Publishing Jargon Glossary

Foreword By The Author

101 Newsletter Answers is not about the mechanics of newsletter publishing but we thought the inclusion of this page might be useful, especially for newcomers to the field. Every line of work has it’s own language, or jargon, and publishing (together with it’s associated fields) is no exception. In fact, like most older professions, it has more unique words and phrases than most. Now they have been joined by computers, which alone has enough to fill a whole dictionary. This selection then, only includes the most widely used terms in common use.

Mike Alexander
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The Language Of Publishing

If we’ve overlooked something that really ought to be included, please let us know. Or, if you come across a word or phrase that you are unfamiliar with but think it might be pertinent to newsletters (or publishing) in some way, and it’s not included, why not drop us a line. Use the Contact Form in the main menu.

Index

Computer Terms

Editing And Proofing Terms

Mailing List Terms

Postal Terms

Publishing Terms

Subscription Terms

Typesetting And Printing Terms

Various Other Useful Terms

Editing And Proofing Terms

BLUE PENCIL A special pencil used for marking copy that does not photograph and is therefore invisible in the finished item.

C/Ic (Caps and lowercase) Instruction to capitalize a word or phrase.

CAMERA-READY COPY Clean (ie smudge-free) text or artwork ready for the printer to photograph.

CAPS Instruction to change lowercase characters to uppercase.

CHARACTER The term for an individual letter, number, or symbol.

CONTENT EDITING Analyzing a composition and deciding what needs to be added or changed to improve it.

COPY Any text that is intended for eventual reproduction in electronic or printed form.

COPY EDITING Finding and eliminating grammatical, spelling or similar errors, and checking for style conformity.

COPY FITTING Calculating how much space a piece will need when typeset, or how much copy will be needed to fill a space.

CROPPING Cutting out (or marking out) a graphic so that the focus is on an individual part of it.

DUMMY LAYOUT A mock-up of a printed piece showing the sort of material to be included in the final product.

EDITING Analyzing and amending a manuscript, composition, audio or visual item before publishing.

FORMAT The physical characteristics of a publication such as size, shape, typefaces, margin widths, letter spacing, colors, paper stock, etc.

GRID A rectangular page pattern that facilitates precise positioning of text, illustrations and white space.

LAYOUT A sketch that shows the relative positions of headlines, body text and pictures as they should appear on the finished item.

lc (lowercase) An instruction to uncapitalize a character or phrase.

LIGHT TABLE A special table with a light underneath used for paste-ups.

MECHANICAL A cardboard backed, camera-ready paste-up of type and graphics.

PAGE PROOF Reproduction proof of a single page.

PASTE-UP A mechanical of illustrations, headlines, and copy prepared for printing.

PROOF Composed copy for editing that has already gone through one or more of the prepress procedures.

PROOFREADING The process of reading composed copy in order to identify and correct errors.

RAGGED Leaving one or both sides of a column, or the bottom of columns across a page, uneven.

REPRODUCTION PROOF A high-quality proof, for final viewing before printing.

ROUGH A rough sketch of a full-size page layout.

RULE A vertical or horizontal line on a page.

STET (Let it stand) Instruction to revert to the original after initially changing a word or phrase.

Typesetting And Printing Terms

BASELINE The (imaginary) line on which type characters rest; characters with downward strokes, such as g or p, protrude below this line.

BLEED When the ink on a printed page extends to the very edge of the paper.

BLUE (or BROWN) LINE The proof used by printers for correcting errors.

COLD TYPE Modern typesetting methods that no longer use ‘hot metal’.

FLAT A sheet of paper with negatives taped in position for making an offset printing plate.

FONT All the letters, numbers, punctuation marks and symbols required for a particular style and size of typeface.

GALLEY PROOF Long, narrow sheets of printed copy in the type size and column width of a newsletter’s format prior to page make-up.

GUTTER The inside edge of a page that allows extra space for binding.

HOT TYPE Typesetting by using molds for each character and pouring hot metal into lines of type.

KERNING Decreasing the space between certain characters to create an illusion of consistent spacing.

LEADING The space between lines of type on a page.

LETTER COUNT The average number of characters to a line.

LOWER CASE Small letters, as opposed to capitals.

OFFSET PRINTING A lithographic method that uses a flat surface (plate) chemically treated to only accept ink in image areas.

PAPER STOCK Supply of paper according to specifications such as size, type, weight, opacity etc.

PICA A printer’s unit of measure; 12 picas equal one inch.

POINT A typesetting unit of measure used for indicating font sizes.

PREPRESS The procedures that a manuscript goes through prior to printing.

