Glossary of Terms
The wristband, identification and promotional products industry has its own unique glossary of terms. When doing business with Wizid and ordering products from us, we believe that greater knowledge helps our customers in their purchase decision and improves production time on every order. Here are some of the most frequently used terms that apply not only to Wizid products but wristbands, identification and promotional products in general.- 4-color process:
- A system where a colour image is separated into 4 different colour values by the use of filters and screens (usually done digitally). The result is a colour separation of 4 images, that when transferred to printing plates and printed on a printing press with the coloured inks cyan (blue), magenta (red), yellow and black, reproduces the original colour image. These four colours can be combined to create thousands of colours.
- Adobe® Portable Document Format (PDF) files:
- Preserve the visually rich content of original files, and are easier to read than HTML content that appears in a Web browser. Adobe PDF files print cleanly and quickly, and anyone can share Adobe PDF files, regardless of their platform or software application.
- Barcode:
- An array of machine-readable rectangular bars and spaces arranged in a specific way defined in international standards to represent letters, numbers and other human-readable symbols.
- Bitmap files:
- Images are exactly what their name says they are: a collection of bits that form an image. The image consists of a matrix of individual dots (or pixels) that all have their own colour (described using bits, the smallest possible units of information for a computer).
- Bleeds:
- Printers cannot print right to the edge of a paper sheet. To create that effect, the printer must use a sheet, which is larger than the document size. Then the printer prints beyond the edge of the document size (usually 10mm), then cuts the paper down to the document size.
- Boldface:
- A heavy typeface used for titles or emphasis.
- Camera-ready:
- Artwork that is black and white and has very clean, crisp lines that make it easy to scan and suitable for photographic reproduction.
- CMYK:
- Cyan, magenta, yellow are the primary print colours. The three colours are combined in varying degrees to make a full spectrum of colours. CMYK is the same as CMY plus black (K)
- Continuous tone art:
- Photograph, painting or other piece of art in which black & white tones gradually merge into one another.
- Copy change:
- A fee charged for changing the imprint copy on a product either at time of the original proof approval or upon a re-order.
- Crop:
- To eliminate a portion of a picture, illustration or photograph that contains unnecessary material or to highlight a certain area of the image.
- Debossing (Recessed):
- Depressing an image or text into a material's surface so that the image or text sits below the product surface.
- Digital imaging:
- Scanning or otherwise capturing images that may be subsequently edited, filed, displayed or printed on a suitable media.
- DPI:
- Dots per inch. Sometimes expressed as pixels per inch. For bitmap images, the number of individual elements of colour information per inch. See also RESOLUTION.
- Drop shipment:
- An order shipped to more than one location will be charged a fee for each additional destination. Less than Minimum: the fee charged by a supplier for ordering 50% fewer items than the quantity listed in the minimum or first column. This option is not always available on all products.
- Embossing:
- Impressing an image in relief to achieve a raised surface.
- Embroidery:
- Stitching a design into fabric through the use of high-speed, computer-controlled sewing machines. Artwork must first be 'digitised', which is the specialised process of converting two-dimensional artwork into stitches or thread. A particular format of art such as a jpeg, tif, eps, or bmp, cannot be converted into an embroidery tape. The digitiser must actually recreate the artwork using stitches. Then it programs the sewing machine to sew a specific design, in a specific colour, with a specific type of stitch. This is the process known as digitising. Not to be confused with the process of creating a weave.
- EPS (encapsulated postscript) file:
- An alternative picture file format that allows PostScript data to be stored and edited and is easy to transfer between Macintosh, MSDOS and other systems.
- Exact rerun:
- Usually there is no set-up charge on exact reruns of an order.
- Foil stamp:
- Applying metallic or coloured foil imprints to vinyl, plastic or paper surfaces.
- Font:
- Used to describe a complete typeset from a particular typeface. Examples include Helvetica, Times New Roman, Arial, etc.
- GIF file:
- A type of bitmap image file that Branders.com supports for artwork upload. Files of this type have a .gif suffix.
- Halftone:
- An image produced by breaking the subject into small dots of varying intensities of gray ranging from white to black.
