Fort Myers • Cape Coral • Charlotte • NapleS​

Glossary of Printing Terms

Bleeds: If you desire your printed product to not have a "white margin," then it is considered to "bleed" off of the edge. In order to create this effect, where the image goes all the way to the end of the sheet, your background image needs to extend 1/8" beyond the size of your printed piece. To create this bleed area (that gets trimmed off), simply size your art board so that it is .125" (1/8") larger in each direction. For example, an 8.5"x11" page would become 8.75"x11.25" with the bleeds.


​C1S: This abbreviation stands for "Coated 1 Side" for paperstock or coverstock.

C2S: This abbreviation stands for "Coated 2 Side" for paperstock or coverstock.


CMYK: This abbreviation stands for "Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black (K) - which is used to create anything "full-color" in the Printing Industry.


​DPI: This abbreviation is for Dots-Per-Inch, which is a unit of measure for image resolution. The higher the number, the better the quality.


​Flat Size: This is the final flat size that your printed product is trimmed to. 

​Folded Size: This is the final folded size that your printed product is folded to. 


​Overruns/Underruns - This refers to the fluctuations in the Final Quantity that may occur due to the manufacturing process of your product. Although we typically print more quantity than your order requires, there is always a loss-factor for each finishing process involved in the manufacturing of your order. Industry Standard is 10% over/under of the desired quantity, and this percentage constitutes acceptability.


​Perfect Bind: This is a booklet-binding technique wherein the booklet spine is glued to hold the pages together. 


​PT: This abbreviation refers to the thickness of the paperstock (in Points).


Resolution: All images or photos are created using small dots. The tighter the dot pattern (with more dots-per-square-inch), the less visible these dots are to the human eye and the higher the quality of your images. Although most internet images are 72dpi, the preferred resolution for the Printing Industry is 300dpi (dots-per-inch).


Saddlestiched: This refers to a booklet-binding technique where the spine of the booklet or magazine is stapled. Typically, two staples on the spine hold the pages of the magazine together.


​# Symbol: Within the Printing Industry, the # symbol stands for "pounds," which is a unit of measure for the weight of the paperstock. For example, 70# (which is 70-pounds) is lighter than 80# (which is 80-pounds).