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Common Terms - T
Tack Stickiness. Tack is a critical property of the ink used in lithography. Because the ink sits on a flat surface, it needs internal cohesion; in other words, it needs to stick to itself so that it doesn't run all over the plate. However, too much tack can cause it to pull the paper apart. When printing two or more ink colors in line, the ink tack and sequence must be adjusted in order for the ink to adhere to each other as well as to the paper. see also dry trap, lithography, plate, wet trap.
Tag paper a heavy utility grade of paper used to print tags, such as the store tags on clothing. Tag paper must be strong and durable, yet have good affinity for printing inks.
Tear Strength a measure of how likely a paper will continue to tear once started. Tear strength will be different with and against the grain of paper. Paper that will be punched should have good tear strength. see also bonding strength, grain.
Tensile Strength a measure of how likely a paper is to break when pulled at opposite ends, in opposite directions. A web offset paper must have good tensile strength if it is to withstand the high speed of the printing press. see also bonding strength, web break, web paper, web press.
Text Paper premium uncoated printing paper of fine quality, manufactured in weights suitable for the text of books or brochures. Text papers are made in a wide variety of finishes, including smooth, antique, vellum, laid, felt, and embossed. They are characterized by excellent folding qualities, printability, and durability. Text papers are used most often for books, annual reports, brochures, booklets, advertising collateral material, and announcements, and have a basic size of 25"x38". see also basic size, book paper, cover paper, offset paper.
Thermography a finishing applied after printing that creates the raised effect of engraved printing. Special inks are used during offset printing; a powder is applied to the paper; and the paper is passed through a heater. see also engraving, offset, printing methods.
Thickness the thickness of a single piece of paper, as measured in thousandths of an inch, called "caliper." Thickness measurements define the bulkiness of a sheet of paper, but the actual number of sheets in an inch-high stack of paper is referred to as PPI, or pages per inch. see also bulk, caliper, ppi.
TIFF Tagged Image File Format, a bitmapped file format used for the reproduction of digitally scanned images such as photographs, illustrations & logos.
Tint to vary a color by adding white. Also, a very light or delicate variation of a color.
Titanium Dioxide an exceptionally opaque and expensive compound used as a white pigment and opacifier in papermaking. Elemental titanium is a lustrous, lightweight, white metal with exceptional strength. see also ingredients of paper, opacity, pigment.
Tooth refers to paper's surface roughness, a characteristic that allows it to take up ink.
Touchplate in four-color process printing, an additional fifth plate of ink that adds more of one color to enhance the image. see also four-color process, subtractive color.
Toyo a system used for color matching. see also Colorcurve, match color, PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM.
Trapping printing ink over previously printed ink. Trapping is also used to describe the very slight overlapping of adjacent colors. Trapping color is achieved by use of chokes and spreads. see also dry trap, tack, wet trap.
Trim Size the final size of a printed piece once it's been cut to specification.
Trimming cutting paper after printing to make all sheets the same or a specified size. After binding printed papers, the head, foot, and edge of a book are often trimmed in a guillotine to make all the papers even. The inner papers of each signature have a tighter fold and will be slightly longer than the outer pages. see also finishing, guillotine, signature, trim size.
Tritone a black and white image printed with three screens and three colors, such as one black and two grays, used to enrich the contrast between light and dark areas. see also continuous tone, duotone, halftone, quadratone, screen.
Twin-wire Machine a paper making machine with two continuous forming wires, rather than just one. Twin-wires were designed to create a less two-sided paper than manufactured on a Fourdrinier paper machine. Other techniques for reducing two-sidedness have since been developed, enabling paper manufactures to created paper on single-wire machines with little side-to-side variation. see also felt side, Fourdrinier, two-sidedness, wire side.
Two-sidedness the tendency of some papers to have slightly different characteristics and printing results from side-to-side. see also felt side, like-sided, wire side.