- Hologram:
- A unique photographic printing that provides a three-dimensional effect on a flat surface. Holograms cannot be easily copied and are used for security and aesthetic purposes on wristbands.
- Hot stamp:
- Setting a design on a relief die, which is then heated and pressed onto the printing surface.
- Illustrator by Adobe:
- Adobe® Illustrator® is industry standard illustration software that creates graphically rich artwork for print or the Web. It provides powerful and flexible tools for PostScript®.
- Imprint area:
- The area on a product, with specific dimensions, in which the imprint is placed.
- Italic:
- In type, letter forms that slope to the right.
- Kern:
- To add or delete space between pairs of adjacent characters. Also known as letterspacing.
- Lamination:
- The process of combining lamination material and core material using time, heat and pressure.
- Line art:
- Black and white illustration of reproduction quality.
- Mechanical artwork:
- The traditional standard for acceptable mechanical artwork that is 'camera-ready black and white' material.
- Metafile:
- A collection of structures that store a picture in a device-independent format. Device independence is the one feature that sets metafiles apart from bitmaps. Unlike a bitmap, a metafile guarantees device independence. There is a drawback to metafiles, because they are generally drawn more slowly than bitmaps. Therefore, if an application requires fast drawing and device independence is not an issue, it should use bitmaps instead of metafiles.
- Overruns/underruns:
- The number of pieces that were printed in excess of the quantity specified/ the production run of fewer pieces than the amount specified. The industry standard on most products is +5%, with the exception being on paper and plastic. They can range from +10 to +25%. Suppliers bill on the actual quantity shipped.
- Pad printing:
- A recessed surface is covered with ink. The plate is wiped clean, leaving ink in the recessed areas. A silicone pad is then pressed against the plate, pulling the ink out of the recesses, and pressing it directly onto the product.
- Page layout documents:
- The font files and document preferences that need to be supplied for use on the supplier's operating system.
- Pantone Matching System (PMS):
- A book of standardised colour in a fan format used to identify, match and communicate colours in order to produce accurate colour matches in printing. Each colour has a coded number indicating instructions for mixing inks to achieve that colour.
- Paper proof:
- Impression of type or artwork on paper so the correctness and quality of the material to be printed can be checked. The least expensive is a regular black and white faxed paper proof.
- Personalisation:
- Imprinting an item with a person's name or company logo using one of several methods such as hot foil stamping, embossing, debossing, dye sublimation, digital or screen printing, to name a few.
- PostScript:
- A computer description language that allows a programmer to create complex pages using a series of commands.
- Pre-production proof:
- An actual physical sample of the product itself produced and sent for approval before an order goes into production.
- Production time:
- The amount of time needed to produce and ship an order, once an order has been received and approved. Stock products with a one-colour imprint usually ship much quicker. Custom products and those with multi-colour imprints require longer production time.
- Resolution:
- Dimension of the smallest element of an image that can be printed. Usually stated as dots per inch (dpi).
- Sans-serif type:
- A type style without cross strokes at the end of the main strokes.
- Screen-printing:
- An image is transferred to the printed surface by ink, which is pressed through a stencilled screen and treated with a light-sensitive emulsion. Film positives are put in contact with the screens and exposed to light, hardening the emulsion not covered by film and leaving a soft area on the screen for the squeegee to press ink through. (Also called silk screening).
- Serif type:
- Any typeface with letters having a cross stroke at the end of the main stroke.
- Set-up charge:
- A fee charged on all products. Prices vary per product and per supplier.
- Spot colour:
- A single consistent colour used throughout an area.
- Sublimation:
- Is a heat transfer method of imprint using heat-activated dyes that 'sublimate' into the fabric; becoming part of the fabric, not an imprint sitting on top of the fabric.
- TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) file:
- A file format for exchanging bitmapped images (usually scans) between applications.
- Typeface:
- A general term used to describe the styles of lettering available in typesetting. See also FONTS.
- Vector files:
- Sometimes called a geometric file, most images created with tools such as Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw are in the form of vector image files. Vector image files are easier to modify than raster image files (which can, however, sometimes be reconverted to vector files for further refinement).