Here at BTS, we take great pride in making sure our customers feel comfortable when they come to us with a question about our products and services. See, we don’t expect you to know everything about our products or for you to understand which one will be the most effective for your business; that’s why we’re here! 

Our team has the experience and knowledge to advise you on what will have the most impact, and they’ll use clear and understandable language to do that – avoiding all that technical jargon. In some cases, there is no alternative and we have to say it as it is in order to describe what we do and how our products work, but do not fear…

In this week’s blog, we’ve pulled together a glossary of all those words, terms and acronyms that you might find print experts like us using… so, now you can be experts too! 

A0
Paper size of 841 x 1189 mm

A1
Paper size of 594 x 841 mm

A2
Paper size of 420 x 594 mm

A3
Paper size of 297 x 420 mm

A4
Papersize of 210 x 297 mm

A5
Paper size of 148 x 210 mm

A6
Paper size of 105 x 148 mm

A7
Paper size of 74 x 105 mm

A8
Paper size of 52 x 74 mm

Acrobat Reader
PDF document viewer provided by Adobe

AirPrint
Allows for wireless printing from certain Apple devices including iPads and Macs

Auto Reduction
Allows users to re-size documents automatically when scanning

ADF
An Automatic Document Feeder attaches to a printer in order to feed documents one page at a time. Compatible with fax, copiers and scanners

C0
Envelope size of 917 x 1297mm

C1
Envelope size of 648 x 917mm

C2
Envelope size of 458 x 648mm

C3
Envelope size of 324 x 458mm

C4
Envelope size of 229 x 324mm

C5
Envelope size of 162 x 229mm

C6
Envelope size of 114 x 162mm

C7
Envelope size of 81 x 114mm

C8
Envelope size of 57 x 81mm

CAD
Computer Aided Design, which is software used predominantly in the building and architecture industries

CMYK
An abbreviation applied to inks and toners – Cyan, Magenta, Yellow and Black. Printers mix these colours together in order to create every single colour

Colour Balance
Refers to how intense colours appear in relation to each other. It can be used to improve the quality of printing, in particular photographic images

Colour Calibration
Hardware and software adjustments used to maintain consistency between devices and outputs

Consumables
Refers to items which are literally consumed by a printer, ink and toner cartridges, for example. Consumables need to be replaced periodically by the user

Copy
A feature available on most MFPs, which allows users to create identical copies of a document

Cyan
One of four core colours used in ink and toner cartridges – any colour can be generated when blended together

Default two-sided printing
Allows users to print on both sides of the paper without the need to manually reverse the sheets

DPI
Dots Per Inch, a measurement signifying the resolution of the print. The higher the DPI, the better the print quality.

Driver
Software that communicates between a computer and printer or another external device

Duplex Printing
A feature that allows users to automatically print on both sides of a sheet of paper

Ethernet
A type of network for connecting wired local area networks (LANs), enabling devices to communicate with each other through a protocol

Fax Speed
The transmission speed of a fax machine’s modem, recorded in kbps

Finishing
Tools that enablefolding, stapling, punching or trimming

Firmware
Software which is built into devices to control the operations of the device

FTP
File Transfer Protocol, the program used to transfer files through the Internet from one device to another

Greyscale
A technique used for printing an image only using shades of grey

GSM
Grams per square metre, which refers to the weight of printer paper

HDD
Hard Disk Drive for physical data storage

Ink Cartridge
A replaceable component of an inkjet printer containing the ink 

Inkjet Printer
A type of printer in which droplets of ink are dropped onto the paper, the most common type of printing technology used today

ISDN
Integrated Services Digital Network, an international standard for fast digital data communication over telephones lines

JPEG
A commonly used image file format

LAN
Local Area Network, a computer network that uses Ethernet cables or Wi-Fi technology to connect multiple computers together

Laser Printer
Uses laser beams to attract powdered ink onto the page

LCD
Liquid Crystal Display, a commonly used type of electronic display

MFP
Acronym for multifunctional printer 

MICR
Magnetic Ink Character Recognition, the toner used for printing reference numbers on cheques 

Mono
The colour black in printing 

Multifunction Printer
A printer that features print, scan and fax capabilities

Network
A system that allows multiple computers to access a main computer

OCR
Optical Character Recognition, the conversion of hand-written characters into machine-encoded text

Optical Resolution
Physical resolution prior to software enhancements being added

PDF
Portable Document Format, acommonly used format for viewing documents

PDL
Page Description Language, which provides conversion of data from a computer to the printer to specify the arrangement of a printed page

PostScript
A printer format language used by various printing devices, e.g. Apple Macs

Print Noise Level
The noise emitted from a printer during the printing of a document, measured in Db

Printer Media
Relates to any type of material which a document is printed onto

Proof
Also known as a sample or test print sent before final production to check for accuracies

Ream
Used to describe a 500-sheet block of paper

Resolution
The amount ink or toner dots in a given area, the higher the better

RIP
Raster Image Processor, part of an output device that converts vector shapes into pixels or dots before printing

Scanner
Afunction which scans 2D images and 3D objects and converts them into a 2D digital format for manipulation. Scanners can be purchased as a standalone item or as part of a multifunction printer

TIFF
A File format ideal for exchanging bitmapped images between applications

Toner
A powder used to print text and images onto paper, used primarily in laser printers and photocopiers 

USB
Universal Serial Bus, used to connect a range of computer peripherals to PCs and laptops 

Wireless Network
A local area network from which multiple computers and peripherals can be connected together without any wires

Wireless Printing
A feature which allows for documents from a PC or laptop to be sent wirelessly to a printer

Wireless Technology
Devices enabled with wireless technology are capable of transferring information over short distances without the use of wires

Yield
The capacity of an ink or toner cartridge, measured by the number of pages it can print

We’re always happy to talk or answer any questions you may have about any of the above – get in touch now!