Glossary

The savvy consumer’s guide to printing and environmental terminology.

Sustainability Terms | Certification Terms |  Recycling Terms | Bleaching Terms

PRINTING TERMINOLOGY:

Offset Printing:
Offset printing is the most common form of high-volume commercial printing, due to advantages in efficiency for high-volume jobs. While modern digital presses are getting closer to the cost/benefit of offset work, they have not yet been able to compete with the sheer volume of product that an offset press can produce.

Digital Printing:
When a computer file is printed directly to a ink-jet or laser printing machine. Because there is less initial setup, it is useful for rapid prototyping, and cost effective for small print runs, variable data, and Print-on-Demand services. Digital printing differs from offset in several ways:

  • Every print can be different, because printing plates are not required, as in traditional methods.
  • There is less wasted chemical and paper, because there is no need to bring the image "up to colour" and check for registration and position.
  • The ink or toner does not permeate the substrate, as does conventional ink, but forms a thin layer on the surface and may in some systems be additionally adhered to the substrate by using a fuser fluid with heat process (toner) or UV curing process (ink).

Bleed:
Printing that extends to the edge of a sheet or page after trimming.

CMYK:
Abbreviation for cyan, magenta, yellow and key (black), the four process colors.

Coil Bind:
To flat bind sheets using a plastic spiral coil along the spine edge. Also known as spiral bind.

NCR Paper:
Paper coated with chemicals that enable transfer of images from one sheet to another with pressure from writing or typing.

Perfect Bind:
To bind sheets that have been ground at the spine and are held to the cover by glue. Also called adhesive bind, cut-back bind, glue bind, paper bind, patent bind, perfecting bind, soft bind and soft cover.

Proof:
Test sheet made to reveal errors or flaws, predict results on press and record how a printing job is intended to appear when finished.

Saddle Stitch:
To bind by stapling sheets together where they fold at the spine, as compared to side stitch. Also called pamphlet stitch, saddle wire and stitch bind.

Side stitch:
To bind by stapling through sheets along, one edge, as compared to saddle stitch. Also called cleat stitch and side wire.

SUSTAINABILITY:

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Sustainability
The capability of using resources without reducing or depleting them and without disturbing the economic, environmental, and social balance. A sustainable operation, process, or product is one that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.

Carbon Offsets:
A Carbon Offset is a financial instrument representing a reduction in greenhouse emissions. Individuals, companies, or governments can purchase carbon offsets to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, electricity use, and other sources.

Renewable Energy Credits (RECs):
A REC represents a quantity of energy produced from renewable sources. RECs commonly include wind power, solar power, hydroelectric power and biofuel. Some of these offsets are used to reduce the cost differential between renewable and conventional energy production, increasing the commercial viability of a choice to use renewable energy sources.

Sustainable Forestry:
The growing, nurturing, and harvesting of trees in a manner that protects soil and water quality, biological diversity, wildlife and aquatic habitat, recreation and aesthetics.

Reforestation:
The re-establishment of a forest, ether by natural regeneration or by planting in an area where forest was removed; a key component of sustainable forestry.

Biodiversity:
Short for “biological diversity”; the variety of all life on earth or in a specific ecosystem. Generally speaking, the greater the diversity, the healthier the environment.

CERTIFICATION AND LABELING:

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Partners for a Clean Environment (PACE):
The PACE program is a voluntary, non-regulatory program which offers free pollution prevention education and technical assistance to Boulder County businesses. PACE is a partnership of local governments and businesses to encourage and recognize environmental achievement.

Forest Management Certification:
The process by which a landowner certifies that forestland had been audited (by an independent third party) and has been found to conform to acceptable standards of sustainable forest management.

Chain of Custody:
The tracking of fiber from its point of origin in the field through harvesting, processing, and sale to the customer. A number of organizations offer chain-of-custody certification. Among them are SFI (Sustainable Forestry Initiative), FSC (Forest Stewardship Council), and PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification).

