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The Heidelberg website glossary explains, in alphabetical order, a multitude of terms relevant to printing, as well as some terms used in Heidelberg's product catalogue.

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Pad printing

Pad printing is an indirect gravure process where a flexible (often semi-spherical) pad of silicon rubber is used as a medium for transferring the ink from the plate to the surface to be printed. This method can be used to print a great diversity of irregularly shaped objects.

Page View

a.k.a. page requests -or- page impression. The number of times a Web page is requested from a server. This is the preferred counting method for traffic measurement (instead of hits) because it only counts documents, not individual files. A single HTML page is counted as one page impression.

Pagina

Page numbering.

Pantone colors

Pantone colors are based on a system of standard colors used worldwide which Pantone, Inc., Carlstadt/New Jersey, originally a printshop, introduced for the graphic arts industry in 1963. The system is based on 512 reference color tones which are mixed from eight basic colors, black and white and are printed on coated and uncoated paper. Today, there are over 1,100 Pantone colors available on a broad range of papers. Pantone has also published color systems for textiles, plastics, paints and film/video.

Paperboard

Paperboard has a grammage higher than paper, but lower than cardboard. A distinction is made between single-layer and multilayer board. In the U.S., often called cover paper.

Papyrus

Papyrus is a writing material in roll, sheet or book form, which is made from a giant sedge, Cyperus papyrus. The pith is sliced into strips that are laid out in a row with the edges slightly overlapping. Another row is laid crosswire on top of the first. Next, the two layers are moistened with water and pounded into a sheet of writing material, smoothed and then dried. Papyrus was used as a writing material by the Egyptians since the beginning of the third century B.C. Papyrus was produced in Egypt in large quantities and was transported throughout the ancient world to the Greeks and Romans since the 2nd century A.D. Papyrus was largely replaced by parchment and from the 10th century onwards paper began to take over. The papal offices however continued to use Papyrus till the 11th Century. Papyrus is very durable.

PARC

Established in 1970,the Palo Alto Research Center –or PARC for short –run by the Xerox Corporation in California has had a decisive influence on the development of computer technology right up to today. Among other things, this research institute developed the graphic user interface used on Macintosh and Windows computers, the first commercially available computer mouse, the Ethernet network technology, the client server architecture, object-oriented programming and the laser printer.

PCL

PCL is an abbreviation of Printer Command Language, and is the language used to control computer printers. Introduced in the 1980s by computer manufacturers Hewlett-Packard and under constant development ever since, PCL allows application programs to control the functions of different printers in a standardized, efficient manner. PCL commands are embedded in the data flow of the print job. Compared to the Postscript page description language developed by Adobe, PCL is usually faster and requires less memory. However, the functionality of this language is less general in scope, which means that it is not suitable for all output devices.

PDF

PDF is the abbreviation for what is known as the Portable Document Format. Developed by software manufacturer Adobe Systems Inc. in the USA, this data format is used for exchanging and processing electronically stored, formatted documents with text and images, independently of the hardware and software used. One of the special features is that texts and graphics are stored in vector form, meaning that the resolution of their representation is dependently solely on the output device (monitor, printer). PDF files can generally by recognized by the ".pdf" file name suffix. They can be created using the Adobe Acrobat program. The Acrobat Reader is available free for displaying and printing PDF files.

Perfecting machine

A perfecting machine generally takes the form of a sheetfed press which prints the sheets on both sides in a single run (recto and verso).

Personalize or personalization

To customize your computer screen or a Web site so that it reflects something about your individual tastes.

Perfect Binder

Perfect Binder is the name given to a series of automatic book-binding machines from C.P. Bourg S.A., from Ottignies, Belgium. They are also intended to augment digital printing systems, and can be used in conjunction with e.g. the Digimaster 9110 from Heidelberg AG. The maximum throughput for these book-binding machines ranges from 200 to 2000 books per hour. The minimum and maximum dimensions for book covers and book blocks vary depending on the machine type. The maximum book thickness varies between 45 and 60 mm.

Personalized printing

Personalized printing refers to processes where to a certain degree the individual copies in a print run have distinctive imprints. A minimum requirement for personalized printing is a digital printing process for the individual imprints, which allows the printing data to vary from copy to copy. One common application of this process is the inclusion of the name and/or address of the recipient on the printed product.

Photocomposition

The first fundamentally new typesetting technology since the invention of letterpress printing by Johannes Gutenberg, photocomposition does not use solid forms for depicting the characters. Instead, the set text is created on photographic film. Older machines did this by imaging the characters visually with a flashlight from a negative original (which was generally rotating) or from a very bright screen (cathode ray tube) onto the film. The move to computer setting is marked by the lasersetter which, like the laser printer, uses a laser beam to write the text – but also images and other design elements – directly onto the film or a printing plate.

Photoshop

Photoshop, from Adobe Systems Inc., is the leading software package for digital image manipulation in DTP applications. It is available for Macintosh computers and Windows PCs.

Pica

A type size used in the Anglo-Saxon world and corresponds to 12 points.

