Industry Terms

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H and J Hyphenation and justification. Justification of text and adding hyphenation where necessary to make the lines justified.
Hair Spacing In typesetting, spacing of less than one point wide.
Hairline The thinnest possible line or space that is visible.
Hairline Register Register within ± row of dots.
Hairline Rule The thinnest rule that can be printed, generally considered to be less than one point or 1/72" wide.
Halation The spreading of light beyond its proper boundaries in a developed photographic image.
Half-title The title of a book appearing alone on a right hand page immediately preceding the title page.
Halftone Dots of varying frequency, size, or density used to produce gradations of tone in a printed image.
Halftone Negative The negative that is produced for printing reproduction that is made through a screen which gives a dot representation of the picture.
Halftone Positive A positive that contains a halftone representation.
Halftone Screen The photographic screen which allows the dot representation of the image to be made on a negative.
Halftoning Process Photographically or digitally converting a continuous tone image into a halftone.
Halfweb Press Generally referred to web offset presses that are 17 3/4" x 26" in size.
Halo 1. An undesirable outline around the edge of a printed image. 2. An outline of adhesive around the outside edges of a label caused by oozing of the adhesive or label shrinkage.
Handmade Paper that has been handmade.
Handmade Finish A rough paper finish that resembles handmade paper.
Hanging Indention An indentation in typesetting where the first line is flush left and all others indented.
Hard Copy Printed output from computers, terminals, photocomposers, etc., that are touchable, as opposed to output on CRT screens.
Hard Dot A halftone dot that has a hard, clean edge without the fringeseen with a soft dot.
Hard Hyphen A hyphen that has been purposely inserted in the text by entering dash, whether it is in the middle or at the end of a line.
Hard Proof A color proof made on some type of material using production films or directly from stored digital data.
Hard-Sized Paper that has enough sizing to make it more moisture resistant.
Hardware The physical equipment of a computer as opposed to software which is the programming that is internal code to make the computer perform.
Haze The cloudiness of a transparent plasitc material.
He/Ne Helium-Neon red laser with wave length of 632nm.
Head The top of a page of text which can be a chapter heading, title line, etc.
Head Crash When the read/write head and the recording surface of the magnetic media collide, resulting in the destruction of data.
Head Margin The unprinted area above the first printed line.
Head Trim The area at the top of the page that can be used to trim.
Headband A narrow strip of cloth sewn or glued by hand to a book at the extreme ends of the backbone.
Headbox The unit on a papermaking machine that dispenses pulp into the papermaking process.
Header One or more lines of text that appears at the top of a page, which may include information such as the chapter number, title, or page number. If it appears at the top of every page, it is called a running header.
Headings An inscription, headline, or title standing at the top or beginning of an article, paragraph, column, etc.
Head-to-Head The printing on the front and back of a sheet so that the top of both sides is printed at the same end of the sheet. You would turn the sheet over like the page of a book to read the reverse side.
Head-to-Head Imposition A positioning that requires the opposing pages in text have headings that are in alignment.
Head-to-Toe The printing on the front and back of a sheet so that the tops of each side are printed at opposite ends from each other. The top of one side is opposite the bottom of the other. You would turn the sheet over from top to bottom to read the reverse side. Also referred to as head-to-tail or tumble.
Heat Reactive Irreversible Ink Heat reactive-irreversible ink is colorless when printed. When it is exposed to heat between 185°F (85°C) and 212°F (100°C), sharp color appears and does not disappear once the temperature is lowered.
Heat Seal Paper A label paper with an adhesive that is activated when heat is applied.
Heat Set Inks Printing inks that are used on presses that have driers.
Heat Tunnel The section of a shrink-wrap machine where the package to be wrapped passes.
Heat-Set In printing, it applies to the ink that is put onto paper and then dried with a heat process.
Hectographic Paper Paper that is used in a Hectographic process which uses a gelatin coating.
Helvetica A popular type that is used in printing; that is, without serifs.
Hemicellulose A material in wood that is removed by chemicals in the making of paper.
Herringbone Perforator A perforator that makes cuts in paper in the shape of herringbones or zigzags.
Hickey A speck or imperfection in printing, most visible in ares of heavy ink coverage, caused by dirt on the plate or blanket.
High Bulk Usually a book paper used to create thickness.
High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) HDPE is tougher and more rigid than other polyethylene films. It also has a much higher tensile strength than other polyethylene films. It is a very stable material and has maximum chemical resistance. It has excellent abrasion resistance. HDPE meets FDA guidelines that allow it to come in direct contact with food applications.
High Finish A hard finish given to paper by running it through calendering rollers.
High Temperature Adhesive Adhesive that will hold up when exposed to high temperatures.
High-Fidelity Printing High-fidelity color printing uses additional process inks, such as orange and green, to reproduce more of the color spectrum. The Pantone® Hexachrome system is an example of this.
Highlight The lightest parts in an image represented in a halftone reproduction by the smallest dots or the nonappearance of dots.
Highlight Color The same as spot color.
Highlighting Selecting text on a computer monitor used for copying or deleting.
Hinges The joint of the hardback book that allows opening the book without breaking the spine.
Hinting A set of rules that are stored with an outline font, used to improve the appearance of the font when it is printed at smaller sizes.
Holdout When ink resides on the surface of paper the paper rather than being absorbed.
Horizontal Perforation Perforation on the sheet that runs left to right, and is parallel to the lines of text.
Hot Melt Adhesive A solid thermoplastic material that liquifies when heated and then when it cools it resolidifies to form a bond.
Hot Metal Composition Typesetting that uses melted metal to form the letters of the type.
Hot Spot Carbon Hot spot carbon is carbonizing ink applied to selective areas on the back of a sheet. It allows image transfer to the sheet below in these carbonized areas. Hot spot carbon is used for selective imaging on multiple part forms and mailers.
Hot Stamping A printing process where a heated die is stamped onto a sheet of foil, causing the foil to release from the backer onto the material being printed.
Hot Type Metal type used for letterpress printing. Named "hot type" because the type was "cast" from hot liquefied metal.
House Sheet A paper that is kept in stock by a printer so it is readily available. It is generally something that can be used for a wide variety of printing jobs.
HSV Acronym for hue, saturation and value.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) The standard coding language that is used to create hypertext documents for use on the Interenet.
Hue The attributes of color that permits them to be identified as red, yellow, greet, etc. Hue is determined by thecolor's dominant wavelength within the visible spectrum.
Hue Error Expressed as a percentage, hue error indicates the deviation from a theoretically pure process hue. It does not indicate any error or problem with the process inks.
Humidity The moisture in the air which can have significant effects on paper and other materials used in printing.
Hung Punctuation Punctuation marks that are hanging at the end of a line of justified type.
Hydration A papermaking process that mixes the pulp with water.
Hydrophilic Having a strong affinity to water.
Hydrophobic Lacking an affinity to water.
Hygroscopic The ability of a paper to absorb moisture.
Hypertext Text (words or phases) that links to another document or causes other documents to be opened or displayed.
Hyphenation The process of dividing a word at the end of a line by placing hyphens between syllables to keep lines from exceeding a set length. The last part of the word appears on the next line. It is used to make all lines of text the same or similar lengths.