This dictionary covers design, prepress and printing topics.
It was created with the help of Stan Schwartz.

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K-L-M-N-O-P-Q-R-S-T-U-V-W-X-Y-Z

GAA
Abbreviation for the Gravure Association of America, an organization dedicated to the advancement and dissemination of information for the gravure industry.
galley
A long shallow tray to hold metal type composition.

galley proof
A proof taken from a galley of metal type.

galleys
A continuous roll of typeset text that is used for proofreading and is not yet assembled into pages. Now that most typesetting systems are able to compose complete pages, galleys in the true form are becoming rare. However, sheets of text output from a device, such as a laser printer, used for proofreading and not yet assembled into final pages are often called galley sheets or galleys.

gamma
- The computer number that denotes contrast, represented by the Greek letter y.
- The contrast in photographic images.

gamma correction
A modification of the tone curves to change the contrast of a reproduction. Gamma correction does what some people misinterpret as color correction because it changes middletone and clean up the picture.

gamut
The range of colors that a device can reproduce or capture. The human eye has the widest gamut, printing presses have a far narrower gamut.

gamut compression
The process of squeezing the color space represented in an image to one that can be reproduced in a second image generation, such as ink on paper, a direct digital color proof, etc.

gamut mapping
The process of color matching in which differences in color gamuts between the source device and the target device are taken into consideration. There are different types of gamut mapping:

• perceptive mapping in which most or all of the colors are altered but the relationship between the colors is maintained. Because the human eye is very sensitive to the relationship between colors, such a remapping does not give the visual impression that all colors changed.
• absolute colorimetric mapping in which colors that cannot be mapped to the target color gamut (because they do not exist in that model) are lost. These colors are simply clipped.
• relative colorimetric mapping in which colors that cannot be mapped to the target color gamut (because they do not exist in that model) are replaced within the target gamut, preserving the lightness and hue of the colors
• saturation mapping, in which all colors are scaled to the brightest saturation possible

gang printing
Running off any number of different jobs on the same sheet. After printing, the sheet is cut into individual jobs and the cost pro-rated.

gateway
A network device that can connect two networks in which different protocols are used.

GATF
Abbreviation for the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, an organization located in Pittsburgh, PA, dedicated to improving quality in the graphic arts through testing and education. GATF distribute a range of color quality control devices and publications.

GB
abbreviation for GigaByte or GigaBit. A lower case “b” should indicate gigabit but not everybody sticks to this convention. A gigabyte are 1073741824 bytes.

GCA
Abbreviation for Graphic Communications Association, a subgroup of the Printing Industries of America. It is now called IDEAlliance (International Digital Enterprise Alliance), a non-for-profit membership organization whose mission it is to advance user-driven, cross-industry solutions for all publishing and content-related processes by developing standards, fostering business alliances, and identifying best practices.

GCR
Abbreviation for Gray Component Replacement: a technique that replaces black ink by its equivalent portion of cyan, magenta and yellow, mainly in the neutral or desaturated parts of an image.

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