are some Frequently used Printing Terminology (Q-S).

Quadratone a black and white image printed with four screens and four colors, such as one or more blacks and different shades of gray, used to enrich the contrast between light and dark ares. see also continuous tone, duotone, halftone, screen, tritone. Return to top

Rag Paper paper with at least 25% and as much as 100% cotton fibers. see also cotton paper. Return to top

Ream a package containing 500 sheets of printing paper. Return to top

Ream Weight the actual weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets) of paper. see also actual weight, basis weight, weight. Return to top

Recovered Paper paper tha has been separated, diverted, or removed from the solid waste stream. Return to top

Recycable, recycled paper, recycled paper recyclable suited for recycling. This term may be misleading. For exam- ple, it may be physically possible to recycle a given material, but if it is too costly to do so, or if a collection process is not in place, recycling may be impossible or economically not feasible. Return to top

Recycled Content Paper a paper product containing some, but consisting of less than 100% recovered fiber. Champion Carnival is an example of a recycled content paper. see also deinking, pre-consumer recovered paper, post-consumer recovered paper, recycled content paper. Return to top

Recycled Paper a paper product consisting of 100% recovered fiber. Recovered fiber includes pre- and/or post-consumer sources. Champion Benefit is an example of a !00% recycle paper. see also deinking, pre-consumer recovered paper, post-consumer recovered paper, recycled content paper. Return to top

Refining the process of cutting, breaking, and flattening the cellulose fibers in pulp. In order to form a strong, flexible paper, pulp fibers need to be flattened and frayed. The refiner has metal discs that can be adjusted to create longer or shorter fibers. see also hydropulper, papermaking. Return to top

Refractiveness a measure of how much a sheet of paper deflects the light that hits it. The more light a sheet deflects, the greater its refractive- ness, allowing a printed image to be more brilliant and detailed. see also brightness, whiteness. Return to top

Registration The process of alignment of the different elements in a printing job. Such as the different colored inks on a print job, so they are correctly printed next to each other or over each other . (i.e. If the inks can be seen to overlap improperly or to leave white gaps on the page, the printing is said to be "out of registration" or "poorly registered".). Return to top

Relative Humidity balance the relative humidity of the pressroom compared to the relative humidity of the paper to be printed. Relative humidity is a mea- sure of how much moisture air or paper can hold versus how much it is actually holding at a given temperature. Before print- ing a job, the printer must "cure" the paper by letting it sit, wrapped, in the pressroom for a determined amount of time. This will bring the paper to the same temperature and humidity as the pressroom, helping to prevent several printing problems. For instance, ink on cold paper takes longer to dry than ink on room-temperature paper. Ink on dry paper may "chalk" if the dry paper absorbs the liquid in the pigment before the solid pigments adhere to the paper. Paper with too much humidity will expand, causing it to wrinkle on press. This can cause misalignment and a lack or registration in the printing. see also registration. Return to top

Relief a method for printing ink on paper, using type of images that rise above the surface of the printing plate. Ink sits on top of these raised surfaces, and as the paper is pressed onto them it picks up ink. Letterpress, flexography, and rubber stamps all use relief plates. In letterpress, intense pressure can cause images to be slightly debossed or depressed below the surface of the paper. see also flexography, letterpress, plate, printing methods. Return to top

Reprographic paper see office reprographic paper. Return to top

Resilience the ability of paper to return to its original form after being stressed by bending, stretching, or compressing during the printing and finishing processes. see also bonding strength, dimensional stability, runnability, tensile, strength. Return to top

Resin a generic term referring to the materials used by paper manufac- tures to "size" paper. Rosin, a natural resin from pine trees, is used in the manufacture of acidic paper. Synthetic resins are used in the manufacture of alkaline and acid-free papers. see also acid-free, alkaline papermaking, alum, ingredients of paper, rosin, sizing. Return to top

RGB Red Green Blue, the colors used by a computer monitor to create color images on the screen. When all three colors are combined over each other the color of light is white. Return to top

Rosette the formation created by the dots that make up four-color images. The dots, in magenta (red), cyan (blue), yellow, and black, overlap each other in a cluster. Because the dots are not perfectly round, and because they are turned at angles to each other, this cluster resembles the arrangement of petals in a rose. see also four-color process. Return to top

Rosin a natural resin from pine trees, used to size acidic paper. see also ingredients of paper, resin. Return to top

