C

calendering

Making paper smooth by pressing it between highly polished metal rollers.

calibration bars

A strip of tones printed on paper or film and used for quality control.

caliper

The measure of a paper's thickness, usually in thousandths of an inch (referred to as "mils" or "points").

calligraphy

A distinctive style of artistic handwriting created by using special pen nibs that allow a calligrapher to vary the thickness of a letter's line elements. The art flourished from the fourteenth through eighteenth centuries.

callout

A quotation, often surrounded by a box, that uses large text to set it apart from the rest of the page. The effect is to draw attention to the page contents.

camera-ready copy

The final image composition of line art, photographs, text and other graphic elements laid out in the size, position, and color they will be when reproduced on film or paper. Camera-ready copy can be created digitally with a computer system or manually with a paste-up board. Other Term: camera-ready art.

cap height

A measurement from the bottom of a capital letter to it's top.

caps

Capital or uppercase letters.

Caps, small

Capital or uppercase letters that are about the same height as the lowercase version of the font.

case binding

Creating hardcover books by gluing cover material to a stiff, board-like substrate which is then attached to the book's endpapers. Other Term: edition binding.

center spread

The two pages that face each other in the center of a book or publication.

China clay

A white clay used to coat papers or as an ink additive. Other term: kaolin.

choke

A photographic process that creates a thinner image of the subject without changing its position or shape. The result is similar to removing a thin line from the subject's outline. A choke allows the background color to slightly overlap the subject thereby preventing any unwanted white space between the two areas. See also: bleed; registration; spread; trapping.

clip art

Graphic images, designs, and artwork in digital form that can be copied and pasted into a digital document or image. Clip art can be obtained on diskette, CD-ROM, or as a download from the Web with pricing that ranges from free to pay.

collate

Assembling the pages of a document in correct order. See also: assembling; gathering; inserting.

composition

Positioning, formatting or gathering type prior to printing. See also: pagination; page makeup phototypesetting; typesetting.

compression

See data compression.

contact negative

A photographic image with tones that are the reverse of the original. White is black and black is white for example. A contact negative is created by placing a film positive against unexposed film in a vacuum frame and exposing it to light.

Contact positive

A photographic image with tones that are the same as the original. White is white and black is black for example. A contact positive is created by placing a film negative against unexposed film in a vacuum frame and exposing it to light.

Contact screen

A clear film with a small dot pattern that is overlayed on film during the developing process to create a halftone from a continuous-tone image. See also: halftone screen.

copyfitting

Making adjustments to text size, text leading or otherwise editing the text so it fits in a given space.

crossline screen

A halftone screen created on plate glass. The screen is in the form of an opaque grid of lines that frame transparent squares. See also: halftone screen.

crossover

See spread.

cut sheet

Paper cut into standard dimensions (e.g., 8.5x11 in., A3, etc.).

cyan

One of the four process colors, CMYK, with C standing for cyan. Cyan is a predominately blue color with some green. Cyan, together with magenta and yellow, is also one of the three subtractive primary colors. See also: process colors, subtractive primaries.

cylinder press

A device were the substrate to be printed is wrapped around a roller and then brought into contact with the inked plate or screen.