PREPRINTED STOCK Paper reserved for use in a specified publication that has already been printed with recurring copy such as a masthead, O.B.C., self-mailer box, etc.

PRINT RUN The total number of finished copies of a publication that will result from a set series of individual print jobs.

SANS SERIF Typeface, such as Helvetica, that does not have a serif (crossline) decorating the main strokes of the characters.

SERIF A decorative line that crosses the main strokes of a letter in some type styles such as Times Roman.

SHORT-RUN A small-quantity print specification for a publication.

SPECS Specifications; parameters or rules for formatting a publication, application, document etc.

TYPEFACE A style of type characterized by its shape, slant, height etc.

UPPER CASE Capital letters, as distinct from lowercase and small caps.

Publishing Terms

ACCORDION FOLD Two or more parallel folds in a mailout item so that it opens like an accordion.

ALIGNMENT The lining up of text on a page or in a column (commonly ‘ragged left’, ‘justified’, or ‘centered’).

CAPTION A short description attached to an illustration.

COMPOSITION METHOD The method that was used for composing a piece for eventual reproduction.

CLIPART ‘Off-the-peg’ drawings in camera-ready format for clipping and pasting.

COLLATING To sort individual pages of a publication in a set order.

COLUMN INCH The total text that fits within each inch of a specified column.

CONTROLLED CIRCULATION Free distribution within a certain area or demographic group.

COPYRIGHT-FREE Any work that is not under copyright restriction and can be reproduced freely without permission.

DRILLING Punching holes in a publication for binding.

GATE FOLD A sheet of paper with two parallel folds that form a center panel.

HALFTONES Gradations of tone in one color that give the effect of shading.

I.S.S.N. (International Standard Serial Number) An eight-digit identifier for a periodical.

I.F.C. (Inside Front Cover) Inside Front Cover.

JUSTIFY Aligning type to the right edge of a column as well as the left.

LINE ART Illustrations composed only of solid black lines.

LOGO Short for logotype.

LOGOTYPE The identifying symbol or trademark of an organization, publication, or other concern.

MANUSCRIPT An original piece of copy as submitted by the author

MASTHEAD A panel that promulgates the essential details of a publication such as the people responsible for its production, copyright information, publication schedule, etc.

NAMEPLATE The area, usually on the first page, that prominently displays the name of a publication, usually in a stylized form such as a graphic trademark or logo.

O.B.C. (Outside Back Cover) Outside Back Cover.

PULLQUOTE A short excerpt from an article given prominence to present the ‘tone’ of the subject or topic

SIDEBAR Extra information about an article’s subject matter that is given prominence by means of a separate panel.

TEXT The main body of an article in a publication.

Mailing List Terms

ACTION DEVICE A technique used in direct mail to trigger a specific response.

C.P.I. (Cost Per Inquiry) A mathematical formula used in direct mail: total cost of a mailout divided by the number of individual recipients multiplied by the number of inquiries received.

C.P.M. (Cost Per Thousand) The total cost of a direct mail piece divided by the number of recipients multiplied by a thousand.

C.P.O. (Cost Per Order) A mathematical formula used in direct mail: total cost of a mailout divided by the number of individual recipients multiplied by the number of orders received.

C.W.O. (Cash-With-Order) Requires that full (or sometimes part) payment is received with an order.

CLUSTER SELECTION A list testing method that selects a consistent series of addresses based upon a simple mathematical formula (eg the first 10 out of every 100, the first 100 of each ZIP code, etc.

COMPILED LIST A list of names and addresses collected from various sources, usually of individuals that have something in common.

COUPON CLIPPER An individual who responds to free offers but has no serious buying interest.

DIRECT MAIL A sales and promotion method that uses the postal service as the main mode of contact and distribution.

DECOY A fictitious name with a real address placed in a mailing list for monitoring purposes (also Dummy).

DIRECT RESPONSE A promotional method that solicits an immediate and measurable response, usually by mail or phone.

DUMMY A fictitious name with a real address, placed in a mailing list for monitoring purposes (also Decoy).

HOT-LINE LIST The most up-to-date names on a mailing list, usually no older than three months, and specified as weekly or monthly.

HOUSE LIST A list of names compiled by an organization’s own staff and sourced from its own records, such as inquiries, customers, competition entrants etc.

LETTERSHOP A direct mail service that handles addressing, collating, printing, mailing, list rentals etc.

LIST CLEANING The process of correcting or removing out-of-date names from a mailing list.

LIST BROKER A go-between who has professional relationships with various mailing list owners and experience of how their lists perform etc.

LIST COMPILER A professional who puts together and owns lists from various sources.

