B.T.U. (British Thermal Unit):

The quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

Background:

All portions of an illustration that do not graphi cally describe the main subject or product.

Back Printing:

Printing on the underside of transparent paper or film. Alternative terms: reverse printing; second-surface printing.

Backup:

(1) The process of copying a file or program in the event the original is damaged, lost or unavailable. (2) To print on the second side of a sheet already printed on one side. (3) To adjust an image on one side of a sheet so that it aligns back-to-back with an image on the other side.

Back-up Blade:

A blade that furnishes additional support to the primary doctor blade.

Backlash:

Lost motion.

Back Trimming:

When all sides of a sheet of paper are cut with a blade's back (nonbeveled) edge.

Background:

All portions of an illustration that do not graphically describe the main subject or product.

Baggy Roll:

(Wrinkles) Refers to a nonuniform drawing web, where certain stack areas of hte web are not unde as much tension as the remaiing areas.

Balancing:

The redistribution of mass to make it more evenly distributed throughout.

Ballard Shell:

A thin skin of copper plated separately over the surface of a base cylinder. The base cylinder is ground and polished before treatment with one of several liquid parting agents, which prevent the copper layer from bonding directly to the base surface. The copper skin may be engraved and used for printing, after which it is easily stripped from the base cylinder; a new copper skin may be plated onto the base cylinder after the cylinder has been retreated with a parting agent.

Banding:

(1) A visible breaking of shades in a gradient. (2) Method of packaging printed pieces of paper using rubber or paper bands.

Barrel Fold:

Folding a sheet two or more times in the same direction.

Barrier Coating:

The coating applied to a substrate to make it resistant to the passage of moisture vapor, gases, water, or other liquids, including oils.

Base Cylinder:

A gravure cylinder prior to copper plating.

Base Ink:

A single-pigmented ink with high pigment-to-binder ratio, used in packaging applications for blending.

Base Metal:

The material upon which coatings are deposited.

Base Stock:

Paper that will be further processed, as in coating.

Basic Size:

The standard size of sheets of paper used to calculate basis weight in the United States and Canada.

Basis Weight:

Weight in pounds of a ream (500 sheets of paper) cut to a given standard size for that grade: coated, book, text, and offset sheets, 25" x 38"/500; newsprint 24" x 36"/500. For example, 500 sheets, 25" x 38" of 40 lb. coated paper weighs 40 lbs.

Bath Voltage:

The total voltage between the anode and cathode of an electrolytic cell during electrolysis. It is equal to the sum of (a) equilibrium reaction potential, (b) I R drop, and (c) electrode polarizations.

Benchmark:

A standard set by the best existing practice, product, or service. A standard by which something can be measured or judged. Benchmarking is the process of comparing performance against that of others in an effort to identify areas for improvement.

Bevel:

Angle—ground, honed, or filed—on edge of doctor blade.

Bind:

Usually in the book arena, but not exclusively, the joining of leafs or signatures together with either wire, glue or other means.

Binder:

The adhesive component(s) of an ink, normally supplied by the resin formulation.

Binders:

Paper additives which bond paper fibers together, increasing hardness and stiffness of the paper, and reducing tinting, picking, and dust. Typical binders are starch, gums, and methylcellulose

Bindery:

A department within a printing company responsible for collating, folding, and trimming various printing projects.

Binding:

The process of attaching loose sheets of paper into a book or other multipage document.

Black:

The absence of all reflected light; the color that is produced when an object absorbs all wavelengths from the light source. When 100% cyan, magenta, and yellow colorants are combined, the resulting color theoretically is black. In real-world applications, this combination produces a muddy gray or brown. In four-color process printing, black is one of the process inks. The letter “K” is used to represent Black in the CMYK acronym to avoid confusion with Blue’s “B” in RGB. The amount of black generated by the black file or film of a color separation.

Black Printer:

The plate made during the prepress printing process that is used with the cyan, magenta, and yellow printers to enhance the contrast and to emphasize the neutral tones and the details in the final reproduction shadow areas.

Blade Coating:

The predominant method of applying coatings to paper, in which an excess of coating is applied and then wiped off with a blade; the excess coating is returned to a reservoir for reuse.

Blade Extension:

The amount the backup and doctor blades extend beyond the holder, 3/8 to 1/2 inches.

Blank:

Category of paperboard ranging in thickness from 15 to 48 points.

Blanket:

Reinforced sheet of rubber used on one of the rollers of an offset press to transfer the to-be-printed data from the plate onto the paper.

