Label Printing and Printers Glossary
The wholesale label printing glossary resource for all of your questions.
A - D E - H I - L M - P Q - T U - Z All
EDM: Electronic Discharge Machining Process for removing metal - as in rotary dies.
Edge Lift: The tendency of the edge of a label to rise off the surface of the substrate. This condition occurs most frequently on small diameter curved surfaces. Resistance to edge lift is dependent on the bond strength of the adhesive and the flexibility of the face stock. (Butterflying, Wing Up).
EDM Die: Die produced using Electronic Discharge Machining.
EDP: Electronic Data Processing - Pressure sensitive labels, usually blank, for use on computer printing equipment. Webs are usually perforated, fanfolded and hole-punched ( "line holes" ) for pin-wheel feeding.
Elongation: The distance a material will stretch lengthwise before breaking, expresses as a percentage of original length. Elongation is not necessarily an indication of conformability.
Emboss: Pressing an image into paper so that it will create a raised relief.
Embossed: Condition in which the image is raised above the surface.
Emulsion Adhesive: A dispersion of fine particles or globules in another liquid. Many P.S. adhesives are emulsion systems.
Emulsion: Light sensitive coating found on printing plates and film.
Engraving: A general term normally applied to any pattern which has been cut into or incised into a surface by hand, mechanical or etching process.
Eurobind: A patented method of binding perfect bound books so they will open and lay flatter.
Eye Mark: A small rectangular printing area usually located near the edge of a web or design, to activate an automatic electronic position regulator for controlling register or the printed design with subsequent equipment or operations.
Face-Cut Label: Any pressure sensitive label where the face material is cut to the liner.
Face Material: Any paper, film, fabric, laminate or foil material suitable for converting into pressure sensitive label stock. In the finished construction, this web is bonded to the adhesive layer and becomes the functional part of the construction.
Face Slit: A slit in the face material of a pressure sensitive product to facilitate removal from the backing.
Facsimile Transmission: The process of converting graphic images into electronic signals.
Feed Slots: Round or rectangular holes or slits put in pressure sensitive label stock to maintain the register of pressure sensitive labels while they are being printed or imprinted.
Film: Acetate, polyester, polyethylene, polypropylene, vinyl, and other polymeric materials used as face stocks.
Film Rip: See Rip film.
Finish: The surface property of a paper or film determined by its texture and gloss. A gloss finish, for example, can be shiny and highly reflective, while a matte finish is generally dull and reflects little light.
First Read Rate: The percentage representing the number of successful reads per 100 attempts.
Fish Eyes: Round or oval deformations in an adhesive, coating or ink.
Flat: An assembly of negatives taped to masking materials for platemaking.
Flat Pack: A continuous web folded at a cross perforation at regular intervals. See fan fold.
Flex: Another term for deflection of rolls or cylinders in press. Also, bending qualities or characteristics of any material, including printing substrates.
Flexibility: Property of face stock material that indicates how readily it conforms to curved surfaces.
Flexing: Condition that can occur on a die when the die circumference is less than the width of the cross-blades. Causes the center of the cross-blades to fail to cut properly and consistently.
Flexographic Printing: Method of rotary printing which employs flexible plates, rotary die cutting, rapid-drying inks, in-line laminating and other converting operations.
Flood: To cover a printed page with ink, varnish, or plastic coating.
Flop: The reverse side of an image.
Fluorescent Paper: A paper that is coated with fluorescent pigment which not only reflects a visible wavelength, but is activated by most of the remaining absorbed light to re-emit it as color of a longer wavelength which results in reinforcement of the reflected color.
Foil: A metallic or pigmented coating on plastic sheets or rolls used in foil stamping and foil embossing.
Foil Emboss: Foil stamping and embossing a image on paper with a die.
Foil Paper Laminate: A foil laminate to a sheet of paper used as a face stock. The foil is usually topcoated to improve ink receptivity.
