EVV Print Graphics Glossary

An AI file is a drawing created with Adobe Illustrator. Adobe Illustrator Artwork (AI) is a proprietary file format developed by Adobe Systems for representing single-page vector-based drawings. Since Illustrator image files are saved in a vector format, they can be enlarged without losing any image quality.

Encapsulated Postscript Vector graphics is an Adobe graphic file format. An EPS file retains the information of a vector file as well as text. Since they are vector based, these images can be scaled to any size without loss of image quality. This is a great file type to send to be printed, especially for large format prints.

A JPEG is the most common graphic file type for an image and created by the Joint Photographic Experts Group, hence the name. This is a raster file format that uses colour compression to reduce the size of the image file. Usually used for compressing full-colour or grayscale images. Usually used for screen display rather than printing. The compression amount can be adjusted with very little noticeable loss in image quality.

Adobe Portable Document Format is a file format developed by Adobe in the 1990s to present documents, including text formatting and images, in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems. Based on the PostScript language, each PDF file encapsulates a complete description of a fixed-layout flat document, including the text, fonts, vector graphics, raster images and other information needed to display it. 

An image file format that stands for Portable Network Graphics, PNG is a lossless file format designed as a more open alternative to Graphics Interchange Format (GIF). The biggest advantage of PNG over JPEG is that the compression is lossless, meaning there is no loss in quality each time it is opened and saved again. The result is a smaller file that maintains high quality.

A .PSD file stands for Photoshop Document. It is the default layered image file used in Adobe PhotoShop. PSD is a proprietary file that allows the user to work with the images' individual layers even after the file has been saved.

A TIFF file stands for Tagged Image File Format. This is a raster file that can be saved uncompressed without any degradation of the image. Popular among graphic artists, the publishing industry, and photographers, this format introduces no compression artifacts and is good for high quality image applications such as large format printing and and archival images.

The size of an image at 100% without any enlargement or reduction.

See Sandwich Board

A special application of the adhesive layer on some materials that leaves tiny air release channels in order to let air escape during the application process. This typically eliminates trapping air bubbles under the substrate.

Jagged edges that occur due to low resolution in an image.

Placement and shape of text relative to the margins. Alignment settings can be centred, flush left, flush right, justified, ragged right, etc.

Alupanel is a premium quality composite panel made from aluminium composite materials featuring two 0.30mm aluminium sheets, sandwiching a polyethylene core. It is available in a range of colours and can be fabricated, folded and formed. A good choice for rigid interior or exterior hard signs with an optional metallic finish.

Smoothing jagged edges (known as aliasing) from an image. Generally, this is done by software which smoothes the edges by adding pixels between the jagged edges or stair-steps.

Also known as transfer tape or “pre-mask”, application tape is so called because it transfers your vinyl graphics and decals after they have been cut on a vinyl cutter, keeping their orientation to one another.

Any analog or digital image, text or graphics used for printing reproduction.

In computer graphics, ratio of width to height of a screen or image frame.

Stripes or lines across a print.

The invisible line which all characters in a line of type rest upon.

In vector graphics, curved lines created by establishing two endpoints. The line can be easily modified by adding, removing or changing points. See vector.

Theoretically speaking, black is the absence of any reflection – all light is absorbed. For CMYK printing purposes, black is the fourth color represented by K. No combination of ink will create a “true black” although to most observer’s eye there wouldn’t be much difference.

A movable reference point that defines the darkest area in an image, causing all other areas to be adjusted accordingly.

In printing, bleed is printing that goes beyond the edge of where the sheet will be trimmed or contour cut. In other words, the bleed is the area to be trimmed off. The bleed is the part on the side of a document that gives the printer a small amount of space to account for movement of the paper, and design inconsistencies.

Material used to minimize the amount of light transmission through a transparent or translucent surface. The amount of blockout depends on the opacity of the material as well as the intensity of the light source. Dedicated blockout materials are available, but other materials can be used depending on the level of light and blockout required.

The relative lightness of an image. Computers represent brightness using a value between 0 (dimmest) and 255 (brightest).