Runnability the ease with which a paper moves through a printing press. For example, offset lithography puts more stress on paper than other printing processes because of: how the paper moves through the press; the great amount of water used in the process; and the tackiness of the inks that are used. In order to have good runnability, paper for offset printing must be strong, have great tear resistance, and possess good dimensional stability. It must also be water resistant and have a strong surface so the paper doesn't pick. Runnability is also a term for measuring the number of mechanical web breaks per 1,000 rolls of paper run on a press. see also dimensional stability, offset, printability. Return to top

Saddle Stitch A book binding process where pages are stapled together through the spine of the book. Tradionally performed on V shaped saddle. Many magazines are saddle stiched or stapled. Return to top

Sans Serif A type face that has no tails or curled points (serifs) at the ends. Return to top

Scaling Images Here is one of my favorite ways to scale a photo or graphic for the printer, it is a simple formula that is pretty much foolproof. Using a pica ruler, points, or even inches if you wish but in decimals points only.

SIZE TO ________ Divided by: SIZE FROM __________ percent key = ________ (answer.)

Here is an example: scaling TO 4.5 inches divided FROM 9 inches, percent = 50 percent. Return to top

Scoring pressing a chanel into a sheet of paper to allow it to fold more easily. Scoring and pressing the paper fibers together creates an emossed channel that does two things: acts as a guide for easi- er folding, and creates a hinge that keeps the fiber stretch short. The score should run parallel to the paper grain; the thicker the paper, the wider the score should be. Paper should be folded with the scored side on the outside, making two short stretches rather than one long one. The outcome is a straight, durable fold that doesn't crack or break. see also finishing, folding, grain. Return to top

Screen the lined glass, now called contact film, through which images are photographed to create halftones. Shooting through the mesh of a screen breaks an image into tiny dots. The closer the lines of the screen, the smaller the dots and the more dots per inch; the farther apart the lines of the screen, the bigger the dots and the fewer the dots per inch. The higher the dots per inch, the smaller the dots are, therefore creating a finer, crisper image. The coarseness or fineness of the screen is measured in the number of horizontal and vertical lines per inch. The less a paper absorbs and spreads ink, the finer the screen that can be used. Newspapers use coarse screens with 55 to 85 lines per inch. Most trade publications use 85 to 110 lines. With traditional printing, a coated paper can hold the small dots from a 200-line screen. With waterless printing, the paper can hold the dots from an even finer screen, 400 lines and greater. Though this approaches the quality of continuous tone, it is hard for the eye to discern the differences in resolution above 200 lines per inch. see also absorbency, continuous tone, dot gain, dpi, stochastic. Return to top

Screen Printing a printing process also called silk screening, where ink is trans- ferred through a porous screen, such as nylon, onto the surface to be decorated. An emulsion or stencil is used to block out the negative, or non-printing areas of the screen. A squeegee forces ink through th eopen areas of the screen and onto the paper, plastic, cardboard, wood, fabric, glass, or other material. see also printing process, stencil. Return to top

Script A type face that mimics the appearance of hand written text. Return to top

Scrolls long sheets of papyrus, parchment, or paer rolled for storage. see also papyrus, parchment. Return to top

Self Cover a booklet having a cover made of the same paper as the inside or text pages. Return to top

Semi-chemical Pulping using chemicals and mechanical grinding to separate the cellu- lose fibers of wood. Because this pulping process doesn't remove lignin, it isn't generally used for fine printing and writing papers. It's used instead for papers not requiring permanence. see also pulping wood, cellulose fibers, lignin. Return to top

Serif The curls and points that appear as outward lateral extensions of the bottoms and tops of letterforms on some type faces. Many designers consider serif type used for body text for easy readability. Times Roman is a well known serit typefont. Return to top

Service Bureau The facility that provides professional services to graphics and printing professionals especially related to computer output. (i.e. plate ready film, matchprints, colorkeys, etc...). Return to top

Shade the color depth and hue in comparison to papers that are the same color; also used to describe the color achieved by adding dye to pulp slurry. There is a wide shade variety in white papers, as well as in colored papers. Return to top

Sheet-fed Press a press that prints single sheets of paper, rather than a continu- ous roll or web of paper. A sheet-fed press prints more slowly than a web press, and is typically used for shorter runs. see also offset, web paper, web press. Return to top

Sheetwise see imposition. Return to top

Sheffield a test used to measure the smoothness of paper by measuring the rate of air flow over the surface of the sheet. The lower the number, the smoother the sheet. see also smooth finish, smoothness. Return to top

Show-through see opacity. Return to top

Signature the collated pages of one folded and trimmed form, making up one section of a bound book. see also binding, form, imposition, trimming. Return to top

