Commercial Printing: Some Terms for your Vocabulary

Do something often enough and it is sure that you will eventually learn the language of the trade. Just like any other industry, the commercial printing industry also has its own words and terminologies that are most often used in day-to-day operation of commercial printing companies. However, as a customer, it is highly unlikely that you would need to be aware of the entire dictionary of these words, and you would most likely be able to survive commercial printing business transactions even if you knew only some of the words. Still, it is a good idea to familiarize yourself with the words, and the following is a list of entirely random words that would help you do just that.

Commercial Printing. These two words taken together form the foundation of the marketing strategies of many companies all over the world. Simply put, is the process of contracting a professional company to perform all of your wide-scale printing needs for a certain fee and within a certain time period. If there is one term that a customer should need to understand completely, then it is this one.

Perforations. Perforations are holes or slits that are placed on the printing medium or paper in order to make it easier for a customer to separate or tear off unwanted or special portions of the commercially printed material. Some examples of products that contain perforations are raffle tickets, certain business cards, and specially made greeting cards.

Proofs. These are samples of what the final outputs and products are supposed to turn out as. Proofs may either be actual or electronic, depending on the capability of the commercial printing company as well as the customer. Proofs are invaluable assets that enable customers and commercial printers to spot and correct errors before the final printing phases begin. As a customer, make sure to always examine these samples closely so that you would be saved the trouble of improvising fixes to mistakes or reprinting batches entirely.

Stock. This is a collective term used to refer to the printing medium to be used in the commercial printing process. To be more specific, stocks are used mostly to refer to paper and its different characteristics. Things like texture, gloss, cut size, color, and other such characteristics refer to entire stocks of paper and not merely individual sheets.

Watermark. In commercial printing, customers have the option of placing watermarks on their commercial printing products. In order to be unobtrusive to the entire design of the product, these markings are mostly translucent and are generally in the background. Some uses of watermarks are for denoting ownership and originality within certain pieces of print.

Here are but five out of the hundreds and even thousands of words that relevant to commercial printing. If you want to get a head start on your commercial printing vocabulary, these five are as good as any other words to start with. Perhaps one day you will be able to approach a commercial printing company and surprise and impress them with your extensive knowledge on commercial printing terms, but until that day you better stick with a dictionary.

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