Calendared films are often called intermediate or short-term films. It starts with a molten mixture that is extruded through a die and fed though a series of calendaring rolls. The rolling and stretching process produces thicker films (3- to 4-mil is common) that have some inherent memory, making the film less dimensionally stable and less conformable with a tendency to shrink when exposed to heat. However, they are less expensive, somewhat more scratch resistant, and their heavier weight makes them easier to handle than cast films. These films are well suited for flat and simple curved applications on a variety of substrates.

With regard to recorders and imagesetters, the process of adjusting the device so it correctly reproduces the desired halftones, tints, and so on. See also Linearization.

Cast vinyls have a long durability against fading and the elements. They are more expensive than calendared vinyls. Cast vinyls are a good choice for uneven and contoured surfaces because they can be heated to conform and maintain their shape. A cast vinyl starts as a liquid and is cast into a sheet or form and then processed through ovens, evaporating solvents in the liquid. When the solvents evaporate, the remainder is a solid film usually between 2 mil (printable media) to 4 mil (solid colour) thick. This durability of shape allows for predictability on application and in applying heat to relax the material back to its natural form after modest stretching. Cast vinyls are less prone to shrinkage because stress (such as extrusion as in calendared films) is not applied to the material during the manufacturing process.

See Static Cling

The conversion of all tones lighter than a specified gray level to white, or darker than a specified grey level to black, causing loss of detail. This also applies to individual channels in a colour image.

Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black (or Key) are the four inks used in four colour process printing, unlike RGB colours which are intended for colour displays. A CMYK colour is expressed as a set of four numbers, each representing a certain amount of each colour ink. Each colour is measured on a scale from 0-100. CMYK is a subtractive colour scale, so pure black is 0-0-0-100 and pure white 0-0-0-0.

Light waves that reach the viewer’s eye by transmission (through an object between the viewer and the light source) or by reflection (when light waves bounce off an object). All substances, whether transparent or opaque, absorb some wavelengths while letting others pass through or bounce off. A red apple looks red because it absorbs all colours in white light except red, which it reflects. White objects reflect all and black objects absorb all light waves (at least in theory).

The adjustment of colours in any photographic, electronic, or manual process to obtain a correct image by compensating for the deficiencies of process inks, colour separation, or undesired balance of the original image.

This happens to all printed graphics due to exposure from the sun’s rays. In solvent prints, colour begins to fade from day 1. Latex prints have much better fade resistance as do UV prints. All colour prints can benefit from the addition of an over-laminate which can often double the expected longevity.

Specifying Pantone or process colours to produce a desired colour from a previously printed piece or other colour original.

Colour profiles are generated for printer and paper combinations so that accurate reproduction of colours is possible. They are also very useful in obtaining colour matches between monitors and printers to ensure that what is seen on the screen is an accurate representation of the final printed image.

A representation matching the appearance of the final printed piece. Includes colour laser proofs, colour overlay proofs, and laminate proofs. A representation of what the printed composition will look like. The resolution and quality will vary greatly depending on the proofing device. These can be provided during the various stages of page construction.

The difference between the dark and light values in an image. Images with a great deal of contrast contain mostly very dark and very light values, while low-contrast images contain mostly medium gray values.

Lines printed with an image to indicate where the print should be trimmed.

Thin adhesive backed vinyl rolls or sheets are loaded into a vinyl cutter(plotter). Digital vector files are used to control the machine’s cutting path. The material moves on two axis and a small rotating blade scores the material and contour cuts along the artwork path. Excess material is removed. See weeding.

In a digital file, the line / stroke used to create a cutting path. A vinyl cutter or plotter is used to cut the graphic into a particular shape.

Dithering is the attempt by a computer program to approximate a color from a mixture of other colors when the required color is not available. This often occurs when an image includes colors that the operating system, software or monitor cannot support.

