Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page i Dictionary of Printing and Publishing Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page ii Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page iii Dictionary of Printing and Publishing Michael Barnard John Peacock Pira International Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page iv The facts set out in this publication are from sources which we believe to be reliable. However, we accept no legal liability of any kind for the publication contents, nor for the information contained therein, nor conclusions drawn by any party from it. No part of this publication other than that excluded below may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright holder. First edition © Chapman and Hall 1990 Second edition © Pira International 2000 © Pira International 2000 ISBN 1 85802 381 5 Published by Pira International Randalls Road Leatherhead Surrey KT22 7RU Tel: +44 (0)1372 802080 Fax: +44 (0)1372 802079 E-mail: [email protected] http://www.piranet.com Typeset in the UK by Heronwood Press Printed and bound in the UK by TJI Digital Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page v Introduction The first edition of this dictionary was published in Chapman and Hall’s Blueprint list in 1990. Ten years is a long time in the vocabulary of industries which have been subjected to rapid technological progress and we had undoubt- edly reached the sell-by date of The Blueprint Dictionary of Printing and Publishing when Pira acquired the Blueprint list towards the end of the millennium. In this new edition we have tried, as before, to bear in mind two classes of user: the newcomer to the trade who needs help with traditional terms and the experienced printer or publisher who must attempt to keep up with new tech- nical terminology, often originating in the computer industry. Hence we have included words ranging from archaic mediaevalisms to tech- nocratic jargon although, in an attempt to contain the book to a manageable size, we have in this edition deleted some of the more obscure and obsolete language. The sources we have consulted are many and various and we have also borrowed from some of our own work – in particular The Print and Production Manual. For the new computer-related and multimedia terms which we must all accommodate in the 21st century we have relied heavily on David Penfold’s excellent Multimedia and Communications Glossary, from which Pira has allowed us to extract many entries. This is intended to be a functional, rather than an academic, work. We have not struggled to achieve any sort of uniformity in selecting parts of speech for headwords, offering the form in which we believe a word is most often used in practice. For this reason, we have not followed the dictionary convention of identifying parts of speech as this seemed to us unhelpful. Where there has been debate about the precise definition of a term, we have opted for common usage rather than precision as the criterion, although we have sometimes offered alternative uses. Where we considered additional, tabular material would be helpful (for example, in explaining paper sizes, metric conversions etc) we have included this in an appendix at the back of the book to try to avoid the blocks of text which can sometimes inhibit reference by interrupting easy visual access to alphabetical sequence. Despite much scanning by colleagues and comparison with other works, we are no doubt guilty of some obvious omissions, but short-run printing tech- niques will allow us to remedy our errors quite soon in the next edition... so please let us know. MB and JP Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page vi Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page 1 1-bit, 8-bit and 24-bit colour The number of bits of information (colour resolution) that can be represented in the pixels (dots) on the screen. A The higher the number of bits, the more colours or grey scales you can have. In turn, the higher the number of bits, the more memory is A The A series is an international IS0 range of required to handle them, so the number of paper sizes reducing from 4A at 1682 3 2378mm colours is limited by the size of the computer through A0 at 841 3 1189mm to A10 at memory, rather than the monitor used. 8-bit 26 3 37mm, with subsidiary RA and SRA sizes. and 24-bit are the most commonly used. 1-bit Each size folds in half to preserve the same pro- colour is monochrome line. See bilevel coding. portions of 1:=2 at each reduction. (See also B, 10Base2 A type of Ethernet, in which computers C.) See Appendix. are connected by thin coaxial cable, commonly AA Author’s Alteration. See authorÕs corrections. known as thin Ethernet or thinnet. (See also AAL See ATM adaptation layer. cheapernet.) A&I Abstracting and indexing: the act of mak- 10Base5 The original thick Ethernet cabling ing summaries and indexes for books or jour- standard, which uses thick yellow cable. nal articles. 10Base-T A type of 10 Mbps Ethernet, in which ABA American Booksellers Association computers are connected by twisted pair cable. abbreviated addressing A process which enables 16-bit Describes hardware or software that man- a programmer to use an address that has fewer ages data, program code and memory address characters than the full address, providing a information in words that are two bytes or 16 faster means of processing data as the shorter bits wide. address requires less decoding time. 16-bit computer Developed in the mid-1970s, 16- ABI See application binary interface. bit computers are capable of handling data in abort Controlled termination of a processing multiples of 16 bits. See 8-bit computer, 32-bit activity in a computer system. computer. abrasion resistance Measured resistance of a 100Base-FX Part of the 100Base-T standard, material surface (e.g. paper) to abrasion. requiring fibre-optic connections. abridgement The concise version of esp. a book. 100Base-T A 100 Mbps Ethernet standard, which absolute humidity Quantity of water vapour in is based on CSMA/CD technology, also called a unit volume of atmosphere. Contrast relative Fast Ethernet. Includes 100Base-TX, which humidity. requires two twisted pairs and 100Base-T4, absorbency The degree in which paper takes up which requires four pairs (but of lower-quality contact moisture measured by a standard test. cable). In optics, a transparent material’s degree of 24-bit colour See under 1-bit colour. suppression. 2B+D See basic rate ISDN. absorption Absorption or penetration is one of the 2B1Q See two-binary, one-quaternary. four principal ways in which inks dry; it is 32-bit Describes hardware or software that man- associated most readily with coldset web-offset ages data, program code and memory address printing on newsprint. The other three methods information in words that are 4 bytes or 32 bits are oxidation, polymerisation, and evaporation. wide. abstract Short summary of the contents of an aca- 32-bit computer A machine capable of handling demic paper or scientific article. data in multiples of 32 bits. See 8-bit computer, AC Author’s Correction. See authorÕs corrections. 16-bit computer. accelerated ageing Testing of paper to determine 3DO A games system including animation, strength loss or other physical changes caused which will also play audio CDs, allow Photo- through ageing. CD to be viewed and will eventually play accelerator Chemical, such as borax, used to video CDs using MPEG. speed up the development of photographic 431A The type of plug that fits a standard type film. 600 BT telephone socket. accelerator card An add-on device which can be 8-bit colour See under 1-bit colour. installed into a computer to speed up certain 8-bit computer Describes computers that employ processes, e.g. graphics performance. an 8-bit data word. See 16-bit computer, 32-bit accents Marks added to letters in some lan- computer. guages to indicate a stress, e.g. é (acute e) in French. 1 Dic.pag1 28/9/00 12:26 am Page 2 acceptable use policy (AUP) The official policy removal). The black printer carries more detail applied by networks concerning the use to than with conventional separations and the ter- which the network may be put. NSFNET, for tiary, or complementary, elements of any example, does not allow commercial use. colour hue are removed. Also called ICR (inte- Different networks have different AUPs. grated colour removal)orGCR (grey compo- acceptance testing The process by which a manu- nent replacement). facturer tests a new system to demonstrate that acid-free paper Generic term to describe paper it is in working order. (See also beta testing.) which is free from acid-producing chemicals access The ability to retrieve data from a com- which reduce longevity. See permanent paper puter storage medium or peripheral device. and neutral sized paper. access class In SMDS, the type (or bandwidth) acid resist Acid-resisting coat on printing plate. of access. Different types of access line offer ACK See acknowledge. different access classes, ranging from 1.17 ACK (acknowledgement) The ASCII character Mbps to 34 Mbps. with code 6. An acknowledgement that a pre- access control 1. The control system in computer vious transmission has been correctly received. networking imposed by hardware and soft- Also an acknowledgement number in a TCP ware controls.