SFI:
SFI, Inc. is a 501c(3) non-profit organization and is solely responsible for maintaining, overseeing, and improving the Sustainable Forestry Initiative program. SFI directs all elements of the program, including the SFI standard, chain-of-custody certification, fiber sourcing requirements, labeling, and marketing. SFI is overseen by a three-chamber Board of Directors representing social, environmental, and economic sectors. SFI and its 225 program participants work with others to promote responsible forest management, to ensure that the standard reflects the latest science and emerging values, and to provide the marketplace for forest products that are a sound environmental choice. www.sfiprogram.org

FSC:
The Forest Stewardship Council is an international non-profit organization founded in 1993 to support environmentally appropriate, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of the world’s forests. Its membership includes representatives from environmental and social groups, the timber trade and forestry profession, organizations of indigenous peoples, community forestry groups, and forest product certification organizations from around the world. www.fsc.org

PEFC:
Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification is an international, independent, non-profit, non-governmental organization that promotes sustainably mananged forests through independent third-party certification. PEFC provides an assurance mechanism to purchasers of wood and paper products that they are supporting the sustainable management of forests. www.pefc.org

ISO 14000:
A series of international standards set by the International Organization for Standardization. These standards for environmental management help companies minimize harmful effects on the environment caused by their products, services, and activities. www.iso.org

Fiber Sourcing:
The process of procuring wood fiver (chips or groundwood) from the forest, a land-owner, or a supplier for use in paper manufacturing at a pulp or paper mill.

Mixed Sources:
According to the FSC standard, this refers to wood that comes from FSC-certified forests, company-controlled sources, and/or recycled material. Company-controlled sources are controlled, in accordance with FSC standards, to exclude: illegally harvested timber, forests where high conservation values are threatened, genetically modified organisms, violation of people’s civil and traditional rights, and any wood from forests harvested for the purpose of converting the land to plantations or other non-forest use.

Labeling:
The mechanism by which certification of a product is communicated to consumers. Forest certification labels (such as FSC) cannot be used unless the products have met the requirements of the certification standard, as described in the label chain (eg. Chain-of-Custody certified).

RECYCLING:

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Virgin Content:
The content of paper made for the first time, most often from wood pulp.

Recycled content:
Cellulose fiber reclaimed from waste paper and reused to produce new paper. The amount, normally in a percentage, of pre- or post-consumer waste recycled fiber used to make an end product.

Recyclable:
Capable of being recycled. This term applies to most paper even if it is coated, waxed or otherwise treated.

Post-Consumer Waste:
Finished paper products that have been sold in commerce and have served their original purpose. Examples include corrugated boxes, old newspapers and magazines, mixed waste paper, and paperboard.

Pre-Consumer Waste:
Paper waste created during the production of paper consumer goods, such as envelopes, paper plates and cups, and cartons. Rather than being allowed to enter the landfill, this waste is recovered and used to make another end product.

BLEACHING AND DE-INKING AGENTS:

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Bleaching:
Chemical treatment of pulp fibers for the purpose of: (1) increasing pulp brightness, (2) improving cleanliness by disintegrating contaminating particles such as bark, and (3) improving brightness stability by reducing the tendency of bleached pulp to turn yellow. Bleaching removes residual lignin.

De-inking:
In the fiber recovery process prior to paper formation, the separation and removal of ink and other contaminants from waste paper slurry by screening, washing, flotation, chemical treatment, and bleaching.

Processed chlorine-free (PCF):
Refers to the processing of paper fiber without the use of chlorine-containing compounds as bleaching agents. Most often it refers to the handling of recovered (recycled) fiber and is intended to mean that no chlorine bleaching of the recovered fiber takes place, although the original bleaching process used when the fiber was first produced as virgin fiber is unknown and could have included chlorine.

Total cholorine-free (TCF):
Bleaching processes that use no chlorine based chemicals.

Elemental Chlorine Free (ECF):
Bleaching processes that substitute chlorine dioxide for elemental chlorine and sodium hypochlorite.