DPI stands for dots per inch, and refers to the number of pixels within one square inch of an image. A higher dpi results in a higher quality image. The dpi that an image needs to be depends on the size of the print and the distance it will be viewed from. In offset printing, such as magazines or newspapers, 300 dpi is the standard. In large format printing, the dpi can be much lower if viewing at a distance.

A decorative capital letter at the beginning of a paragraph that hangs below the top line of the paragraph and occupies space of more than one line.

A coloured or shaded box or character offset and placed behind an identical box or character to give a shadow effect.

Indicates how well a particular material holds up to standard wear and tear.

A printing process using small heating elements to evaporate pigments from a carrier film, depositing these smoothly onto a substrate. Used primarily for colour proofs and comps.

To stamp a raised area or image into paper with metal dies, usually combined with a printed image. (To stamp an indentation with metal dies is to deboss the image).

Refers to short term graphics (under a year) that are often used for exhibits, trade shows, and advertising. These are printed on a lower tack adhesive backed vinyl that is relatively easy to remove and will minimize damaging the underlying surface substrate. Standard vinyl is recommended for longer term graphics because of its durability.

The loss of image quality — generally in color density — over time, often due to exposure to sunlight.

A family of type is the complete font set with all its related attributes. One family can include: roman, italic, bold, bold italic, black, black italic, light, light italic, thin, thin italic, plus all the condensed and expanded versions of the previously listed.

The structure in which digital information is stored, including appropriate headers. Most programs have a proprietary file format. For example, Microsoft Word files are saved as .doc, a format slightly different than WordPerfect’s file format. A program’s proprietary file format is called its “native format.” Many programs can open other file formats — Word can open a WordPerfect document, for example — although all the formatting may not display perfectly. There are may graphic file formats:.bmp, .eps, .psd, .tif, .jpg, etc.

Refers to when a graphic is applied to the viewing surface of the substrate (usually glass), as opposed to ‘Second Surface’ which is the opposite or inside surface of the substrate. First surface applications usually have more clarity as you are not viewing them through reflections on the outer surface of the glass.

A complete collection of letters, numbers and other characters in a particular typeface and size. For example, Arial and Helvetica are typeface families. Bold, Italic and narrow are possible typefaces. Each combination of typeface and size is a particular font. Arial Narrow 10pt is a font. Fonts are either bitmapped fonts or scalable fonts. Bitmapped fonts are fully generated ahead of time, meaning that a complete font set would include every character in each point size in each typeface. Scalable fonts are generated in any point size on the fly, so a complete font set would include every character in every typeface in one point size. Scalable fonts are also called outline fonts. The most popular outline fonts today are TrueType, Adobe’s Type1, and the new cross-platform OpenType format.

In typography, the point is the smallest unit of measure to represent letter height. It is used for measuring font size, leading, and other items on a printed page. Alternate units of measure (inches, millimetres) can be used for sizing but the point is standard.

The density of letters, traditionally described as light, regular, bold, extra bold, etc.

Identifies the size of a printer, media, or graphic, based on the width of media roll, the printer’s print area, or the dimensions of a graphic. At Spectrum Printing, Small Format includes everything up to 13″ wide and Large Format (Wide Format) encompasses everything above that.

The most common full-colour printing process which uses colour separation to produce one image for each of the four process colours (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). Each colour is then overprinted to reproduce the full colour of the image.

A term that describes a printing process where the ink is placed past the edge of where the document will be trimmed so that the image extends to the edge of the paper. Printers generally cannot print to the edge of a piece of paper, since some portion of the paper is gripped by rollers that move the paper through the printer. To print a full bleed letter size page, the image is printed on a larger sheet of paper and trimmed to final size.

The range of colors that can be captured or represented by a device. When a color is outside a device’s gamut, the device uses a different color to express that color. See dithering.

An image format type generated specifically for computer use. Its resolution is usually very low (72 dpi, or that of your computer screen), making it undesirable for printing purposes.

This can be achieved by printing directly to a gloss material, by adding a gloss laminate over a print, or by varnishing a matte material in the printing process. Gloss finishes tend to bring out the vibrancy of an image.

