PRINTING TERMS GLOSSARY
D
- dandyroll
- Cylinder on a paper machine for creating finishes, such as wove, laid, or linen, and for adding watermarks.
- DCS
- Desktop Color Separation. An enhancement of the EPS definition for four-color images that produces the following five files: a low-resolution composite file and the high-resolution separation files (cyan, magenta, yellow, and black). DCS can greatly reduce the cost of four-color publishing.
- deck
- A line following the headline that gives more information about a newsletter, magazine, or newspaper story. Also called a tagline.
- deckle
- Irregular-edged text/cover paper made in multiple plies. Used for announcements, high-quality booklets, etc.
- densitometer
- An instrument used to measure the density of printed halftones. A densitometer is used to measure the density levels on the printed calibration bars.
- density
- The ability of an object to stop or absorb light. The less the light is reflected or transmitted by an object, the higher the density.
- density range
- The range from the smallest highlight dot the press can print to the largest shadow dot it can print.
- descender
- Stroke of a lowercase letter extending below the baseline.
- Desktop Color Separation
- See DCS.
- digitize
- Convert information to computer-readable form. Digitized typesetting is the creation of typographic characters by the arrangement of black and white pixels.
- dimensional stability
- Degree to which paper maintains its size and shape in the printing process and when subjected to changes in moisture content or relative humidity.
- dingbat
- A decorative character.
- discretionary hyphen
- A hyphen inserted manually that appears on the screen or in print only if it is used to break the word at the end of a line.
- display type
- Type set larger than the text to attract attention.
- dithering
- A technique used in computer graphics to create the illusion of varying shades of gray or additional colors by distributing the screen pixels or imagesetter dots of an image. Dithering relies on the eye's tendency to blur spots of different colors by averaging their effects and merging them into a single perceived shade or color.
- dot
- In printing, a small spot which combines with other dots in a matrix of rows and columns to form characters or graphic elements.
- dot gain
- In halftone printing, the tendency of the ink used to create halftone dots to flow outward as it is absorbed by the paper. Too much dot gain can create a cloudy or dark image.
- dot leader
- A period used as a tab fill character, often used in numerical tables and tables of contents.
- dot shape
- The shape of the dots that make up a halftone. Dot shapes can be round, square, elliptical, linear, etc.
- downloadable font
- A font not resident in a printer's memory that must be sent to the printer in order to print a document containing that font.
- dpi
- Dots per inch. A measure of screen and printer resolution that is expressed as the number of dots that a device can print or display per linear inch.
- drop cap
- A decorative capital letter at the beginning of a paragraph that hangs below the top line of the paragraph and occupies space of more than one line.
- drop shadow
- A colored or shaded box or character offset and placed behind an identical box or character to give a shadow effect.
- dull-coated (dull finish)
- Smooth coated paper, low in gloss. Also known as a matte finish.
- dummy
- A blank version of a book or booklet made from the paper stocks specified in order to demonstrate binding, weight, and size of the finished item.
- duotone
- A halftone image rendered in two dot colors, one of which is usually black.
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