A text-based page description language that describes how to handle both text and graphics for printing.

A water-based lacquer applied as a coating for protection and appearance.

Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and black—the four colors used in most color commercial printing. When printed using transparent inks, the three subtractive primaries—cyan, magenta and yellow—act as individual filters to transmit and absorb light reflected from the surface of the paper to create the colors seen by the eye. Intermediate colors—colors other than the subtractive primaries—are formed by laying one film of ink over another. Black is added to enhance the depth and extend the tonal range of all hues.

Dot gain is the tendency for all printing dots—halftone, stochastic or hybrid—to grow larger on-press, a part of every printing process. Dot gain occurs at all tonal values, but is most visible in the midtones and in the deep shadows. Dot gain is either real (gains that result from printing processes) or perceived or “optical.” Optical dot gain is the result of an optical illusion; although it is not physically present, its illusion is, and its gain must be considered).

Dots—or lines—per inch, the measure of the size of the dots used in conventional halftone screens, with higher numbers representing finer screens. Most commercial printing today relies on 150- or 175-line screens.

Frequency modulation. Used in printing to refer to stochastic printing techniques in which the number of dots, and sometimes their size as well, is changed to reproduce the different tones and colors in a continuous tone image, with relatively more, closely spaced dots used to reproduce dark areas and relatively fewer, more widely spaced dots used to reproduce light areas. (Compare to AM)

Dots—or lines—per inch, the measure of the size of the dots used in conventional halftone screens, with higher numbers representing finer screens. Most commercial printing today relies on 150- or 175-line screens.

The correct positioning of an image with regard to the edges of paper and other printing on the same sheet, especially when printing one color on another.

A gridwork of fine lines or dots, opaque and distinct from one another, used to produce halftone images. Halftone screens come in a variety of rulings as measured by the number of crosshair lines per square inch.

A family of printing techniques in which continuous tone-like images are reproduced using micro dots of all the same size, with variable spacing between the dots (first-order stochastic printing) or variably-sized dots and variable spacing between the dots (second-order stochastic printing). Identified by a number of trade names, including Staccato®, Diamond™ and others. Also see FM printing

The dry or liquid inks used in digital printing systems, which range from desktop copiers to large digital presses. Toners are applied differently than conventional inks and behave differently, too. With their large pigment particles, dry toner-based systems typically cannot print at the high resolutions available with the best offset printing. Liquid toners behave more like conventional inks than dry toners, but often take more time to dry and harden.

The production of promotional materials using digital printing that allows for text and images to be changed based on information about the recipient stored in a database.