Printing notes from A to Z

2022-04-14

Let's make printing easier~ Printing notes from A to Z!

A means A quality, A service, A price with Rich Color Printing . 




Binding – The assembly of separate sheets into a finished book by adhering the edges together by sewing, gluing, or saddle stitch. 

In Rich Color Printing, we do have children board books flat binding, hardcover book case binding, softcover book sewn binding, planners and notebooks wire-o binding (Plastic & metal), booklet Saddle stitch and notepad easy tear off glue binding. 




Bleed–Each side about "125 inches (about 3-5mm) area past the trim line used to conceal cutting variances for artwork that extends to the edge of the page. 

Our pre press room will get a quick check once we get your PDF and confirm to your if your PDF artwork with bleeds. 





Case Binding – The binding method for hardcover books, with a rigid paperboard wrapped in the PLC covers.




CMYK – The color format we needed for offset printing. 
The basic four colors values used in offset printing: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black (also known as “key”). 

Some of our clients make their artwork looks better by adding a Pantone color (also known as PMS) Each PMS with a unique code. 




Color Bar– A strip of colors printed in the trim area of a parent sheet that press operators use to verify color balance.




Color Variance– Slight differences in color between runs and within a run that is inherent in the offset printing process.

CTP - Computer-To-Plate, 

producing technology that uploads images to a software application that outputs images directly onto a printing metal plate using lasers.


Debossing – The processes of using high pressure on paper or paperboard to create artwork elements like book title, logos "sunken in" looking. 

Available for printed paper, cloth, leather, paper board. A debossing pattern means "sunken" into the surface of the material.



Die Cutting – A unique shapes which done by a steel mold with blades that cut through paper or other materials.



Embossing – Similar to debossing but the reverse side. 

The processes of using high pressure on paper or paperboard to create artwork elements like book title, logos "raised" looking. 

Available for printed paper, cloth, leather, paper board. Embossing needs a mode.

An embossing pattern is raised against the background, while producing somewhat on the reverse side of the material.




F means environment friendly printing service with RichColor Factory.



Gloss– A coating that adds a reflective shine to paper like gloss varnish and glossy lamination, also spot glossy UV on matt.


Gathering – Also known as Collation/Sorting, the process of organizing pages together in number order to produce a book block, signature by signature. 


Hard Copy Proof – The physical sample of our project which using the same materials as your final product to produce an example before bulk order. 

This will help you to check our quality & get an idea about your own book how it looks in the end, also a good way to do the final proofing before mass printing. 




Hot Foil Stamping - Specialty options that use heat to transfer metallic foil onto a printed sheet or other materials like fabric, leather, paperboard. 



Imposition– A custom layout that fits as many pages as possible on a single sheet to decrease waste. The most popular A4 210*297mm and letter size 8.5*11 inches will be 16 pages on one sheet, the A5 210*148mm and 6.9 inches will be 32 pages on one sheet.



ISBN - International Standard Book Number, an unique number for your own book which will help the warehouse, the distributors, the shops use to sell and track your product.



Lamination – A film applied to a printed sheet to protect the printed surface and the colors. With Shenzhen Rich Color Printing, we have glossy lamination, matt lamination, High gloss PET lamination, soft touch lamination, scratch-resistant lamination. 



Manufacturing Variance– Very slight differences between copies within a print run: inherent in the offset printing process.


Matte – A coating that make a dull shine to paper like matt varnish and matt lamination, also matt foil.


Offset Printing– High quality and competitive way to produce medium or large quantities printing jobs. RichColor Printing factory use Heidelberg and Komori.

Pagination – The page numbers of our printed book. 

Paper Coating– A coating applied during paper manufacturing for appearance purposes such as gloss, matte, or uncoated.


Paper Weight –  The thickness of paper stock, we calculate with grams. 
The most popular in China is 80gsm, 100gsm, 128gsm, 157gsm, 200gsm, 250gsm, 300gsm. 


Parent Sheets– Large pre-cut sheets of paper that are fed one at a time into a sheet-fed printing press.


Plates – CTP, - a metal sheet installed into the press that indicates where ink will transfer onto paper. 

For full color printing means CMYK which means 4 plates each time. 



Pre-Press– Everything in the production of a print project that happens before the project goes to pre-press (file review, proofing, imposition, plate manufacturing).


Printer’s Marks– Marks placed on your digital files or printed sheets that determine different elements such as trim, center, registration, color.


Registration– The process of precisely lining up CMYK colors so that their overlap produces one single color.


Signature – Folded printed sheets of eight, sixteen, or thirty-two pages as one section. 


Smyth Sewing– A process that threads signatures together to create a book block by sewing through the fold of the signatures. With smyth sewing, our book will be more durable & can be open flat on the desk. 

Spot Color – Also known as Pantone color. A pre-mixed ink, often specified by use of a PMS (Pantone Matching System) color number.


Spot UV - A liquid varnish that can be applied to provide a high-gloss shine on matt background. 


Trim Marks – Marks that help us to show where pages will be trimmed.


Trimming– The cutting of the three sides of our book (or book block of hardcover) to remove registration marks and color bars, to give the book smooth edges, and to open folded pages.


Uncoated – The most paper for notebooks printing, planners printing, journal printing, novels printing, also known as writing paper. This kind paper does not have a matte or gloss coating and therefore feels natural and raw.


Varnish– A type of liquid finishing applied to a printed sheet to protect the ink. With RichColor Printing, we have glossy Varnish, matt Varnish and spot Varnish for you.


W stands for warmly welcome, warmly welcome to contact us for more about printing. We are happy to help.
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