Silk Screen see screen printing. Return to top

Sizing a Resin, such as rosin, added to pulp before it's formed into paper, or added to the surface of the paper after it's dry. Sizing acts as a glue to keep the fibers of the finished paper tight, since loose fibers on the surface of the paper can cause printing problems. Sizing also helps the finished paper repel water, which is an especially important property for stock that will be used for offset printing. see also bonding strength, ingredients of paper, resin, rosin. Return to top

Skid a platform built with a solid wood bottom, for holding stacks of paper not packed in cartons. Paper may be ordered in skids or cartons. When printers are printing a large job, they generally prefer skids to cartons. Return to top

Slurry a thin, watery mixture. The mixture of pulp and water that is poured onton the papermaking machine is often referred to as slurry. see also headbox, hydorpulper, papermaking, wet end. Return to top

Spot Color Single colors applied to printing when process color is not necessary (i.e. one, two and three color printing), or when process colors need to be augmented (i.e. a fluorescent pink headline or a metallic tint). Return to top

Spread 1) A design that encompasses two or more facing pages (i.e. the center spread in the morning newspaper). Return to top

Spread 2) Spreading the ink beyond the edge of an object so that there is no gap between it and the next colored object. "Choke and Spread" are common methods of trapping elements of a printing job. Return to top

Smooth Finish paper finished to a Shefield smoothness between 50 and 150. see also finish, Sheffield, smoothness. Return to top

Smoothness the surface property of paper that desribes its degree of uniform evenness and flatness. When printing, the smoother the paper, the better the ink dot formation and the sharper the image. see also cast-coating, coated paper, Sheffield, smooth finish, super- calendar, uncoated paper. Return to top

Softwood Pulp pulp made from coniferous trees (evergreen tress with cones and needles, such as pine and fir trees). Paper is often made using a blend of pulps; softwood pulp has long fibers, giving paper strength; hardwood fibers are short, lending smoothness, bulk, and body. see also hardwood pulp, pulping wood. Return to top

Specifying Paper choosing the appropriate paper for a specific printing job, in order to meet its individual design, printing, handling, and economic requirements. Designers and printers are frequently assisted by a paper merchant or a paper mill consultant when choosing a paper. see also paper consultant. Return to top

Spot Color Single colors applied to printing when process color is not necessary (i.e. one, two and three color printing), or when process colors need to be augmented (i.e. a fluorescent pink headline or a metallic tint). Return to top

Spread 1) A design that encompasses two or more facing pages (i.e. the center spread in the morning newspaper). Return to top

Spread 2) Spreading the ink beyond the edge of an object so that there is no gap between it and the next colored object. "Choke and Spread" are common methods of trapping elements of a printing job. Return to top

Stencil a sheet of plastic, paper, or other material with letters or an image cut out of it. When placed on a surface and inked, it reproduces the cut-away images onto the material behind it. see also printing methods, screen printing. Return to top

Stochastic a relatively new method for creating halftones. Rather than producing the regularly space dots of lined screens, stochastic screening generates randomly placed dots. Because the generation of the dots is frequently modulated, the technique is also called FM screening. Registration on press is slightly more difficult than with lined screens, but the colors rests can be brilliant. see also continuous tone, dpi, halftone, registration, screen. Return to top

Stock Paper or other material that will be printed. To a paper mill, a "stock item" is a manufactured item that is invertoried, as opposed to a "manufacturing order," which is custom made. see also manufacturing order. Return to top

Style Sheet A method of designating the type faces to be used in a design. i.e. Headlines, captions and body text, this is listed on a "sheet", usually in a "floating pallet" on a program like Pagemaker. Return to top

Subtractive Colors the three primary process printing colors; magenta, cyan, and yellow, as opposted to the three additive primary colors of green, red, and blue. Color separations are created by shooting or scanning a color through filters of additive colors to generate halftones of subtractive colors. Subtracting the additive color of green from white light leaves magenta; subtracting red leaves cyan; and subtracting blue leaves yellow. The subtractive color halftones are then combined on a printing press to create full- color images. see also color separation, four-color process, halftone. Return to top

Supercalender Alternating steel and fiber-covered calendar rolls that increase a sheet's gloss and smoothness. The supercalender is a separate piece of equipment located close to the dry end of the paper machine. see also calendering, gloss, papermaking, smoothness. Return to top

Swatchbook a booklet containing paper samples and paper specifications for a line of paper. Champion produces individual swatchbooks for each of its fine printing papers. Return to top