Foil Stamping: Using a die to place a metallic or pigmented image on paper.
Food Contact Adhesives: Adhesives meeting specified sections of the Food & Drug Administration Code of Federal Regulations. These regulations cover direct food labeling as well as incidental contact. Special product recommendations are necessary for specific applications.
4-Color-Process: The process of combining four basic colors to create a printed color picture or colors composed from the basic four colors, yellow, magenta and cyan inks plus black, using screens to create full color images.
Freezer Adhesives: Adhesives that can be applied and will function at temperatures below the freezing point. They are usually removable at room temperature.
French Fold: Two folds at right angles to each other.
Galley Proof: Text copy before it is put into a mechanical layout or desktop layout.
Gang: Getting the most out of a printing press by using the maximum sheet size to print multiple images or jobs on the same sheet. A way to save money.
Gear Chart: A handy reference compilation of the various printing lengths, or repeats obtainable within the different gearing systems.
Generation: Stages of reproduction from original copy. A first generation reproduction yields the best quality.
Ghost Bars: A quality control method used to reduce ghosted image created by heat or chemical contamination.
Ghosting: A faint printed image that appears on a printed sheet where it was not intended. More often than not this problem is a function of graphical design. It is hard to tell when or where ghosting will occur. Sometimes you can see the problem developing immediately after printing the sheet, other times the problem occurs while drying. However the problem occurs it is costly to fix, if it can be fixed. Occasionally it can be eliminated by changing the color sequence, the inks, the paper, changing to a press with a drier, printing the problem area in a separate pass through the press or changing the racking (reducing the number of sheets on the drying racks). Since it is a function of graphical design, the buyer pays for the increased cost.
Glassine: Super calendered, smooth, dense, transparent or translucent paper manufactured primarily from chemical wood pulps which have been beaten to secure a high degree of hydration of the stock. Sometimes used as a backing paper.
Gloss: Characteristics of the surface which causes it to reflect light at a given angle.
Grain: The direction in which the paper fiber lie.
Gram: Unit of weight in the metric system; the weight of one cubic centimeter of water at standard conditions. 28.35 grams equal one ounce.
Gravure Printing: Intaglio printing process employing minute engraved "cells" which carry the ink to the printing surface. Rotogravure employs etched cylinders and webfed stock. Sheetfed gravure, as the name implies, involves individual sheet feeding.
Grippers: The metal fingers on a printing press that hold the paper as it passes through the press.
Guard Bars: The bars that are at both ends and center of UPC and EAN symbols. They provide reference points for scanning.
Hairline: A very thin line or gap about the width of a hair or 1/100 inch.
Halftone: Converting a continuous tone to dots for printing.
Hang Tag: A term used to describe fold-over labels generally used for product identification. These products usually 'hang' in the retail marketplace.
Hard Copy: The output of a computer printer, or typed text sent for typesetting.
Hardness: Degree of hardness. Shore and Rockwell being two scales used to measure and compare hardness.
Heat Resistance: Property of a material which inhibits the occurrence of physical or chemical changes caused by exposure to high temperatures.
Heat Seal: Label paper that has a plastic coating which melts under heat to form the bonding agent.
Heavy Coat Weight: A higher-than-standard weight of coating per unit area.
Hickey: Reoccurring unplanned spots that appear in the printed image from dust, lint, dried ink.
High-Bulk Paper: A paper made thicker than its standard basis weight.
Highlight: The lightest areas in a picture or halftone.
Holding Power: Ability to withstand stress, as in holding rigid label materials on small diameter cylindrical objects. Involves both adhesive and cohesive strength.
Hot Melt Adhesives: Thermoplastic materials with 100% solids that liquefy when heated and resolidify on cooling to form a bond with the face sheet the adhesive was applied to and a pressure sensitive lamination which includes a release coated backing sheet.
Hot Stamping: A printing process in which the image is transferred to a label material by a combination of heat and pressure.