Print glossary
If you’ve ever been baffled by the acronyms and expressions that print production people use, here are some explanations from our Production Director Ann Sampson.
CTP
Computer To Plate. A development in which complete digital files are sent to printers, eliminating the need to create films first.
EPS
Encapsulated Postscript Format. It’s a high-resolution image file format necessary for the highest print quality.
JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group. A file format used to compress photographic images into smaller file sizes but at the expense of some image quality.
Portable Document Format. A PDF file can be transmitted and read on any computer platform with Acrobat Reader software installed.
TIFF
Tagged Image File Format. An image file format for photographic images that compresses the image size while preserving the image quality.
CMYK
Shorthand for the colours used in four-colour printing. Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & Black (also known as Key).
Digital printing
Digital printing is good for shorter print runs – up to 500 – and personalising copies.
GSM
Grammes per Square Metre or how thick a chosen paper is. Catalogue pages might be as light as 60gsm; normal brochure pages might be between 80gsm and 115gsm, a newsletter between 150 and 175gsm while heavyweight upmarket covers might be 350gsm or more.