Picking resistance

Also known as sizing strength. Picking resistance refers to the amount of force necessary to separate particles from the surface of the paper as it moves vertically. Picking resistance is a key criterion for offset-printing applications.

Pixel

A pixel – an abbreviation for picture element – is the computer term for an image dot, i.e. the smallest unit of a digitally displayed image. The memory required by an image consisting of pixels is determined by the size of the image, its resolution, i.e. the number of pixels per unit of area, and the number of colors to be displayed.

Pixel format

The format for storing image data where, for a given resolution, every pixel in the image is represented by the appropriate data. Image processing programs such as Photoshop use the pixel format, the most common being TIFF (Tagged Image File Format). The pixel format is most suitable for real images, but, depending on the quality of the image, this requires a very large amount of memory.

Polaroid

As a method of producing finished photographs inside the camera itself, the Polaroid process was the first major development in photography since the genre was invented. It works on the basis of developer substances in paste form, which are distributed over the imaged film after a photograph has been taken and act on the film by diffusion.The Polaroid method was invented by Edwin Herbert Land (b. May 7, 1909, Bridgeport, Connecticut; d. March 1, 1991, Cambridge, Massachusetts). He founded the Polaroid Corporation in 1937, and launched the first Polaroid Land camera, the model 95, in 1947. This camera produced a black-and-white paper image measuring 83 x 108 mm around one minute after the photograph had been taken. The millionth instant camera was sold in 1956. The first Polaroid color camera was launched in 1963. Digital cameras have now taken the place of the Polaroid camera, whose manufacturer declared bankruptcy at the end of 2001.

Pop-up advertising

Pop-up advertisements are a method of Internet advertising. They are windows which appear directly on the computer screen. The advertisement is loaded into a new browser window which opens automatically when a web page is called up. It may hide part of the content of the web page. The Internet user can close the window by clicking the mouse. Pop-up windows can be created in various sizes and can use different formats.

Pop-up Window

A new window that suddenly appears on your computer screen is referred to as a "pop-up window." You'll see one, for example, when you open a new program, when you switch from program to program and when you use a drop-down menu. Likewise, a Web browser may launch a second browser that pops-up in the form of a mini-window on your computer screen and is used mainly for advertising.

Poster paper

Poster paper is uncoated and features special properties that allow it to soften before being posted, facilitate gluing, and add weather resistance. This woodfree, water-resistant, heavily sized stock can remain folded in water for a limited amount of time without loss of print integrity.

Postpress

Umbrella term for all processing operations performed on the printed product after the actual printing process, e.g. folding, binding, trimming, packaging.

Postprint

The word "postprint" is an alternative term for "finishing" and encompasses the operations that take place after the print run and result in the finished printed product.

PostScript

PostScript is a page description language developed by the software manufacturer Adobe Systems Inc. which has become a quasi-standard in the digital prepress stage. It describes documents largely independently of the device used, so that for instance the resolution of an image is not defined until the output device. The more recent PostScript 2 offers, among other things, improved colorimetric facilities, since the reference color space is integrated in accordance with the CIE standard. The latest version, PostScript 3, also improves the way in which colors and three-dimensional objects are displayed and supports trapping of graphic objects.

Primary pulps

The raw materials for paper manufacture, removed from virgin forest products by mechanical means (woodpulp) or a chemical process (chemical pulp).

Primary colors

Primary colors are the basic colors of a color system, which are used to mix all other renderable color tones. The primary colors are cyan, magenta and yellow (black functions only as an auxiliary color for the technical aspects of printing)in the CMYK system, and red, green and blue in the RGB system.

Printability

Printability covers a range of paper properties affecting print results: gloss, smoothness, whiteness, opacity, etc.

Printing on demand

This term denotes a work process where instead of producing a large print run of a specific product, smaller partial print runs are printed on demand, sometimes only a few copies. Printing on demand has been made possible thanks to digital printing, which allows you to print directly from the prepress data, without having to produce printing forms or set up printing presses.

Program paper

A flabby, generally woodfree paper made from chemical pulp derived from the soft leaves of hardwood trees. Allows noiseless page-turning.

Progressive proofs

When using a proof to check quality, progressive proofs are used to assess the colors on the printing stock. In 4c printing, the four process colors cyan, magenta, yellow and black are printed both alone and in various combinations on a small area.

Proof

A proof is a single print of an original which serves as a definitive means of verifying the layout and color for subsequent printing. In analog proof procedures (Dry-Match, Press-Match etc.) the proof is created from ready imaged films; this largely corresponds to the subsequent printing result. In digital proofing, the page composed on the computer is output on a color printer. This proof is more cost-effective, as it does not require the use of film. However in this case the imaging procedure remains untested.

Pulp

Paper pulp consists of cellulose fibers extracted chemically from plant materials-mainly wood, though annuals as used as well.

PUR binding

The PUR method of binding books and brochures uses polyurethane adhesive. It is processed hot and hardens by cooling. The bond is then impervious to heat. PUR adhesive binding is a particularly high-quality method that is ideal for high-use products such as trade show catalogs and for difficult types of paper.

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