B

blacklash

Lost motion when equipment reverses travel direction input signals produce no change in output position

blackletter

Class of typefaces that are very ornate and complex. They are sometimes refered to as Old English, Text, or Gothic. It is the style of text used by scribes throughout Latin Christendom during the Middle Ages. In Germany they were used until World War II.

Blackletter typefaces can be difficult to read which is why they are only used for stuff like invitations, announcements, diplomas, certificates, or initial caps at the beginning of chapters.

black line

- the practice of lawyers underlining changes in contracts.
- a type of monochrome one-sided proof, also called a Dylux.

black printer

The plate made during the prepress printing process that is used with the cyan, magenta and yellow printers to enhance the contrast and to emphasize the neutral tones and the details in the final reproduction shadow areas

blanket

a rubber surface cylinder on offset presses that receives and transfers the inked image from plate to paper

bleed

- extending an image beyond the finished trim size so that the image runs right to the end of the printed sheet after trimming and binding
- image areas of a sheet or page. When trimmed, the image ‘bleeds’ off the page or sheet

blend

Smooth transition from one colour to another or from one tint to another.

blind

An impression of an uninked image

blind debossing

A strong letterpress impression of an uninked image on the front surface of a sheet of paper. The image is recessed.

blind embossing

A design which is stamped without metallic leaf or ink, giving a bas-relief effect.

blind folio

A page number that is not printed on the page.

blind image

An image that has lost its ink receptivity and fails to print.

blinding

- In offset printing blinding is the problem of printing plates losing their ink receptivity. This is typically caused by an excessively acidic fountain solution that damages or eats away the image areas of the plate.
- In editorial workflows blinding refers to the process of  making sure that a reviewer does not see who the author of an article or book is. This can be important to guarantee objective reviewing of scientific publications.

blistering

Although seemingly dry, paper does contain approximately 5% moisture. In cases where there is excessive moisture, and the paper is passed through a high heat-drying chamber, the moisture within the paper actually boils and causes a bubble or blistering effect.

block

- In computers, a group of characters, digits or words that can be handled as a unit.
- Illustrations or line art etched onto zinc or copper plates and used in letterpress printing.

block in

To sketch the primary areas and points of reference of an illustration in preparation for going to final design or production.

block resistance

The resistance of coated papers to blocking

blocking

The adhesion of one coated sheet to another, causing paper tears or particles of the coating to shed away from the paper surface.

blocking out

To mask a section of an art layout before reproduction.

block quote

A long quotation (four lines or more lines) within body text, that is set apart in order to clearly distinguish the author’s words from the words that the author is quoting.

blow-up

An enlarged image

blue

- Describes the colour of a clear sky
- A primary color of light
- A portion of the color spectrum aligned between green and violet
- In printing, a secondary color resulting in over printing dots of cyan and magenta process color inks.

blueline (proof)

A monochrome proof that is generated from film and used to check the layout and positioning of pages on a signature. The blue color was originally chosen to prevent reproduction or use for something besides a proof.

blurb

A short description or commentary of a book or author on the book jacket.

BM

Abbreviation for Back Matter – special pages at the end of a book including the appendixes or the index.

BMP

Abbreviation for BitMaP – A graphic file format for Windows that is not really suitable for prepress use.

BNC

Abbreviation for British National Connector – A connector used for coaxial cabling, like older types of EtherNet networks.

Board

Paper of more than 200 gsm.

body

- The main shank or portion of the letter character other than the ascenders and descenders.
- A term used to define the thickness or viscosity of printer’s ink.

body height

The height of a lowercase letter ‘x’, also called the x-height.

body size

The point size of a particular type character. Sometimes instead of the point size the x-height is used.

body type

Generally 6 to 14 point size type is used for regular reading matter, depending on the readability of the typeface

boldface or bold type

- A heavier weight version of typeface, generally used for emphasis, indicated as “BF”
- A type style that is heavier, thicker and blacker than the regular typeface, generally used for emphasis. Bold can be in italic format as well as roman.

bolts

The edges of folded sheets of paper, which are trimmed off in the final stages of production.

bond

Paper of a higher quality finish often used for business correspondence. It has a standard size of 17×22 inches.

book

- A general classification to describe papers used to print books; its standard size is 25×38 inches.
- A printed work which contains more than 64 pages.

book block

A term given the unfinished stage of bookmaking when the pages are folded, gathered and stitched-in but not yet cover bound.

border

A continuous decorative design or rule surrounding the matter on the page.

Botticelli

Florentine painter (1445-1510) who has nothing to do with prepress but whose painting of The Birth of Venus (1482-84) is used by Adobe as artwork for their Illustrator drawing program. Corel later copied this idea when they used a picture of Hedy Lamarr for Corel Draw.

bounce

- A registration problem, usually on copiers, where the image appears to bounce back and forth. A bounce usually occurs in one direction depending on how the paper is passing through the machine. This is
usually accented by card stock (especially if it’s over the machine’s spec).
- When a customer refuses a job for whatever reason.

bounding box

In a page description language, such as Postscript, the defined rectangular area within an image is contained

bow

An image distortion caused by misalignment of the scanner head scanning axis with respect to the cylindrical drum axis

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