Printing is one of those industries with a lot of terms to know!  Bleeds, trim size, full ink coverage, 4-color, 4/0, 4/4, lamination…. It goes on and on. Not to mention those elusive paper terms like text paper, cover paper, PPI, basis weight, etc…

To help out our first time authors, we put together a quick reference guide of commonly used terms in the book printing industry:

Binding : Any finishing operation following the printing including cutting, collating, folding, drilling and other finishing operations.

Bleed : Any element that extends past the edge of the printed piece.

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

Casewrap or case binding: A type of binding used in making hard cover books with adhesive.

Crop marks: Small printed lines around the edges of a printed piece indicating where it is to be cut out of the sheet.

4 color process :