An image containing a range of gray levels as opposed to only pure black and pure white.

A hoarding is defined as a temporary boarded fence in a public place, usually erected around a building site. These are used to protect the public from site works whilst also being used to display advertisements. This can also describe the temporary covering of windows during tenant construction for example. See Window Wrap.

A white reflection from an interior lighting source which can obstruct the readability of a graphic or messaging. Glossy surfaces are often the problem for indoor applications. Matte finishes are better suited for interior graphics and glossy surfaces for exterior use.

In graphical environments, a small graphic image displayed on the screen to represent an object that can be manipulated by the user.

Resolution expresses the image quality, and is defined by pixel density (dots per inch) or image size (pixels tall x pixels wide).

A printer that applies color by spraying ink onto the page. As opposed to continuous tone color.

In the image manipulation context, this is the increase of image resolution by the addition of new pixels throughout the image, the colours of which are based on neighbouring pixels.

Lines of type in a column that are flush with both the right and left column margins. If only one side of the text column is flush, it is said to be right-justified or left-justified. Left-justified column are also called ragged-right because the right side which is not justified tends to be uneven. When type is justified to both the right and left margins, word spacing and letter spacing must be varied to allow such alignment.

Kerning refers to improving the appearance of type by adjusting the spacing between selected pairs of letters. The most problematic pairs of letters are AV, AY, FA, AW, PA, and AT. Kerning is more important in large type and all uppercase text.

An over laminate is a thin adhesive film that can be added over your digitally printed graphics. They come in a number of thicknesses, colours and finishes for different applications. A laminate is primarily used to protect the underlying ink layer from abrasion and UV fading. Since they are available in different sheens, they can turn a standard print into either a rich gloss or matte finish. Over laminates also add additional thickness which reduces stretch and can aid in the installation and removal of material.

A printer that prints on large sheets or rolls of material, which can range from 24 inches to 16 feet in width (by almost any length). Often found in the signage industry, large format printers produce oversized graphics for digital wallpaper and murals, trade shows, retail storefronts, special events, reception areas, feature walls, window and vehicle wraps, banners, POP displays and other big and bold applications.

An inkjet printing process using pigmented, water-based inks. The water-based formulations of Latex Inks reduce the impact of printing on the environment by eliminating harmful solvents and instead using heat for the drying / curing process. Latex inks can be used with a wide variety of materials and offer good durability and fade resistance.

The overall plan or design of a document or document page.

An image that is made up of elements that have sharp edges and high contrast between areas where there is ink and where there is not ink. These images must be printed at a higher resolution to create the necessary sharpness.

A logo is a stylized name of a company or organization set in a unique way and often accompanied by an illustration or icon. A successful logo should be reproducible in its original colour design and a black and white version.

An image or screen in relatively coarse detail. In raster-oriented printing or displays, low resolution has to do with the number of pixels or dots used to reproduce the image. The fewer the pixels per inch, the lower the resolution.

This formulation of paint has become the standard for interior applications because it is less dangerous to human health and the environment. VOC stands for Volatile Organic Compounds which are organic chemicals that can evaporate into the surrounding air at room temperature, especially during the curing process. Low VOC paints can be challenging for some adhesive vinyl products to bond well.

Noncapital letters, such as a, b, c, and so on. The name is derived from the practice of placing these letters in the bottom (lower) case of a pair of type cases. Compare uppercase.

The distance from the edge of the paper to the image area occupied by text and/or graphics.

See transfer tape.

An analog or digital image used to eliminate unwanted portions of an image. An analog mask could consist of a negative film, hand cut ruby or amber film or simply photographically opaque paper. Digital mask files utilize a clipping path and are superimposed over an image to define which portions of the image should print and which should not. Image pixels inside the clipping path print; pixels outside the clipping path do not. A similar mask can be used to control the area of a graphic affected by such operations as colour correction, filters, tool effects, etc.

A low gloss finish. This can be achieved by printing directly to a matte substrate or by laminating a print with a matte film. This finish is best suited for indoor applications as less light is reflected off the surface creating ‘hot spots’.

