Glossary

Amaray Case
Standard format for DVD packaging. Comes in clear (milky), black and other colours on request.

Bleed
An area (minimum 3mm) you need to leave around the outside of your final design to ensure that the artwork fits right to the edge of the page and that when the print is cut and folded there are no white lines left around the edge of the print.

Camera Ready Artwork
Refers to artwork that needs no alteration and is ready to go to print.

CD-R
Stands for Compact Disc Recordable. This is a special type of recordable CD. Information can be burnt onto the disc using a CD-R burner. They can be used as masters for manufacturing runs of CD's, cassettes and vinyl. They can also be manufactured in short runs. Please call a member of our sales team for a quote.

Cromalin
A Cromalin is a direct photographic process used to proof your artwork. Cromalins have been surpassed in recent years by digi proofs (see below), they can be expensive.

CMYK / Process colours
Cyan, magenta, yellow and black are CMYK also known as the 4 process colours. The colour images on your booklet and sleeves are made by combining these 4 colours. Variations in percentages of each colour applied to a specific print area make up the full spectrum of colours.

CTP
(Computer To Plate). Printing directly from digital artwork to plates, omitting films from the traditional printing process.

Digital editing
At the mastering stage from your production master we can edit your audio programme (Editing includes fades at the end of your audio programme, taking sectio ns of a programme and correcting certain imperfections etc). This can be done at our in house studio Sound Generation.

DMM
Direct Metal Master, an alternative to a lacquer when cutting vinyl. DMM gives a higher mid and high frequency response, where as lacquer (see below) gives a warmer sound, with increased bass frequencies. DMM is used a lot in classical and jazz music.

Digi-Proof
This is a direct copy of your artwork printed out from your supplied High Resolution PDF files, they are used to make sure that the colours are correct and that the correct fonts, text and images are in place. There is however a +/-20% correction ratio on colours and should not be used for colour verification alone.

Digi style Pack
Cardboard packaging to hold CDs/DVDs with clear or coloured tray to hold one CD, or multiple trays to hold any number thereof.

DPI
Dots per Inch

EQing
An EQ is the balance of bass, middle and treble sounds at any point in an audio programme. If you require a particular aspect of EQ to be added, altered or removed you will be EQing.

Exabyte Master
This is a master tape usually supplied by your mastering house. It is a digital tape format.

Jewel Case
Standard packaging format for CD albums, usually clear with a clear or black tray.

J-Card
Inlay that goes in maxi-single cases. (Standard single packaging)

Lacquer
For vinyl only, this is what the 'cutting' engineer cuts your vinyl to before it is processed and made into a stamper.

Maxi Single
Standard packaging format for CD singles

Pagination
Otherwise know as printers pairs. Laying out the pages of the booklet in the correct way. Even numbered pages are always down the left and odd numbered pages down the right.

PQ encoding
Reference points added at the beginning and end of audio tracks at the mastering stage to allow tracks and timings to be identified when the finished CD is played in a CD player.

Resolution
Refers to the DPI settings of your artwork, higher DPI ie. 300 is standard for printing purposes, lower DPI settings will result in unclear printing.

Spot/Pantone Colours
These are special inks that are made up to achieve a specific colour. They are often colours that cannot be achieved using process colours i.e. metallic or day-glow colours. Films or artwork should be clearly marked with a pantone reference number i.e. P987. Please note extra charges will occur for using Pantone colours.

Verification
A mastering process that checks your CD master for errors and highlights where errors occur.

4/1 or similar abbreviations
On printed matter this indicates how many colours are printed on each side of your chosen item, in this example it would be printed 4 colours on the front and 1 colour on the reverse. 4/4 would be printed 4 colours on each side.