Glossary of Terms

A type of plastic used for flat and formed surfaces.

The three additive primary colors are red, green and blue. When these three colors of light are mixed in equal proportions, they will produce white light. Also known as additive primaries.  Display devices, such as monitors, use this process to project color.

Inks used in fine art reproduction that have been optimized for permanence.

The value of a pixel in an electronic image, representing its lightness value from black to white. Usually defined as brightness levels ranging in value from 0 (black) to 255 (white)

One of several color encoding systems used by printers for combining primary colors to produce a full-color image. In CMYK, colors are expressed by the subtractive primaries (cyan, magenta, yellow and black). Black is represented by K since black keyline text appears on this layer.  Two other common acronyms for 6 colors are CMYKcm (light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow, and black) and CMYKOG (cyan, magenta, yellow, black, orange, and green).

A clear coating provides protection from smudging, fingerprints, and water droplets. It does not improve the permanence of the print because most fading is due to visible light. On some material, such as canvas, coating can render a print water-resistant, allowing it to be framed without glass.

A paper surface with slight texture produced by pressing the finished sheet between cold cylinders.

A paper color that is resistant to fading due to aging, or the action from external agents such as light, acids, heat, chemicals and other adverse conditions. Lightfast and sunfast are variations of the term.

A range of colors that can be reproduced by a given system.

Color Strength. A measure of color purity, or dilution by a neutral.

An image in which brightness appears consistent and uninterrupted. Each pixel in a continuous-tone image file uses at least one byte per red, green, and blue value. This permits 256 density levels per colour or more than 16 million mixture colours.

The degree of opacity of an image; A measure of reflectance or transmittance equal to log10 (1/reflectance) of log10 or (1/transmittance); The ability of a material to absorb light; the darker it is, the higher the density. Density measurements of solid ink patches are used to control ink on paper.

The measurement of resolution of a printer or video monitor based on dot density. For example, most laser printers have a resolution of 300 DPI, most monitors 72 DPI, most Post Script imagesetters 1200 to 2450 DPI. The measurement can also relate to pixels in an input fiole, or line screen dots (halftone screen) in a prepress output film.

Colored soluable substance that imparts a more or less permanent color to another material by staining or by chemical reaction with substrate.

The measurable difference between the brightest highlight and the darkest value.

Spectral reflection of light from a surface.

The gram weight of a hypothetical square meter of a particular type of paper, a good comparative measurement because it does not vary with sheet size.

The movement of a printed image from a holding (or donor) substrate to another surface by applying a certain temperture and pressure.

Professional scan at an output resolution of 150 DPI or 300 DPI using color optimized for archival inks on fine art media.

A paper surface that is smooth, produced by pressing a finished sheet through hot cylinders.

A term used to describe the entire range of colors in a spectrum; hue is the component that determines just what color you are using. In gradients, when you use a color model in which hue is a component, you can create rainbow effects.

A type of printer that sprays tiny streams of quick-drying ink onto a substrate.

The amount of light reflected or transmitted by an object with measured as black with the lowest intensity and white with the highest intensity.

A printer, media, or print 24″ or greater in width.

Any digitally printable substrate. The materials to be printed on, such as watercolor paper, canvas, copper, wood veneer, cotton, plastic and exotic papers like Japanese Kochi.

Paper made by a slowly rotating machine called a cylinder-mould that simulates the hand papermaking process. Fibers become more randomly intertwined in machinemade papers, producing a stronger, more flexible sheet or roll.