Term that refers to the way an the eye perceives an image as having greater detail than it does in physical reality.

vertical banding
A vertical stripe of any width in the printed image.

horizontal banding
A horizontal stripe of any width in the printed image.

BMP
An acronym that stands for Microsoft’s version of a bitmap file.

bit map
A data structure that is used to represent a bit image.

bitmap
A rasterized graphic image (see raster image) formed by a rectangular grid of pixels or dots.

CMYK
An acronym that stands for cyan-magenta-yellow-black and is a color model that is similar to CMY.

carriage
An enclosure holding the jet packs, secondary ink system and control hardware for the print heads.

channel
A component of a digital image that carries the data for a color component or a mask.

contouring
Steps in what should be even color gradations in the printed image.

control monitor
The CRT monitor that displays the user interface.

DPI
An acronym that stands for dots per inch and is a measure of image resolution in a printed image.

dongle
A device connected to an input/output port to permit the use of a particular software program on that computer.

EPS
An acronym that stands for encapsulated PostScript, which is a PostScript file format that can be used as an independent entity.

edge detector
The electronic module on the carriage that senses the edge of the substrate along the platen.

encoder
An electrical device that provides the computer with information on carriage and substrate positions

firmware
Software routines stored in read-only memory (ROM).

GIF
An acronym for graphic interchange format, which is one of the standard image formats recognized by Web browsers.

giganet
Network connections come in various bandwidths. Bandwidth refers to the amount of data that can be transmitted down the network pipe. For superwide digital printing, giganet is good, 100 Base T is okay, and 10 Base T is too slow for transferring large amounts of data.

grand format/superwide
These digital printers or materials are 72 inches or greater in width.

hardware
The physical components of a computer system, including any peripheral equipment such as printers, modems, and mouse devices.

ICC profile
ICC stands for International Color Consortium, the forum responsible for the standards, and is a file or set of data that applies values to maintain color consistency of from device to device.

inkjet printer
A type of printer that sprays tiny streams of quick-drying ink onto a substrate.

nozzle
The orifice located on the jet assembly that is used to discharge a stream of atomized ink droplets.

object-oriented image (vector)
A scalable image that can be enlarged or reduced without loss of detail.

PPI
An acronym for pixels per inch and is a measure of resolution in a digital image or computer display.

PS
An acronym for PostScript®, which is a printing language that uses English-like commands to control page layout and to load and scale fonts.

piezo
The preferred technology for an inkjet print head, primarily because of its durability. The technology uses piezoelectric materials located near the ink reservoir of each nozzle. As electric charges are applied, the material vibrates inward and forces a tiny amount of ink out of the nozzle. When it vibrates out, it pulls more ink into the reservoir.

pinholes
Small white spots on the image, 1 mm or less in diameter appearing in groups.

posterization
See contouring.

PostScript®
A page description programming language created by Adobe®, which is a device-independent industry standard for outputting documents and graphics.

purge
To flush ink through the system to release any obstructions in the system.

RFI
An acronym for radio frequency interference, which is noise introduced into an electronic circuit, such as a radio or television, by electromagnetic radiation produced by another circuit, such as a computer.
RIP
An acronym for raster image processor, which is a program that converts vector-based graphics into raster-based data.

RTL
An acronym for raster translation language or a subset of HPGL/2, which is a format used for driving color printers.

raster
The process of rendering an image or page pixel by pixel in a sweeping horizontal motion one line after another.

raster image
An image that is defined as a collection of pixels arranged in a rectangular array of lines of dots or pixels.

raster image processor (RIP)
The hardware/software that takes individual pixels in a digital file and breaks them down into individual CMYK dots that a press or printer can read for output. RIP quality is very important when assessing the hardware/software in terms of image quality, speed and functionality.

raster transfer language (RTL)
The language commonly used to output data from a RIP and transfer it to the digital printer. The printer picks up the RTL data and outputs the information.

resolution
The number of pixels (picture elements) per unit of linear measurement (inch) on a computer monitor or the number of dots per inch in output form.

SWOP
An acronym for standards for web offset printing. This is a specification used to establish a method of reproducing process color with predictable results.

satelliting of artifacts
Small deposits of ink scattered about the ink droplet that results in the horizontal direction of the print and usually manifests itself to the user as a “halo".
spatter
Dots that can appear on a printed image. Spatter seems to be caused by the use of denser-than-normal ink.

take-up tension control
This control adjusts the amount of tension applied to the take-up roller.

TIFF
An acronym for tagged image file format, which is a standard file format commonly used for scanning, storage, and interchange of gray-scale and color images.

waves
A print condition in which excessive amounts of ink dry very unevenly on the substrate.