This glossary of printing terms was created by people working in today's printing industry and is brought to you by MirPrint.com . It has been revised and edited and we have rewritten some technical descriptions in every day language to help the non technical person. Any suggestions that you may have on how we can improve this glossary will be carefully considered. Please send your comments and any new definitions to us at MirPrint.com.

• Tabloid

  In newspaper publishing, a page size of a newspaper corresponding to 11 inches wide by 15 or 17 inches long, or roughly half the size of a standard size newspaper. As tabloid size paper was often used to print so-called "scandal sheets," the term "tabloid" itself has come to refer ...   Read More

• Tag

  Grade of dense, strong paper used for products such as badges and file folders. ...   Read More

• Tagged Image File Format

  Tagged Image File Format (abbreviated TIFF) is a file format for storing images, including photographs and line art. It is as of 2009 under the control of Adobe Systems. Originally created by the company Aldus[1] for use with what was then called "desktop publishing", the TIFF format is widely supported ...   Read More

• Target Ink Densities

  This term refers to the density of CMYK as recommended for various printing processes and grades of paper. See also Total Area Coverage. ...   Read More

• Template

  In page layout, a background grid, image, or shape used to indicate where page elements are to be inserted. Templates are used to define the default page layout for a publication. In computer-based page layout, templates are created digitally, and function much like the non-reproducible blue lines drawn on mechanicals, ...   Read More

• Text Paper

  A paper grade that offers highly aesthetic yet functional papers with a variety of colors, textures, surfaces, and finishes. Text papers can be wood-pulp or cotton-content paper. Text papers are elegant and durable, and are used for programs, menus, annual reports, advertising circulars, announcements, etc. The basic size of text paper ...   Read More

• Thermography

  This is a printing process designed to simulate raised printing by dusting the wet printed ink film with a resin-based powder and fusing the resin particles together with heat to produce a raised effect. ...   Read More

• Thumbnails

  A Thumbnail is a small, crude sketch of a proposed page layout, usually generated in bunches during the brainstorming phase of design. Used primarily to seek approval as to which design warrants further development. A slightly more finalized layout sketch is known as a rough. ...   Read More

• Tint

  In printing, an alternate term for flat tint. The term tint is also occasionally used as an alternate term for spot color. In subtractive color theory, tint refers to a primary hue to which some quantity of white pigment has been added. The term tint is also an alternate term for ...   Read More

• Total Area Coverage

  In halftone photography and reproduction, the total surface area of a press sheet or color separation negative occupied by halftone dots. Often incorrectly known as total density (it's not really a measure of density). ...   Read More

• Touch Plate

  A Touch Plate is a means of adding extra-trinary colors to process color printing. A touch plate consists of a plate of a special color beyond the traditional cyan, magenta, or yellow. Touch plates are used to reproduce a color which is out of the gamut of CMY mixing, used ...   Read More

• Trade Shop

  A Trade Shop is a printer or bindery working primarily for other graphic arts professionals. Trade Shops do not typically offer their services to the general public. ...   Read More

• Trap

  In multi-color printing, an allowance of overlap for two colors printed adjacent to each other, as a means of compensating for misregister and to avoid gaps between colors. In typography, an indentation cut into the intersection of strokes on a letter, particularly in early photographic typesetting and especially when setting bold ...   Read More

• Trim Size

  The ultimate, desired size of a printed piece, which may or may not be a standard size, but is often arrived at by trimming the printed sheets following printing. ...   Read More