Printing Terms Glossary

OCR – Optical Character Recognition. An electronic means of scanning or reading text, and converting the scanned image to an electronic equivalent.

Offset Printing – A method of printing that transfers ink from a plate to a blanket to paper instead of directly from plate to paper.
 
Opacity – (1) Characteristic of paper or other substrate that prevents printing on one side from showing through the other side. (2) Characteristic of ink that prevents the substrate from showing through.

Opaque Ink – An ink that conceals all color beneath it.
 
OPI – Open Prepress Interface. Hardware and software that link desktop publishing systems with color electronic prepress systems which use an extension to PostScript that automatically replaces low-resolution placeholder images with their high-resolution counterparts.
 
Outline Halftone – A prepress term used to describe a halftone image in which the background has been removed or replaced to isolate or silhouette the main image. Also referred to as a knockout halftone or silhouette halftone.

Overhang Cover – A book or brochure cover that is larger in size than the pages it encloses.
 
Overlay – A layer of material taped to a mechanical, photo or proof. Acetate overlays are used to separate colors by having some type or art on them instead of on the mounting board. Tissue overlays are used to carry instructions about the underlying copy and to protect the base art.
 
Overlay Proof – A color proof, such as a Color Key, consisting of polyester sheets laid on top of each other with their image in register, as compared to an integral or composite proof. Each sheet represents the image to be printed in one color. Also referred to as a celluloid proof or layered proof.
 
Overprint – To print one image over a previously printed image, such as printing type over a screen tint. Also called surprint.
 
Over Run – Additional printed matter beyond ordered quantity.

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