The materials to be printed on. It can be anything from bond paper to copper and wood vellum.

Approximately one million bytes. Commonly written as MB and spoken as a “meg”.

A proof used to ensure the correct page numbers, orientation, and dimensions are used in the final printout of an imposition layout. A good mockup is as close as possible to the finished product, and is of great value in showing trimming, folding and assembling in pieces involving complicated finishing operations, such as boxes.

Interference caused by incorrect halftone screen angles which results in an undesirable pattern in multi-colour printing. Images such as plaid or checkered fabrics can also interfere with the angles of the halftone screens. One advantage of stochastic screening is the reduction of obvious and subtle moirè patterns.

The colour attributes of an image made up of one or more tones of one hue.

In an image, pixels with randomly distributed colour values. Digital noise is often found around the outlines of objects in a raster file where there is not a distinct colour contrast, particularly in low resolution images. Adobe Photoshop provides filters to apply or remove noise from an image.

A material characteristic that prevents or restricts the transmission of light. Opacity also refers to the apparent transparency (or lack thereof) of a digital image (such as a layer) in a graphics program.

A font stored in a computer or printer as a set of templates from which the font characters, at various sizes, can be drawn.

A low tack adhesive vinyl that is adhered to a surface, painted, and can be easily removed. Depending on the surface texture, very accurate edge detail can be achieved. Similarly, stencils can also be produced out of paper, thin card stock or poly styrene for reusable paint applications, but offer much less detail in the final product.

The most common colour matching system used by commercial printers. The Pantone matching system is comprised of ink formulas for mixing colours by weight using a standard set of basic colours. A variety of swatch books exist for different substrates, media, applications and finishes. Numbered colours allow for colour communication between designers and customers to specify the desired colour based on a standardized reference, and allows for consistency and reproduction in the printing process. Spot colours can be represented directly by some printers or the Pantone system offers best colour conversions to CMYK.

Used on standard sign vinyls and designed to hold up in commercial applications. Usually rated with a durability of 3 to 12 years.

A substance, usually a powder, added to a liquid binder to give colour to paints or inks. Some properties of pigments include lightfastness (non-permanent pigments are know as fugitive) transparency and hue.

Every raster image is made up of pixels; single dots of colour that, together, form the image. A pixel is the smallest unit of a digital image or graphic that can be displayed and represented on a digital display device. Pixels are combined to form a complete image, video, text or any visible thing on a computer display. A pixel is also known as a picture element.

A computer printer for reproducing vector graphics onto a substrate. A vinyl cutter is a type of plotter that is fitted with a cutting knife.

(Pantone Matching System) A commonly used system for identifying specific ink colours. The North American printing industry standard for defining non-process colours. Refer to Pantone Matching System.

Sign or display setup close to the actual retail product being sold.

Refers to the adhesive layer on vinyl films. Many films have an initial tack (some are re-positional) until pressure is applied to the material which activates its bond to the substrate.

The part of a printer that mechanically controls the imprinting of characters on paper. The print head can consist of pins that strike a ribbon, ink jets, or pins that pass an electrostatic charge to the paper.

The marks printed on a press sheet or film to aid in positioning the print area on the press sheet, checking the quality of the printed image, and trimming the final pages. Printer’s marks may include calibration bars, crop marks, and registration marks.

Four colour process printing using transparent inks (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black) to create a full colour range.

A digital measurement that describes the difference between the color that a device scans, displays, or prints and the actual colour of an image.

A reasonably accurate representation of how a finished page is intended to look. Proofs can be in black and white or colour.

A stored arrangement of computer data or programs, waiting to be processed (usually in the order in which they were received).

Raster images are made up of pixels, dots of colour that work together to form the image. Photographs are always raster files, as well as most images you see online. Raster images will gradually lose quality as you scale them up, creating a rough, pixelated appearance (as opposed to vector images).

Converting images from vector to raster.

Adhesive backed vinyl designed to be removed after short term applications without damaging surfaces and leaving minimal residue behind. Often uses water-based adhesives instead of solvent-based. Used with exhibition vinyls.

