glossary
/FAQ
BLEED: the area directly outside the edge of your cd cover. Please include an extra 3mm of colour around the outside edge, so that if the inserts are cut less than perfectly (never, ever happens!) you won’t see an unsightly white sliver along the edge.
ENHANCED CD: any content you add to a music CD beyond the actual music tracks. Video footage, photos, lyrics, or even a weblink can be added without increasing the unit cost of yours disc. each disc holds 650 MB worth of data, why not use that extra space to promote yourself.
GLASS MASTER: is the process used to make a stamper for pressing discs. This can only be done by the manufacturing plant. Your CDR master will never be a glass master no matter how shiny it is.
HALFTONE: is the transformation of a greyscale or colour image to a pattern of small dots with a limited number of colours (e.g. just black dots on white background), in order to make it printable.
LINE ART: is any image that consists of distinct straight and curved lines placed against a (usually plain) background, without gradations in (darkness) or to represent two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects. Line art can use lines of different colors, although line art is usually monochromatic. Adobe Illustrator, is one of the most common vector art, or line art design programs on the market.
MIRROR BAND: the surface of a CD changes toward the center. at 38mm the aluminum, or silver transitions to a mirror and then to clear plastic at 36mm. It’s important to consider how your label design will be affected by this change. Often a solid coat of white ink applied first will soften, or wipe out any colour difference.
PMS or SPOT COLOUR: is a term common to the printing industry. Most full colour printing uses process or CMYK colour to achieve a full colour effect. Your CD inserts will be printed this way. Spot colour involves using an exact ‘recipe’ to make a specific hue ie. PMS 280 BLUE. The Pantone Matching System is used internationally to ensure colour consistency. We can add a spot colour to your CMYK project, but the cost is higher and the turn time may increase by a few days.
RED BOOK AUDIO: is the standard for audio cd‘s (Compact Disc Digital Audio system, or CDDA). It is named after one of a set of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CDrom formatted discs.The first edition of the Red Book was released in June, 1980 by Philips and Sony. The Red Book specifies the physical parameters and properties of the CD, the optical "stylus" parameters, deviations and error rate, and subcode channels and graphics. It also specifies the form of digital audio encoding (2-channel,16-bit sampled at 44100 Bit rate = 44100 samples/s ? 16 bit/sample ? 2 channels = 1411.2 kbit/s (more than 10 MB per minute) Blah, blah, blah...
REGISTRATION MARKS: Since your color document is separated into FOUR-color plates (CMYK) when it is “ripped” by the Raster Image Processor (get it – "RIP"ed) the printer needs to precisely align these plates on the press to successfully print the job. You’ve likey seen newspaper cartoons with the colors spilling out of the lines - this is an example of registration gone bad or a sloppy cartoonist, or both. By creating REGISTRATION MARKS, the printer is able to align the colors precisely on top of each other and create a perfect colour blend. In the age of digital printing, these processes are highly automated, but the potential for disaster still exists.
TRAPPING: is used to overlap the pantone colours on your label art, and avoid the problems that result should MISREGISTRATION occur in the silk-screening process. If you’ve ever seen a colour newspaper image printed out of registration, you can understand that minimizing the effect is critical. Unless you're skilled and experienced at trapping your artwork, it's probably best to leave the trapping to us. Trapping is a service we provide for free, and we have highly skilled and overpaid professionals to ensure that your job is trapped correctly.
TRAYCARD: the ‘other’ piece of printing that fits into a standard jewel box. The back of your CD is often where you’d place a track listing, and contact information. The spines which show when your CD is on edge, are attached to the traycard. These can be printed on one side only, or on both sides when a clear tray is used to hold your disc.
BLEED: the area directly outside the edge of your cd cover. Please include an extra 3mm of colour around the outside edge, so that if the inserts are cut less than perfectly (never, ever happens!) you won’t see an unsightly white sliver along the edge.
ENHANCED CD: any content you add to a music CD beyond the actual music tracks. Video footage, photos, lyrics, or even a weblink can be added without increasing the unit cost of yours disc. each disc holds 650 MB worth of data, why not use that extra space to promote yourself.
GLASS MASTER: is the process used to make a stamper for pressing discs. This can only be done by the manufacturing plant. Your CDR master will never be a glass master no matter how shiny it is.
HALFTONE: is the transformation of a greyscale or colour image to a pattern of small dots with a limited number of colours (e.g. just black dots on white background), in order to make it printable.
LINE ART: is any image that consists of distinct straight and curved lines placed against a (usually plain) background, without gradations in (darkness) or to represent two-dimensional or three-dimensional objects. Line art can use lines of different colors, although line art is usually monochromatic. Adobe Illustrator, is one of the most common vector art, or line art design programs on the market.
MIRROR BAND: the surface of a CD changes toward the center. at 38mm the aluminum, or silver transitions to a mirror and then to clear plastic at 36mm. It’s important to consider how your label design will be affected by this change. Often a solid coat of white ink applied first will soften, or wipe out any colour difference.
PMS or SPOT COLOUR: is a term common to the printing industry. Most full colour printing uses process or CMYK colour to achieve a full colour effect. Your CD inserts will be printed this way. Spot colour involves using an exact ‘recipe’ to make a specific hue ie. PMS 280 BLUE. The Pantone Matching System is used internationally to ensure colour consistency. We can add a spot colour to your CMYK project, but the cost is higher and the turn time may increase by a few days.
RED BOOK AUDIO: is the standard for audio cd‘s (Compact Disc Digital Audio system, or CDDA). It is named after one of a set of books that contain the technical specifications for all CD and CDrom formatted discs.The first edition of the Red Book was released in June, 1980 by Philips and Sony. The Red Book specifies the physical parameters and properties of the CD, the optical "stylus" parameters, deviations and error rate, and subcode channels and graphics. It also specifies the form of digital audio encoding (2-channel,16-bit sampled at 44100 Bit rate = 44100 samples/s ? 16 bit/sample ? 2 channels = 1411.2 kbit/s (more than 10 MB per minute) Blah, blah, blah...
REGISTRATION MARKS: Since your color document is separated into FOUR-color plates (CMYK) when it is “ripped” by the Raster Image Processor (get it – "RIP"ed) the printer needs to precisely align these plates on the press to successfully print the job. You’ve likey seen newspaper cartoons with the colors spilling out of the lines - this is an example of registration gone bad or a sloppy cartoonist, or both. By creating REGISTRATION MARKS, the printer is able to align the colors precisely on top of each other and create a perfect colour blend. In the age of digital printing, these processes are highly automated, but the potential for disaster still exists.
TRAPPING: is used to overlap the pantone colours on your label art, and avoid the problems that result should MISREGISTRATION occur in the silk-screening process. If you’ve ever seen a colour newspaper image printed out of registration, you can understand that minimizing the effect is critical. Unless you're skilled and experienced at trapping your artwork, it's probably best to leave the trapping to us. Trapping is a service we provide for free, and we have highly skilled and overpaid professionals to ensure that your job is trapped correctly.
TRAYCARD: the ‘other’ piece of printing that fits into a standard jewel box. The back of your CD is often where you’d place a track listing, and contact information. The spines which show when your CD is on edge, are attached to the traycard. These can be printed on one side only, or on both sides when a clear tray is used to hold your disc.