Feb 5 2012

Glossary of Terms for
Paper and Printing

"F"

FELT

A fabric blanket of synthetic or natural fibres used in the press section of the papermaking machine to absorb water from the paper.

FELT FINISH

Uncoated, uncalendered surface texture produced by using patterned felt belts and pressure in forming paper on the paper machine. Felt finish papers are ideal for special techniques such as embossing and foil stamping.

FELT SIDE

The top side of the paper that comes in contact with the felt blanket or dandy roll in the papermaking process. The bottom side is called the wire side because it comes in contact with the forming wires. The felt side of the paper is slightly softer and smoother in texture, and printers may adjust ink densities to compensate for the side to side difference. Paper is normally packed and shipped felt side up.

FFCS

Finnish Forest Certification System. A scheme for auditing forestry operations, taking into account the effects on the environment.

FIBRE

The cellulose fibre, typically from cotton or wood, that is the main ingredient of paper. Specialty papers may contain synthetic fibres such as rayon or nylon.

FIBRE-ADDED PAPER

Fibre additives such as wood chips, coloured cotton fibres and coloured rayon fibres used to enhance the visual appearance of a sheet.

FIBRIL

Fine thread-like structure that fibres are composed of. They are often of more than one ply.

FIBRILLATION

Freeing of the fibrils from within the fibre during the beating/refining process.

FILLER

Materials like china clay added to pulp before it is formed into paper to improve the sheet's smoothness, brightness opacity and printability.

FILM COAT

Also called wash coat; any thinly coated paper stock.

FILM SEPARATIONS

Camera-ready artwork produced on reprographic film and separated for colour (one colour per film).

FINISH

Term describing the characteristics of a paper's surface Flat rate The surface characteristic of a sheet created by either on-machine or off-machine papermaking processes. Popular text and cover finishes include smooth, vellum, felt, laid and linen.

FINISHING

The trimming, folding and binding of printed sheets into final form for use.

FLAT COLOUR

Solid areas of colour (as opposed to halftone), usually matched to Pantone colours.

FLOTATION

A method of removing ink from paper during the deinking process.

FLUORESCENT DYE

A colouring agent added to pulp to increase the brightness of the paper. It may give a slight blue or green cast to the sheet.

FLUORESCENT INKS

Printing inks that emit and reflect light. Generally, they are brighter and more opaque than traditional inks, but they are not colour fast, so they will fade in bright light over time. Their metallic content will also affect dot gain and trapping.

FLUTING MEDIUM (A, B, C & E)

These letters define the type of corrugated material in terms of the number of corrugations per unit length and height.

FOIL BLOCKING

The process by which foil is applied to a surface / substrate using a metal die usually made of zinc or brass.

FOIL STAMP

Foils made of metal or other materials available in various colours, typically combined with embossing or debossing. The foil, made of a metal or other materials available in various colours, is carried on a plastic sheet / carrier and transferred through a stamping process onto paper.

FOLD LINES

Tick marks which indicate where a sheet is to be folded. Often dotted, to distinguish between folding and trimming.

FOLDING

Paper can be folded into a variety of styles to create books, brochures and pamphlets. Folding stresses the paper fibres and can result in cracking. Cover weight and bristol papers should be scored to create a smooth, straight fold.

FOLDING ENDURANCE

Test made on paper by means of a folding endurance tester to measure the number of double folds that can be given to a strip of paper clamped between two jaws before it will break.

FONT

A font is a complete set of characters in a particular size and style of type. This includes the letter set, the number set, and all of the special character and diacritical marks you get by pressing the shift, option, or command/control keys.

FOOT

The bottom of a page.

FORM

The imposition pages of a book or brochure that are printed on the same sheet of paper as its passes through the press. Once folded and trimmed, a form becomes a "signature."

FORMATION

The dispersion of fibres in a sheet of paper. The more uniform and tightly bound the fibres, the better the sheet will print and look.

FOUR COLOUR PROCESS

A printing method that involves separating full-colour images into four different halftones by using colour filters of the opposite colour - such as, a red filter to capture a cyan halftone, blue to capture yellow, green to capture magenta.

A four-colour image is reproduced by printing each halftone in one of four ink colours - magenta, cyan, yellow and black. The optical blending of these coloured dots recreates a continuous tone image.

FOURDRINIER

Name given to the wet-end (or forming table) of the type of paper machine invented by Nicholas-Louis Robert, financed by Messrs. Henry & Seamy Fourdrinier. The Fourdrinier papermaking machine is structured on a continuously moving wire belt onto which a watery slurry of pulp is poured. As the wire moves, the water is drained off and pressed out, and the paper is then dried. It is usually applied to an entire modern paper machine, including the dryer end, which however, was not part of the first paper machines.

FREE SHEET

Paper that contains little or no mechanical wood pulp (groundwood). Also called woodfree.

FREENESS

The rate of water drainage from a fibre/water mixture. Decreased by beating to produce a wet stock, i.e. drainage is slow.

FRONT END

The hardware on which graphics and documents are created and stored, prior to being output on the back end of the system.

FSC (The Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) Certification)

Forest Stewardship Council. An international organisation promoting responsible forest management. FSC has developed principles for forest management which may be used for certifying the management of forest holdings, and a system of tracing, verifying and labelling timber and wood products which originate from FSC-certified forests.

It is a market-based instrument to recognise good forestry practice. It is a procedure whereby an independent certifier gives a written assurance that a forest is managed in accordance with agreed ecological, economic, and social criteria.

A label informs the consumers that the products they buy come from a certified forest. Thus, forest certification is an instrument that harnesses market forces to provide an incentive for good forest management.

FURNISH

Pulp mixed to the right consistency with fillers, sizing, pigr/m2ent and water and ready for the papermaking machine. Furnish contains about 99% water.