Industry Terms

Latex - made from rubber-based material for self seal envelopes. Latex is applied to the seal flap and the back of the envelope, and sticks only to itself.

Bleed - in printing, an image that extends off the edge of the page or envelope. Envelopes with bleed generally must be printed before they are folded, since the fold line runs through the printed image.

Bond - grade of writing or printing papers, often used for letterheads and matching envelopes. Characterized by strength, rigidity, relatively low opacity and erasability. Sometimes features a mill or custom watermark; sometimes with cotton fiber content.

Caliper - thickness of a sheet of paper, measured in units of 1/1000th of an inch (points or mils).

Grain - direction in which most of the fibers lie in a finished sheet of paper. Paper folds more easily with the grain. It offers greater resistance to being torn across its grain and demonstrates greater tensile strength in the direction of the grain.

Lip - unscored, extended flap on some open side envelopes, such as those used for filing.

Printing - the choice of a printing process depends upon the size of the run, the complexity and quality of the camera ready art, the number of ink colors, the paper stock and the level of quality desired.

Dry offset - similar to wet offset, but requires a coarser screen, normally 100 to 120 lines per inch. Uses a printing plate with a raised surface. Produces printing quality higher than flexography but lower than offset.

Flexography - a form of rotary letterpress, using flexible rubber or photopolymer plates. Most common type of envelope printing. Fast drying process, suitable for screens with 65-100 lines. Good quality and clarity, but below wet or dry offset.

Jet Printing - general term for printing presses set up to print already manufactured envelopes. Allows for fast, high quality turnaround.