Page Count:

Total number of pages in a book including blanks.

Page Layout Program:

Software designed to combine text and graphics on a virtual page, giving you extensive control over the design and typography. The cornerstone of desktop publishing.

Page Printers:

Printers which will link direct to a Personal Computer and will print whatever you see on the screen.

Paint Program:

A software application that provides electronic versions of a paintbrush, a pouring paint can, spray paint, pencils, scissors, etc. Paint programs are always bitmapped.

Pantone (PMS):

A registered name for the industry standard colour matching system for mixing inks.

Paper / Board:

As a general rule paper/board substances are up to 200g/m -paper, over 200g/m board.

Paper Count:

The total number of pages, including blanks and printed pages without numbers.

Paper Manufacturer:

A company that makes web, sheet, and/or cut size paper and sells it through paper merchants and paper stores.

Paper Merchant:

A liaison between the paper manufacturer and the paper buyer who offers a number of lines of papers and can offer advice to buyers on the best sheets to specify for particular jobs. Merchants sell paper and envelopes to printers.

ParallelPort:

A computer interface that sends and received eight bits of information simultaneously.

Parts:

The number of sheets that make up a multi part form.

Pasting:

To secure a slip, leaf or folded sheet to the back edge of a page by means of a narrow strip of paste. Also known as 'tipping in'.

Pattern Carbon:

Special carbon paper used in business forms that only transfers in certain areas.

PC:

The personal computer (PC) was initially designed by IBM and is now manufactured or clones by many manufacturers.

PDF -Portable Document Format:

A file format generated using Adobe Acrobat software. Allows a document to retain its text and graphics formatting across different computer platforms. PDF files can be viewed and printed without the original software or fonts used to create the document.

PDL-Page Description Language:

The actual programming language (such as PostScript) that tells a printer how each page should look in print.

Peel Seal Coating:

Similar to heat-seal coating except that the bond will allow the two materials to be peeled apart.

Perfect Binding:

A style of unsewn binding in which the leaves of book are trimmed to single sheets. They are clamped together and a cover is wrapped around the spine. The pages are attached to the cover using an adhesive. This is the style generally used to bind a telephone book, Microsoft software manual, or magazine.

Perfecter:

A press with a perfecting unit which allows the image to be printed simultaneously front and back

Perfecting:

Printing on both sides of the paper on one pass through the press. This can only be done on a press which features a perfecting unit.

Perfecting Press:

Press capable of printing both sides of the paper during a single pass.

Perforating:

Used to facilitate the tearing of a sheet of paper, for example for reply forms or receipts.

pH:

Degree of acidity or alkalinity measured on a scale of 0 to 14 with h7 being the neutral point. pH is important in paper permanence but also in proper functioning of fountain solutions in offset printing.

Photogravure:

A printing process where the image is etched into the plate cylinder. The main advantage of this method of printing is the high speed, long run capability. Used mainly for mail order and magazine work.

Pica:

1. Unit of measure in typesetting. One pica = 1/6 inch.
2. A printing industry unit of measurement. There are 12
points to a pica, one pica is approximately 0.166in.

Picking:

A printers' nightmare that occurs as the surface of a sheet lifts off during printing. Generally a paper manufacturers' quality control problem.

PICT:

A digital file format that is used exclusively by Macintosh to display images on the screen. It has extremely low resolution and is not the best for printing.

Pin Register:

A standard used to fit film to film and film to plates and plates to press to assure the proper registration of printer colours.

Pinholes:

Minute holes in foil. Foil below .0015 inch, it is possible to have minute discontinuities or "pinholes". When aluminium foil of half the above thickness, or .0005 inch is tested, nearly every one-foot-square test piece contains so-called pinholes. Reducing the foil below .0005 inch gauge results in an increased number of "pinholes" per square foot and the discontinuities are usually somewhat larger. Embossing or creasing of the foil will naturally increase the WVTR of the foil, but only at the points which havebeen embossed or creased sufficiently to generate breaks in the foil.

Pixel:

A contraction of the words 'picture element'. The smallest visible element which can be generated from digital data. The pixel is the basis for image reproduction in data processing systems. The number of pixels in a given area
determines the resolution. A distinction must be made between three types of pixels based on their origin and function. Scan pixels are registered by the scanner while scanning the original to be reproduced. Screen pixels are
generated by the monitor and have no other purpose than to render an image visible on the screen. Printer pixels reproduce an image on a base material (paper, photographic paper, film). They are generated by means of imaging using the language of the output device (laser printer, scanner, imagesetter).

Plate:

1. An illustration printed separately from the text, on a separate sheet.

2. Piece of paper, metal, plastic, or rubber carrying an image to be reproduced using a printing press. Produced photographically using film negatives to control the photographic exposure of the plate. Exposed areas of the plate hold ink on press, thereby reverting the negative image back into a positive.