Depending on the product used, removal can range from easy (low tac short term adhesives) to difficult (solvent based commercial adhesives). Caution should be taken not to damage sensitive surfaces. May involve plastic and metal scrapers, soap and water or strong solvents.

Raster images are often resampled when being enlarged in order to lessen the noticeability of pixelation. Resampling can “soften” images, particularly at sharp borders between colors, but when done by a knowledgeable professional it can enlarge an image with very little loss of image quality.

A measure of the quality of an image. Print resolution is generally expressed as dpi (the number of pixels per inch, i.e. 300 dpi) and screen resolution is usually expresses as ppi (pixels on the horizontal axis by pixels on the vertical axis, i.e. 800x600).

RGB stands for the Red-Green-Blue colour profile. The primary colours, called “additive” colours, are used by colour monitor displays, digital cameras, TVs and some colour output devices. Colours are defined by the levels of red, green, and blue measured on a scale from 0-256. The combination and intensities of these three colours can represent the whole spectrum.

Stands for Raster Image Processor. The hardware engine which converts data which has been stored in a computer to information a printer can understand. The software that drives the RIP often includes features for color calibrating resizing and various print utilities.

The means within a program to reduce or enlarge the amount of space an image will occupy. Some programs maintain the aspect ratio between width and height whilst scaling, thereby avoiding distortion.

Refers to when a graphic is applied to the inside surface of the substrate (usually glass), and viewed through the substrate, as opposed to ‘First Surface’. Second surface applications on glass require the graphic to be reversed and applied to the back side so they read correctly. They sometimes compete with the reflections of the glass, but the advantage is that they are well protected from the elements and potential vandalism.

Vinyl based materials all tend to shrink over their lifespan. Cast vinyls tend to shrink the least, but it can vary by the quality of the material used, the manufacturing process, and the type of adhesive. The printing process can introduce some shrinkage as well, particularly with solvent inks which can swell the material slightly when printed.

See Sandwich Board

Sintra is a lightweight yet rigid board of moderately expanded closed-cell polyvinyl chloride (PVC) extruded in a homogenous sheet with a low gloss matte finish. It is available in several colours and can be cut and snapped or sawn with relative ease. A good material for interior hard signs.

This term is used to describe any ink that is not water-based. Piezo inkjet printers whose inks use petroleum or a petroleum by-product such as an acetone like carrier liquid. "Eco-Solvent" inks usually contain glycol esters or glycol ether esters and are slower drying. The final prints have decent colour representation but offer little scratch resistance. Because of the environmental and health concerns, solvent printing is slowly being phased out.

A specific color in a design, usually designated to be printed with a specific matching ink, rather than through process CMYK printing. Used to reduce cost or when CMYK is unable to accurately represent a color.

A line representing part of a letter or other type character. (2) The colour applied to the perimeter of an object in a graphics program (as opposed to fill which is the overall colour of the object). Most graphics programs allow the user to specify the thickness of the stroke.

A file of instructions used to apply character, paragraph, and page formats to a document.

A character printed smaller than standard text and positioned slightly below the baseline; commonly used in mathematical and chemical notation.

A substrate is a solid substance or medium to which another substance is applied and to which that second substance adheres. It may also be the base media on which something is printed or adhered to, for example paper or film.

A character printed smaller than standard text and positioned slightly above the baseline of the surrounding text; commonly used in reference citation and mathematical and technical notation.

An electronic prototype of a publication that provides the layout grid and style sheet necessary to create documents. Templates are predetermined and saved formats for page layouts. They are designed to be used as a starting point for each successive page or issue. Templates can also be used as guides to the imposition of multiple-up documents. The use of templates saves time and reduces errors in layout formats.

A small low-resolution version of an image, page or graphic.

Tiling is the process of joining sheets containing partial images together to create oversized sheets. This process is used when an output unit does not have the size capabilities available to produce the image in one piece at 100% size. Printing portions of a document at 100%, aligning them with each other and taping them together is a common form of tiling.

