C sizes - the C series within the ISO International paper sizes range which is mainly used for envelopes or folders suitable for enclosing stationary in the A series.

Calendered finish - produced by passing paper through a series of metal rollers to give a very smooth surface.

Caliper - is the thickness of a single sheet. The results are expressed in microns, 1000 microns equals 1 millimetre. The instrument used is the Micrometer.

Calendered finish - produced by passing paper through a series of metal rollers to give a very smooth surface.

Camera ready - artwork or pasted up material that is ready for reproduction.

Carbonless - paper coated with chemicals and dye which will produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required).

Cartridge - a thick general purpose paper used for printing, drawing and wrapping.

Case binding - the binding of printing books, which include leather, cloth and other forms of covering.

Cast coated - art paper with an exceptionally glossy coated finish usually on one side only.

Cast off - a calculation determining how much space copy will take up when typeset.

Catchline - a temporary headline for identification on the top of a galley proof.

Chalking - a powdering effect left on the surface of the paper after the ink has failed to dry satisfactorily due to a fault in printing.

Character count - the number of characters; ie letters, figures, signs or spaces in a piece of copy, line or paragraph used as a first stage in type calculations.

Chase - a metal frame in which metal type and blocks (engravings) are locked into position to make up a page.

Cheque Paper - chemically treated in order to betray any tampering with the writing on the cheques.

Chill Marking - Marking caused by the chill rollers on a heatset web press, which cool the web after drying.

Coated - printing papers which after making have had a surface coating with clay etc, to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity.

Cold type - type produced without the use of characters cast from molten metal, such as on a VDU.

Coldset Web - A reelfed press with limited or no drying facility. Only uncoated papers such as newsprint or bond can be printed on coldset webs.

Colour Correction - Alteration of the colour of a photographic image by electronic retouching.

Collate - to gather separate sections (or leaves of a book) together in the correct order (for binding).

Colour proofing - this term describes a wide range of techniques which have been developed to reproduce full colour images from film or digital data available, prior to the actual print run; thus allowing the client, colour separation house and printer to view the "proofed" result, prior to the actual print run.

Colour separations - the division of a multi-coloured original or line copy into the basic (or primary) process colours of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. These should not be confused with the optical primaries; red, green and blue.

Column inch - a measure of area used in newspapers and magazines to calculate the cost of display advertising. A column inch is one column wide by one inch deep.

Column rule - a light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type.

Concertina fold - a method of folding in which each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect. (For more information on folds, please refer to Folding Techniques Menu under Print Workshop.)

Continuous tone - an image in which the subject has continuous shades of colour or grey without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced in that form for printing but must be screened to translate the image into dots.

Contract proof - a coloured, hard copy representation of the printed image, made from the films, or digital data, which will be used to make the final printing plates. The word "contract" comes from the fact that, when signed by the client, a contract is formed, which states that the final printed job should be a close match to the contract proof.

Contrast - The tonal gradation between the highlights, middle tone and shadows in an original or reproduction.

Crease - An indented line pressed into the substrate to reduce resistance and allow folding without cracking or splitting.

Cromalin - A DuPont electrostatic colour proof.  Conventional Cromalin proofing requiring film exposure is almost obsolete now and has been replaced by digital proofing, including the Digital Cromalin.

Copyright - the right of copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without express permission or acknowledgement of the originator.

Corner marks - marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim or register marks.

Cropping - the elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space.

Cross head - a heading set in the body of the text used to break it into easily readable sections.

Crossover - When an image runs across two pages, requiring the image to be split where it crosses the spine.

CTP - Acronym for Computer To Plate, the process by which digital data is converted via a RIP device to drive a platesetter, which generates the finished printing plate.

Cursive - used to describe typefaces that resemble written script.

Cut flush - a method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to the pages.

Cut-Off - In web offset printing, the cut length of a single revolution of the printing cylinder. Conventional long grain presses have a 620 to 630mm cut-off, whereas short grain presses typically have 560 to 600mm cut-off.

Cut-in index - style of index in which the divisions are cut into the edge of the book in steps: step index.

Cyan - one of four standard process colours. The blue colour.