Terms & Definitions

Bleed	When the image or color on a printed piece goes all the way to the edge, it is said to bleed to the edge. A bleed is achieved by printing a document slightly larger than the trim size and cutting it down to size.
CASS (Coding Accuracy Support System) Certification	The United States Postal Service offers CASS Certification to all mailers, service bureaus, and software vendors who want to evaluate their address-matching software and improve the quality of their ZIP+4, CRIS, and five-digit coding accuracy. This process is graded by the United States Postal Service's National Customer Support Center (NCSC), and the results returned to mailers in order to provide useful diagnostics for correcting deficiencies. To be CASS-certified, participants must pass with a minimum score of 98% for ZIP+4, 100% for delivery point coding, and 98% for carrier route and five-digit. CASS certification is valid for six months. (source: http://www.usps.com/ncsc/addressservices/certprograms/cass.htm)
Conditional Variable Data	Also referred to as rules-based data, these are variable-information items that are called into a document dependent upon the presence (or absence) of other data, e.g. "if a subject's age is below 35, use photo1a."
Data Mining	The use of a program to query a sophisticated database to either collect specific information or analyze the data to find usable patterns.
Digital Printing	Commercial-quality printing in which electronic source files are processed directly on the printing system, rather than through analog steps such as film image setting and plate making. Front-end RIPs and servers are integrated components of these printing systems. (source: http://www.adobe.com/products/postscript/glossary.html)
Document	An editable object with one or more pages into which variable and/or static layouts, text and images are inserted.
DPI (Dots Per square Inch)	DPI is a measure of output resolution of an image or document in relationship to the printer. The higher the measure the more realistic an image looks. The trade off is that the image file size increases as well. 400.
EPS (Encapsulated PostScript)	EPS is a standard file format for importing and exporting PostScript® language files among applications in a variety of heterogeneous environments. (source: http://www.adobe.com/products/postscript/glossary.html)
GIF (Graphical Interchange Format)	GIFS are low resolution (72 dpi) image format primarily for computer screen display purposes. They are not suitable for printing due to pixilation issues. (see pixilated)
JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)	Standardized image compression format usually used for compressing full color and gray scale images.
Layout	Created and edited like documents, layouts are used to standardize formats and materials that will be used in multiple documents. Layouts can be static or variable. Any change to a layout changes all the documents utilizing it.
Leading	Pronounced "led-ing." The spacing between lines of type.
PAVE (Presort Accuracy, Validation, and Evaluation)	PAVE is a USPS certification and process designed in cooperation with the mailing industry to evaluate presort software and determine its accuracy in sorting address files according to Domestic Mail Manual (DMM) standards. PAVE is available only to software and hardware developers, i.e., companies that develop presort software or manufacture presorting equipment for resale or internal use. The USPS defines a PAVE-certified software product as a presorting product with source code specifically written to operate on a particular platform or operating system and assigned a specific version number. (source: http://www.usps.com/ncsc/addressservices/certprograms/pave.htm)
PDF (Portable Document Format)	An electronic document format developed by Adobe® that allows the distribution and viewing of digital files as originally designed and formatted by the author without the viewing computer having the same software application or fonts.
Pixilated	A displayed or printed image is said to be pixilated when the edges are jagged when they should be smooth. This happens when the image resolution (see DPI) is too low.
POD (Print on demand)	Printing, usually from a digital file to a digital printer, only when the object is needed and in the quantity required. Advantages: minimizes up front costs and waste; it's fast and easy to keep up to date; and it is ideal for variable data applications. Disadvantage: Higher unit costs.
Raster	A scanning pattern of parallel lines that form the electronic display of an image.
Relational Positioning	The capability of a variable data program to assign page layout positions to variable elements dependent upon the positions of other elements on a page.
RIP (Raster Image Processor)	Device that translates page description commands from PostScript and other high-level languages into bitmapped information for an output device such as a digital printer or imagesetter.
RIPing (see RIP)	The processing of data to create a raster bitmap, such as at the time a document is printed. The objective is to avoid having to RIP data unnecessarily at the time a job is printed. Thus, in customized printing it is desirable to RIP static data in advance, store the bitmap on a hard disk and merge it with variable data on output without having to re-RIP the static data.
Static Data	The portion of a page or document that is used without change on multiple copies of a page or document.
TIFF (Tagged Image File Format)	A file format for exchanging bitmapped images between computers and devices such as scanners.
TTF (True Type Font)	As opposed to a postscript font, true type fonts are used by both the screen and the printer to display and print the font correctly. On a PC, true type fonts have the extension of .ttf. On a Macintosh, true type fonts have a blue triple-A icon (as opposed to screen fonts which have a blue single-A icon) and are usually located within a Suitcase.
Variable Data	The portion of a page or document that changes according to the target recipient of the document, thereby requiring new data to be merged with the static data to produce the final document.
Variable Image	Image selected from an Image Group and inserted into a space defined for it based on the data in the list or formulas in the data template. The variable image is resized to fit where it is placed in the document automatically. Images may consist of MS Word, PDF, Postscript, EPS, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PCX or PNG files. (see also Variable Object)
Variable Information	(see Variable Data)
Variable Objects	Elements in a document design that change based on the database to which it is linked. For instance, a picture or image in a brochure can be made to change based on the income levels of the people in the database, or the signature in a letter can vary based on the sender. Formulas and rules determine the behavior of variable objects include text boxes, images and layouts.
VIPP (Variable data Intelligent PostScript PrintWare)	A Xerox® application for merging extensive data-files with variable data documents for production printing at rated speeds. VIPP keeps the static data stored at the printers in print-ready format, and only requires transmission of the variable data between the host and the printers.