LIST MAINTENANCE A system for upkeeping name and address records so that the list is always fresh..

LIST MANAGER The person who handles all aspects of list rentals for owners.

LIST SEQUENCE The order (alphabetical, by ZIP-code etc) that names and addresses appear on a list.

MERGE/PURGE The process of cleaning a mailing list of decoys, dead addresses etc.

SALTING Deliberate placing of decoys or dummies in a list to test delivery and/or list usage.

TEASER A promotion designed to pique interest in an upcoming offer.

UNIVERSE The total number of individuals who might be included in a mailing list.

Postal Terms

A.C.R. (Address Correction Requested) An indicator to the postal service that you are willing to pay the fee for notification of a new address if it has changed.

A.M.D. (Assigned Mailing Date) The date on which a user has to mail a specific list based on prior agreement with the list owner.

B.R.E. (Business reply envelope) An envelope overprinted to conform with the postal services requirements for a special discount.

BINGO CARD A postcard included in a mailout for responding to offers of samples etc.

CO-OP MAILING Where third party mailouts are included with the principle one to share costs.

CORNER CARD The return address, usually printed in the upper left-hand corner of an envelope.

KEY CODE An identification number or other mark used to measure the effectiveness a mailout, advertisement etc.

LETTER FOLD A sheet folded twice so that it fits in a standard business letter envelope.

S.A.S.E. (Stamped And Self-Addressed) Stamped And Self-Addressed.

SECTIONAL CENTER (SCF or SEC Center) A postal service distribution unit comprising post offices whose ZIP codes have the same first three digits.

SELF-MAILER Any publication mailed without an envelope.

WHITE MAIL Mailed responses that don’t not make use of any reply devices included with the original mailout.

Computer Terms

C.A.P. (Computer-Aided Publishing) Applies to virtually all modern publishing methods.

D.T.P. (Desktop Publishing) Using a computer and special software to produce camera-ready copy.

DISK A computer storage device such as a CD or 3.5″ floppy.

D.P.I. (Dots Per Inch) For calculating resolution.

FILE Data stored as a record on a computer or on paper.

FLOPPY DISK A removable computer device for storing data.

GRAPHIC Computer data in the form of a picture or image.

HARD COPY Paper printout of computer data.

HARDWARE The physical elements of a data-processing system, such as monitor, keyboard, soundcard etc.

INK JET Printing method that uses nozzles to spray ink droplets onto the paper.

INPUT Data entered into a computer for processing.

LASER PRINTER A computer printer using laser beam technology that produces letter-quality results.

LETTER-QUALITY Printed computer output that is superior to typewriter quality.

MAIL MERGE The transfer of data from one computer file to address and/or personalize mailing items in another.

MEMORY The part of a computer that retrieves data and instructions stored on disk so that they can manipulated and displayed on a monitor.

O.C.R. (Optical Character Recognition) Software for converting printed text into digital (computer) text so that the resulting output can be edited.

OPTICAL SCANNER An electronic device for converting hard copy into digital copy, usually in the form of an image.

OUTPUT What a computer produces in response to user input.

RESOLUTION The sharpness of a computer image measured in D.P.I.

SOFTWARE Digital instructions in the form of programs, applications, drivers etc that a data-processing system (computer) uses to make it’s hardware work.

TEXT EDITOR A computer program for manipulating and editing plain text (ASCII) files.

WORD PROCESSOR An application for entering, editing, formatting, and printing text.

WYSIWYG (What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get) Accurately representing the appearance of printed documents on the screen.

Subscription Terms

ACTIVE SUBSCRIBER A newsletter recipient who has committed to receiving regular deliveries.

ADVANCE RENEWAL Renewal of a subscription before the current one has expired.

DEADBEAT A non-payer who doesn’t bother to say why.

DELINQUENT A subscriber who has fallen behind or defaulted on payment.

EXPIRED SUBSCRIBER One who has allowed a subscription to lapse.

NO-PAY A person who has not paid, for whatever reason, for goods or services ordered.

BIWEEKLY, BIMONTHLY Twice weekly or monthly (as opposed to every 2 weeks, every 2 months etc).

Miscellaneous

A.I.D.A. (Attention, Interest, Desire, Action) The essential sequence of responses that need to be generated for a sale to take place.

D.B.A. (Doing Business As) Used to identify a concern that is more commonly known by another name.

DEMOGRAPHIC A socioeconomic or similar factor that defines a certain group or area.

S.I.C. (Standard Industrial Classification) A business classification, as defined by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

TYPO Common abbreviation for a typographical error.

© 2000 Mike Alexander (Revised 2009), All Rights Reserved

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