Plate Gap:

Gripper space. The area where the grippers hold the sheet as it passes through the press.

Plate Making:

Plates refers to lithographic (see the print process) printing plates, especially coated sheets (usually metal) onto which the image on the film is exposed and then fixed. The coating then provides for the plate to attract and retain or reject ink as required in the lithographic print process.

PMS -Pantone Matching System:

Standard, numbered shades and colours and may be selected when a specific background or accent colour is desired. The Pantone Matching System is an international printing, publishing and packaging colour language providing an accurate method for the selection, presentation, specification, communication, reproduction, matching and control of colour.

PMT:

Abbreviated name for photomechanical transfer. Often used to make position prints. See also Bromide.

Point:

1. The standard type size of which there are 72 to the inch (one point is approximately 0.01383in). Point size is measured from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender.

2. For paper, a unit of thickness equalling 1/1000 inch

Porosity:

Porosity is the measurement of airflow through the sheet. The higher the figure quoted, the more porous the material.

Portrait:

The shape of a book or illustration is referred to as portrait when its height is greater than its width.

Positioning:

Where the image is placed in the document's picture box.

Positive:

A photographic image which shows the lights and shades as in nature. Opposite of negative. Can describe either a print or a transparency.

Post-Consumer Waste:

Paper, paperboard and fibrous wastes from retail sores, office buildings, homes, municipal collection systems, etc., after such material has passed through its end usage as a consumer item including computer forms, tab cards, photocopies, cancelled cheques and general office waste.

PostScript:

A programming language developed by Adobe that describes, in precise detail, how the text and graphics on a printed page should look. It is often referred to as a page description language and is used on many types of printers and imagesetters. PostScript code is translated by a raster image processor or RIPped-before it can be used by a digital printer or press.

PPD -PostScript Printer Description:

The PPD is a list of your printer's specifications. With these specifications at hand, the computer knows which options to put in the Print dialog box. They are installed automatically when the installer program that is included with a printer is run. The installer creates a folder inside the Extension folder and puts all the printers files in it. Having the correct description for a specific printer allows you to capture the unique capabilities of a particular printer.

PPM:

Pages per minute.

Pre-Consumer Waste:

Manufacturing waste such as dry paper generated after the papermaking process (butt rolls, rejected unused stock, roll converting shavings, envelope cuttings, bindery trimmings, and other paper waste resulting from converting, printing and trimming operations). Also includes printer overruns and other printed paper, which has not reached the consumer.

Prepress:

Camera work, colour separating, stripping, platemaking and other services provided prior to printing. Typically used these days to refer to the process of having film run out to an imagesetter.

Press Number:

A method of numbering manufacturing business forms or tickets.

Pressure-Sensitive Paper:

Material with an adhesive coating that will stick without moistening protected by a paper backing sheet until used.

Primary Colour:

A base colour that is used to compose other colours.

Print Engine:

The part of a digital press that drives its printing process.

Printability:

The ability of paper to receive the printed image

Printer Driver:

The printer driver is a software file. Applications use this file to figure out what kind of printer is attached to the computer so documents can print properly.

Printer Fonts:

These allow a computer to print a representation of a font on any postscript printing or output device.

Printer's Marks:

The shorthand used by the printer, and preferably the customer, during the typesetting stage to mark errors and omissions.

Printing Down:

Making printing plates from the assembled films

Printing Inks:

Conventional ink means an ink, which dries by both oxidation and penetration and does not include "Press open", "Duct fresh" or "Overnight" inks. These may be satisfactory depending upon the type of work to be printed and the material used. Always check that the inks used are suitable for subsequent processes.

Process Blue:

The blue or cyan colour in process printing.

Process Colour:

The four standard ink colours used in full-colour printing: black, yellow, cyan, and magenta.

Process Printing:

The printing from a series of halftone plates, usually four, to reproduce continuous-tone colour images.

Progressives:

Colour proofs taken at each stage of printing showing each colour printed singly and then superimposed on the preceding colour.

Proof:

Test sheets run at all stages of the printing process to check for and reveal potential flaws or errors before they are committed to a final press run. Keep a copy of each stage of the proofing process to track down when and where an error on press has occurred. Errors that were caught by you on a printer's proof, but not changed by the printer, will not be your financial responsibility. See also cromalin; match print and machine proof.

Proof Correction Marks:

A standard set of signs and symbols used in copy preparation and to indicate corrections on proofs. Marks are placed both in the text and in the margin.

Proofing:

The process of producing sample copies for customer approval prior to bulk production.

Protocol:

A set of rules or standards enabling activities such as data transfer to be performed on a network.

Pulp:

The raw material used in paper making consisting mainly of wood chips, rags or other fibres. Broken down by mechanical or chemical means.