Book glossaryThe printer’s words, in plain language

The margin by which pictures and colour that reach the page edge run past the trim line, usually 3 mm. Trimming can move by a millimetre; without bleed a thin white line can be left at the edge.

The printer’s four process colours: cyan, magenta, yellow and black (key). Images prepared in RGB on screen are converted to these four for print; some bright screen colours print slightly duller.

Paper with a smooth coated surface, in matt or gloss. Colours and photographs come out vivid; preferred for picture books, catalogues and covers.

Printing straight from the file, with no plates. Economical for short runs, starting from a single copy.

A light, bulky paper common in book printing. It stands thicker than uncoated woodfree of the same weight, and its matt surface is easy on the eye; used for text-led books such as novels and essays.

A printing method with a plate for each colour. As the plate cost is spread across the run, the unit price falls in runs of thousands.

The weight of paper per square metre (gsm). Heavier paper is thicker and shows less of the print behind it. Book interiors are commonly 70–90 gsm, covers 250–350 gsm.

How sharp an image prints, measured in dots per inch (dpi). 300 dpi is recommended for print; 72 dpi images taken from a screen print blurred.

White, uncoated printing paper — “1. hamur” in Turkish. It takes pencil and prints crisply; used for textbooks, notebooks and many books.

The heavy paper the cover is printed on. The higher the weight, the stiffer the cover; 250–350 gsm is common for paperbacks.

The extra margin left on the inner edge of the page, towards the binding. The thicker the book, the more the page curves into the binding, so the gutter widens too.

A thick cover of board wrapped in paper or cloth. It protects the book for a long time; preferred for special editions, children’s books and gift books.

A thin protective film over the cover, matt or gloss. It guards the cover against scratches, damp and dirt.

Pages glued at the spine into the cover — “Amerikan cilt” in Turkish; most paperbacks are bound this way. Quick and economical, but it needs a minimum page count to form a spine.

Sheets folded in half and stapled through the fold. Suits thin books, magazines and children’s picture books; since each sheet carries four pages, the page count is a multiple of four.

Signatures sewn with thread, then bound. The book lasts longer and opens more easily; preferred for thick books and editions meant to last.

A group of pages made by folding one large printed sheet, usually 16 pages. In offset printing a book’s page count is planned in signatures.

The narrow face of the book that shows on the shelf. Its thickness depends on the page count and the paper; the cover is designed to that measure. The calculator works it out for you.

Pages held by a plastic or wire coil through holes along the edge. The book lies flat on a table; used for notebooks, manuals and workbooks.

The page number. In a well-set book it sits alone at the outer corner of the page, usually left off chapter openings.

Concerns the page: trim size, margins, gutter, chapter openings, running heads and page numbers, where images go. Every page of the book comes from the same grid.

The unit of type size; one point is about 0.35 mm. Body text in books is usually set at 10–12 points.

A trial print or PDF made for checking before printing. The approved proof is what gets printed; a mistake found afterwards stays in the whole run.

A trial print of the typeset text, marked up with corrections before the final run. Checking it is proofreading in the strictest sense.

The book or chapter title repeated at the top of the pages. It quietly tells readers where they are in the book.

The book’s final size after trimming, for example 13.5 × 21 cm. The trim size directly changes how many pages the same text runs to, and the printing price.

Concerns the text itself: typeface and size, line spacing, hyphenation, quotes and dashes, widows and orphans. The reader’s eye moves along the line without catching.

A paragraph’s last line stranded at the top of a new page (widow), or its first line alone at the bottom of the previous one (orphan). Good typesetting fixes both.

A security label issued by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism showing that a book was copied legally. It goes on every copy after printing and before distribution; it is how a pirated book is told apart.

The ISBN as stripes on the back cover. A bookshop’s till and a warehouse scanner recognise the book by it. It is not obtained separately; it is made from the ISBN.

Language editing at sentence level: mending broken sentences and refining the choice of words. It is part of editing.

Looks at the text as a whole: the flow, consistency of tense and point of view, repetition, needless words, inconsistencies. It readies the text for readers while keeping the author’s voice.

The common file format for e-books. Text, pictures, contents and cover sit in one file. Google Play Books, Apple Books and most reading apps open it.

An e-book that keeps every page as it is in print. Picture books, cookbooks and comics are made this way; on a small screen they are read by zooming in.

The book’s identity page: author, publisher, ISBN, year of printing and printer. It usually sits on the back of the title page.

International Standard Book Number. Thirteen digits that tell this edition of the book apart from every other book in the world. In Turkey the ISBN Agency of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism issues it free of charge.

Handing a set number of copies of a published book to the state libraries, as the law requires. This is how every book enters the national archive.

The last check before printing: spelling, punctuation, capitals and apostrophes. It does not touch the style.