Bleach Test:

A method of measuring tinctorial strength of an ink, or toner, by blending it with an opaque white ink of the same kind, then evaluating the tinting strength of the ink versus a control standard.

Bleaching:

The introduction of chemical agents such as chlorides or peroxides into pulp to increase its brightness, and, in some pulps, to remove undesirable impurities.

Bleed:

(1) In page layout, any printed area that extends to the edge of a page, usually accomplished by printing beyond the actual work size and then trimming. (2) The overlap between two or more colors to insure sufficient printed area in the event of misregister in printing. (3) The tendency for an ink to exhibit varied solubility in a material, such as in alcohol, paraffin, or soap; also, may refer to slight solubility of the ink into the substrate.

Bleeding:

Slurred lines on trailing edge of etch. Shadows showing on unprinted areas as the doctor blade leaves print.

Blend:

A mixture, such as a combination of solvents and inks.

Blind:

An impression of an uninked image.

Blind Debossing:

A strong letterpress impression of an uninked image on the front surface of a sheet of paper. The image is recessed.

Blind embossing:

An image pressed into a sheet without ink or foil.

Blind Folio:

A page number not printed on the page. (In the book arena, a blank page traditionally does not print a page number.)

Blind Image:

Image debossed, embossed or stamped, but not printed with ink or foil.

Blocking:

The sticking together of printed surfaces with another surface brought into contact through stacking or rewinding.

Blueline:

Prepress photographic proof made from stripped negatives where all colors show as blue images on white paper. Because “blueline” is a generic term for proofs made from a variety of materials having identical purposes and similar appearances, it may also be called a blackprint, blue, blueprint, brownline, brownprint, diazo, dyeline, ozalid, position proof, silverprint, Dylux and VanDyke. Rarely used today

Blushing:

A print defect consisting of a hazy appearance, encountered in foil printing and caused by moisture trapped between the ink film and the surface of the substrate.

Board Paper:

General term for paper over 110# index, 80# cover or 200 gsm that is commonly used for products such as file folders, displays and post cards. Also called paperboard.

Body:

Refers to the viscosity or flow characteristics of an ink or vehicle.

Boiling Range:

A definite range of temperatures over which some solvents will boil or distill.

Book Block:

Folded signatures gathered, sewn and trimmed, but not yet covered.

Bond paper:

Strong durable paper grade used for letterheads and business forms.

Border:

The decorative design or rule surrounding matter on a page.

Bounce:

(1) a repeating registration problem in the printing stage of production. (2) Customer unhappy with the results of a printing project and refuses to accept the project.

Break for color:

Also known as a color break. To separate mechanically or by software the parts to be printed in different colors.

Breaking Strength:

The measure of strength of paper, films, etc.

Breakout (Blade Edge):

Piece of doctor blade material that releases itself from the blade, causing a streak. Also see - Burr.

Brightness:

An object's ability to reflect light, normally gauged scientifically by measuring the reflectivity of light in selected wavelengths.

Bright Plating Range:

The range of current densities within which a given plating solution produces a bright plate.

Broke:

Printed or unprinted paper or paperboard resulting from trimmings or makeready sheets, generally reusable in papermaking.

Bromide:

(1.) A black-and-white photographic print on paper. (2.) Continuous-tone copy used as input for electronic engravers.

Bronzing:

Applying bronzing powder over a surface printed with sizing ink that is still wet, to produce a metallic effect.

B.T.U. (British Thermal Unit):

The quantity of heat required to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree Fahrenheit.

Bulk:

The degree of thickness of paper (in microns). Low bulk is good for rotogravure.

Burn:

A term used for exposure in plate making.

Burned deposit:

A rough, noncoherent, or otherwise unsatisfactory deposit produced by the application of excessive current density and usually containing oxides or other inclusions.

Burr:

A wire like sliver formed by blade wear.

Burst:

Machine direction, an irregular separation or rupture in the web in the machine direction that may be evident as the web continues to unwind.

Burst Perfect Bind:

To bind by forcing glue into notches along the spines of gathered signatures before affixing a paper cover. Also called burst bind, notch bind and slotted bind.

Butt:

Joining images without overlapping.

Butt Register:

Register where ink colors meet precisely without overlapping or allowing space between, as compared to lap register. Also called butt fit and kiss register.

Butt Splice

Formed by trimming the ends of two webs of paper, placing them end-to-end, and pasting a strip over and under to make a continuous web without overlapping.