Glossary of terms for Large Format &

Digital Textile Printing

Color Related Terms

Achromatic: A design without color or hue. Therefore it is in neutral grays, white, or black.

Analogous: Similar or alike in elements or design.

B/ W: Black and white.

Brightness: The dimension of a color hat represents it’s similarity to one of a series of achromatic colors. The relative lightness or darkness of a color. It is measured in percentages of black as 0%, and white as 100%.

Channel: Image components that contain the pixel information for any given color. Grayscale = 1; RGB=3; and CMYK=4.A frequency of band that represents color value, such as CMYK, or RGB.

Chroma: The aspect of color in the Munsell Color system by which a sample appears to differ from a gray of the same brightness or lightness that corresponds to saturation of the perceives color.

Color Mapping: The terminology that permits the “best match” in appearance to the “source image”.

Color Balance: A state of equilibrium between colors in a design.

Color Book: A hard copy of your colors calibrated for your printer and useful in color matching.

Color Characteristics: Features of defining a specific hue.

Color Emphasis: Singling out a specific hue or range of hues.

Color Mapping: To depict specific colors based on their characteristics.

Color Modes: An arrangement or order of colors such as CMYK, RGB, and LAB.

Color Properties: Characteristic Attributes possessed by individual hues.

Color Scheme: The gamut or range of colors that can be seen in the chosen color picker.

Color Wheel: The color picker that is used on the Macintosh to display the entire range of color space available.

Color way: A series of color choices made by the designer to indicate the “season’s” color selection of the line.

Complementary: The color directly opposite another on the color wheel and providing the greatest chromatic contrast to it.

Cool Colors: Greens, Blues, and Violets.

Duotone: Any design or print created by using two shades of the same hue.

Earth Tones: Hues that are representative of earthly colors, such as brown and reds.

Gamut: The range of hues that a device can output. Refers to image devices such as scanners, monitors, and printers that can only display a “subset” of all visible colors. Colors that can see on the monitor can be closely matched to the colors that will be printed out if the devices can “see” the same gamut.

Gradient: Color in shades from one starting point to another gradually blending in between. A grade change in a hue.

Halftone: A design created by the gradations of that same hue. Lightness of a color depending on its hue or saturation.

Hue: Color reflected from or transmitted through an object. It is a measured location on a standard color wheel and it is expressed in degrees of 0 to 360. A particular gradations of a color; a shade or tint.

Intensity: Degree of color saturation. The strength of a color.

Jewel Tones: Hues that are representative of bright jewel colors, such as gold’s, and blues.

Monochromatic: A design appearing to have only one color and gradations of that color

Monotone: Having a single color.

Neutral: A color that lacks hue.

Ombre: The blending and gradation of multiple colors to create a continuous blend of the differing hues.

Opacity: The density of a color or shade. Ranging from transparent to opaque. The reduction of light through a color.

Pastels: Soft, delicate hues.

Primary Colors: RGB. The true colors developed from a solar beam that can be mixed in many percentages to get secondary and tertiary colors.

Resolution: The DPI or dots per inch of a design. Measured by how many dots or pixels are in one inch of a design. The measurement of the fineness or detail. The higher the resolution the finer the detail.

Saturation: Vividness of a hue. Another name is Chroma, Which is strength or purity of a color. Saturation represents the amount of grey in proportion to a hue. It is measured in percentages of 0% grey to 100% (fully saturated).

Shade: The degree of a color a color is mixed with black.

Spectrum: A range of values of hues in a set.

Tint: A shade or gradation of a color.

Value: The relative darkness or lightness of a color.

Warm colors: Reds, yellow, and orange.

Scanning Terms

B/ W: Black or white image or drawing.

Brightness: Setting the overall “whiteness” of an image.

Contrast: The comparing of light and dark on an image, such as low = gray (light).

Dithering: Creating dots to “fool the eye” into seeing shades of gray.

DPI: The measurement of an image resolution in dots per inch, such as 300 DPI, or 150 DPI.

Grayscale: The range of grays form white to black.

Halftone: Used in the making of black and white images to appear to have shades of gray.

Image: Usually a photograph that is “translated into a bitmapped” image by scanning.

Original: Art, photograph, transparency, or other item to be scanned.

Image Type: This could refer to the options of B/W. or gray, or color.

Pixel: A single dot on a monitor or on digital image.

Previous Size: Used to control the size of an image to reduce size and/or scanning time.

Resolution: Measuring the fineness or detail of an image. The higher the resolution, the finer the detail.

Fabric Printing Methods

Blotch Printing: Printing instead of dying the ground color of a fabric. The result is that the reverse side of the fabric is typically white.

Digital Printing: Although this is a broad title, it typically refers to micro-sized droplets of inks or dyes that are placed directly onto the surface of the substrate via an ink jet print head. The substrate used and the amount of the droplets applied are directly determined but the date contained in the original image file and therefore translate into color quality of the print.

Discharge Printing: Using chlorine or other chemical to remove areas or previously applied color on a fabric and replace with areas of white patterns on a colored ground.

Dye Sublimation: Printing that occurs when a sublimation of dyes in transferred from a carrier roll and applied to the fabric/ substrate through the application of heat.

Electrostatic: Typically each color is printed individually via an electric charge that actually attracts the toner (ink) particles.

Heat Transfer Printing: This method involves transferring patterns or prints that were previously preprinted on rolls of paper and applying the prints via relatively high-heat transfer printing machines directly to the surface of the fabric.

Ink Jet: Detailed information of digital printing involves the following:

a. Continuous refers to ink that is continuously applied by channels of pressure forming steam droplets.

b. Drop on Demand refers to images formed by ink droplets applied by pressure and released onto the substrate.

c. Thermal Pressure is created by a gas bubble within the nozzle that forces droplets of ink onto the substrate.

d. Solid Inks are stored and melted and applied as needed to substrate.

Rotary Screen Printing: Hollow, perforated nickel screen cylinders are prepared for each individual pattern color involved in a design. Color is then forced sequentially through the metal rollers directly to the surface of the fabric.

Screen Printing: Method of adding a print via one color per screen, one at a time.

Spray Jet: A Spray nozzle individually applies color directly to the substrate.

Thermal Wax: Sometimes referred to as resin transfer, it is wax or resin. Individual colors are then applied directly to the substrate via a roll format film carrier.