Packaging & Print Glossary

The Basics

The two terms that describe what happens between "I finished the design" and "this is on a truck."

Preflight Check An automated pre-production review that flags missing bleed, wrong color spaces, thin strokes, and low-res images before a file reaches press. Read → Prepress The production stage between creative design and press. Color management, separations, proofs, plate generation. Read →

File Structure

How a PDF tells a press where to cut, where the bleed stops, and where the artwork ends.

Dieline A vector template showing where a printed piece will be cut, folded, creased, or perforated. The skeleton of any packaging file. Read → Bleed Artwork extending past the trim edge so no white slivers appear if the cut drifts. Usually 0.0625" on labels, 0.125" on flexpack. Read → TrimBox vs BleedBox The two PDF page boxes that tell the press where to cut and how much bleed exists. Getting them equal is the #1 cause of "no bleed" flags. Read → Safety Zone The inside margin where critical artwork, logos, barcodes, and legal text must live. Stops content from being sliced off when the die drifts. Read → Keyline A visible printed stroke on the final piece. Not to be confused with a dieline, which is a non-printing cut guide. Mixing them breaks a file. Read → Embedded Fonts Font data packaged inside the PDF so the press RIP renders type correctly instead of substituting a default face and breaking your layout. Read → Hairline Any printed stroke thinner than the press can reliably hold. Usually below 0.25pt. Looks fine on screen, vanishes on press. Read → Registration Plate-to-plate alignment on press. When registration drifts, you get white slivers between adjacent colors and double-vision text. Read →

Color & Ink

How color is specified, separated, and printed, and the traps designers fall into at handoff.

Spot Color A pre-mixed ink, usually a Pantone Color, applied as a single plate on press, instead of being built from CMYK dots. Read → CMYK Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key (black). The four process inks that combine as halftone dots to reproduce full-color imagery. Read → Pantone / PMS A proprietary color-matching system that identifies specific ink formulations so "brand red" matches across runs, vendors, and continents. Read → Overprint A PDF attribute that tells the RIP "don't knock out what's under this." Set wrong, overprinted white disappears and overprinted black muddies. Read → Knockout The opposite of overprint. The color on top erases the ink underneath. The wrong setting for white and rich black, the right setting for most other fills. Read → Rich Black Black with CMY underneath for deeper saturation (e.g. C40 M30 Y30 K100). Required for large solids. Wrong for small body type and barcodes. Read → White Underbase A white ink plate laid down first on clear, silver, or kraft substrates so color artwork on top looks opaque instead of translucent. Read → Trapping A small overlap between adjacent colors that absorbs press registration drift, so no white paper shows through when plates shift. Read → Dot Gain How halftone dots spread when ink hits substrate, making midtones print darker than designed. ICC profiles compensate; designers should plan for it. Read → ICC Profile A color management profile telling the press how to interpret your file's color values. GRACoL, FOGRA, SWOP. The wrong one shifts every color. Read → Total Ink Coverage (TAC) Sum of CMYK percentages at any point. Capped by press: 260% flexo, 240% digital, 300% offset coated. Exceeding it causes set-off and drying problems. Read →

Finishes & Materials

What gets printed on, what goes on top, and how each choice changes your artwork setup.

Substrate The material you print on. Paper, BOPP film, silver metallized, kraft, synthetic stock. Each substrate demands different artwork decisions. Read → Varnish A clear coating, gloss, matte, or soft-touch, applied over artwork as a flood or spot for protection, sheen, or tactile effect. Read → Foil Stamp A metallic or pigmented film transferred onto the substrate by heat or adhesive. Runs as its own plate, separate from CMYK or other spots. Read → BOPP Film Biaxially Oriented Polypropylene. The dominant film substrate for premium digital labels. Clear, white, and silver variants behave differently on press. Read → Lamination A clear film bonded over the print for protection, abrasion resistance, and sheen. Different from varnish. Film vs coating. Read →

Cutting & Finishing

How the printed sheet becomes individual labels, and which cut style ships your product.

Die Cut A custom-shape cut all the way through the substrate using a steel rule die. Used for shaped labels, packaging windows, hangtags. Read → Kiss Cut A cut through the label face but not the liner backing. Lets users peel single labels from a sheet. Sticker sheets, sample packs, e-commerce. Read →

Print Methods

How ink gets to substrate. Each press technology has different rules about file setup, color, and minimum line weights.

Digital Label Printing Toner (HP Indigo, Xeikon) and UV inkjet presses that image directly without plates. Fast turnaround, short runs, variable data. Read →

Barcodes

Retail-scannable codes that fail silently if printed wrong. Check digits, quiet zones, and minimum sizes are non-negotiable.

EAN-13 The 13-digit retail barcode used worldwide outside the US. Country prefix + manufacturer + product + check digit. One wrong digit and it won't scan. Read → UPC-A The 12-digit retail barcode used in the US and Canada. Essentially EAN-13 with a leading zero. EAN-13 is required outside North America. Read →

Label Forms

Specialty label structures that go beyond a single layer of artwork.

Peel-and-Reveal Label A multi-ply label with a hinged top layer that peels back to reveal hidden info. Used for cannabis regulatory text, pharma PILs, promo offers. Read →

Image Quality

Resolution rules that decide whether a photo prints sharp or soft.

DPI / Image Resolution 300 DPI at final print size is the commercial minimum. Digital presses prefer 350–400. Scaling up halves effective resolution. Read →

The plain-English packaging & print glossary.