A value of a colour, ranging from 0% to 100%.

The overall adjustment of the amount of space between letters and words is tracking. Tracking increases and decreases word density and can be used for copyfitting purposes. Adjustment of tracking is often needed with “justified” type to even out the rivers of white space within body copy. Creative tracking can also remove widows, orphans, bad word-breaks, and undesirable hyphenation. Tracking is different from kerning, in that tracking is applied to words, lines, paragraphs or pages, and kerning is applied specifically to pairs of letters to compensate for unpleasant spacing caused by the particular letter combinations.

See application tape.

Media that allows some light to shine through – for example frosted films, thin materials (not opaque), or prints with less than 100% ink saturation.

The property of a material that allows virtually all of the visible light spectrum to pass through it such as glass. Coloured materials can be described as transparent if there is no ‘white’ component in the material or ink which maintains a high level of clarity.

The time from the submission of a job to the completion of that job. This time is dependent on several factors including size and complexity of the job.

Style and design of a particular alphabet. A typeface family is the collection of all related typefaces, such as Helvetica, Helvetica Bold, Helvetica Oblique, and Helvetica Bold Oblique.

The choice and arrangement of type. Good typography requires a thorough understanding of communication, and the role of letter shapes, size, spacing and style in successfully achieving that communication.

Capital letters, such as A, B, C. The name is derived from the practice of placing capitalized letters in the top (upper) case of a pair of type cases. See lowercase.

Uses UV curable inks made of acrylic monomers that are then exposed to strong UV-light to cure. This process allows for printing on a wide variety of surfaces such as wood or canvas, carpet, tile, and even glass. UV printing is becoming an alternative to screen-printing and has a lower environmental impact than solvent based predecessors.

The lightness or darkness or shade of a colour.

Vector images are not comprised of pixels (like raster images). Instead, they use math equations to determine the appearance of the image. Because of this, vector images can be scaled up or down to any size and they will never decrease in image quality, which makes them ideal files to send to be printed in large formats.

The process of turning a bitmap into a Vector. Also known as autotrace.

Synthetic resin or plastic consisting of polyvinyl chloride or a related polymer, used especially for wallpapers and other covering materials and for phonograph records.

Weeding refers to a process in cut vinyl graphics production where excess material is removed from the backing between the cut vinyl artwork. This is done with pre-coloured cut vinyl for decals, stickers, lettering or graphics that are printed and then cut-to-shape.

Window film is a thin laminate film that can be installed to the interior or exterior of glass surfaces. There are many different grades, shades, colours, and thicknesses of available window films built to offer solutions to a variety of challenges such as; for aesthetics, advertising, decorative, signage, privacy, light control, safety, auto wrapping and other applications. It has the properties of clarity, tensile strength, dimensional stability, and ability to accept a variety of surface-applied or embedded treatments. Window film is normally installed by professional service companies as there are many inherent challenges, but DIY installations are possible on smaller scale projects.

A type of hoarding where the windows are blocked off during the construction process and are used as a type of short term advertising, usually with a ‘coming soon’ message for new tenants. This can be a large format vinyl print material for longer term use and construction, or papered windows for a shorter term and more economical application.

The function of a word processor that breaks lines of text automatically so that they stay within the page or column margins. Line breaks created by wordwrap are called soft returns.

The process of using an adhesive vinyl film to cover a surface creating a new paint-like finish overtop. It often refers to automotive wraps but can also be doors, window frames and other objects. The wrapping process is reversible and can preserve the surface finish underneath from abrasion and fading. It developed in the 90’s when the technology of conformable materials emerged. It has continued to progress through the improvement of pressure-sensitive and bubble free adhesives and over laminates.

An acronym for "what you see is what you get". In computing, a WYSIWYG editor is a system in which content (text and graphics) can be edited in a form closely resembling its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product, such as a printed document, web page, or slide presentation.

X-height refers to the height of the lowercase x for a typeface. Also called Corpus Size.

To magnify or reduce your view of the current document.