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Sometimes
the technical jargon of printing can be confusing. Here's
a quick primer of common terms you might find in our website.
 Glossary of Terms:
FTP - File Transfer Protocol - A commonly used
means to transfer large files over the internet.
DPI - Dots Per Inch - A measure of resolution by the number of
pixels per inch. Also know as PPI (pixels per inch).
PPI - Pixels Per Inch - A measure of resolution by the number of
pixels per inch. Also know as DPI (dots per inch).
CMYK - Cyan/Magenta/Yellow/Black
- The color method used for print media.
RGB - Red/Green/Blue - The color method
used for monitor screens and lcd displays.
4/0 - An abbreviation that states a print
product is one-sided full color: The four colors of CMYK
are on one side (4) and there are no colors on the back
side (0).
4/1 - An abbreviation that states a print product is full
color with the four colors of CMYK on one side (4) and
one color on the other side, usually black (1).
4/4 - An abbreviation
that states a print product is double-sided full color:
The four colors of CMYK are on both sides (4/4).
AI - Adobe Illustrator - Adobe Illustrator's
native file extension.
PSD - Photoshop Document - Adobe Photoshop's
native file extension.
JPG or JPEG - Joint Photographers Expert
Group - Developed for compressing and decompressing digitized
photos. Use this file type for photographic imagery intended
for the Internet. It supports 24 bits of color information,
and is most commonly used for photographs and similar
continuous-tone bitmap images. Most imaging applications
and plug-ins let you determine the amount of compression
used when saving a graphic in the JPEG format. Unlike
GIF, JPEG does not support transparency. If used for offset
printing, make sure resolution is at least 300dpi and
compression quality was set to high.
EPS - Encapsulated Postscript - EPS or
vector graphics are resolution independent, meaning that
you can enlarge them any number of times without having
their resolution deteriorate. Vector images give you crisp,
clean lines at any size. They don't, however, look as
nice on screen as bitmap graphics do. If you have an illustration
program like Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand or
Corel Draw you can import and edit the images. Regardless
of how they look on screen, EPS images print beautifully
to a Postscript printer. The EPS file format can be used
on a variety of platforms, including Macintosh and Windows.
When you place an EPS image into a document, you can scale
it up or down without information loss. Use this file
type for vector graphics from drawing programs and multi-channel
images from Photoshop such as duotones and clipping paths.
EPS files can be graphics or images of whole pages that
include text, font, graphic, and page layout information.
This format contains PostScript information and should
be used when printing to a PostScript output device.
TIF or TIFF - Tagged Image File Format
- TIF or raster graphics are bitmapped graphics. Raster
images are best used for images such as photographs or
paint style graphics. They are versatile and can be imported
into most software but their biggest disadvantage is that
they are resolution dependent. Bitmapped graphics can
be reduced in size successfully but if you try to enlarge
them you will be subject to serious deterioration. TIF
files can be black-and-white, grayscale, or color bitmapped-images,
particularly those produced by scanners. This format generally
does not compress the size of the image file significantly
unless the image is scanned in line art mode. TIF files
have better resolution and are good for outputs such as
RGB and CMYK. The TIF format is the most common file format
considered a “safe” format that is very stable,
widely supported, cross-platform and rarely causes problems
during output. Use this file type for scanned images or
photos intended for offset printing
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