Packaging Language Guide

Property of paper causing it to scratch surfaces it contacts.

The ability of paper to absorb or take in liquids.

A technique to estimate the permanence of paper by exposing it to heat or heat and moisture.

Rosin size containing a large proportion of emulsified, free or uncombined rosin.

Degree of acid found in a given paper measured by the pH factor. pH is measured from 0 to 14, with 7 representing neutral between acid and alkaline. From 0 to 7 is considered acid as opposed to 7 to 14 which is alkaline.

Accurate weight of a given quantity of paper, which is different from the same paper’s nominal weight.

Paper in a roll form for use on adding and tabulating machines. Weight: 16 to 18 lbs. 17″ x 22″/500 sheets.

American Forest & Paper Association, established in 1993, merged the activities of the American Paper Institute (API), National Forest Products Association (NFPA) and American Forest Council (AFC) thereby representing every major sector of the national forest products industry.

Folding or feeding paper at right angles to the grain or direction in which the fibers lie.

Paper commonly used as end papers in books.

Coating subject to a thin jet of air. Air jet removes excess coating and smooths surface of freshly coated paper. (same as air knife coating)

Coating sprayed on web of paper by air pressure.

In the process of air-drying, paper is dried on the paper machine and reeled as a damp roll. The web is supported on slats or festooned over rollers to dry without tension.

Usually refers to blank cover paper and used for making photographic albums.

Paper that resists discoloration through contact with alkaline substances, such as soap. Glassine and waxed papers are also used for such purposes.

Highly refined wood pulp with exceptional papermaking properties: high chemical purity, high brightness, great permanence and unusually high resiliency.

Board coated with aluminum foil.

Method of finding the nature and amounts of ingredients in paper.

Glue and gelatin extracted from animal hides and used as a papermaking size.

Folded cards or sheets of paper fitting matched envelopes and generally used for social stationery and announcements.

Rough paper finish created by reducing pressure at the wet presses and with little calendering.

Paper which has a high finish on one side and an antique finish on the other.

American Pulpwood Association. Foresters education and provides leadership and assistance for the continuing development, use, and renewal of the United States’ forest.

Paper that will be further processed as in coating or laminating.

Specific, standard sheet size from which the basis weight of a given grade is determined.

Weight, measured in pounds, of a ream (500 sheets) of paper in its basic size.

Tub-like machine originally used to beat pulp but now used mostly for mixing additives and color.

Starch, gum or resin added to papermaking stock in the beater to improve the utilitarian quality of the paper.

A method dyeing paper stock by adding color to the pulp in the beater.

Process of adding sizing material to the pulp in the beater before the pulp is dispersed to the paper machine for fabrication.

Term for the mechanical treatment given papermaking materials preparing them for forming on the paper machine into paper or board of precise characteristics.

Mechanically caused distortion of paper often resulting from excessively tight winding around the core.

Paperboard using a recovered paper furnish to make folding cartons.

All folding carton board must meet rigid folding requirements at two widely seperated points. Carton blanks will neither fold nor glue in high-speed, folding-gluing machines if the folding quality of the board and the crease point are not in harmony. The filling operation will suffer in productivity should the folded and glued collapsed carton be improperly setup. Accurate creasing can only be accomplished when board is of consistent quality and when creasing and scoring are accurate.

Cross perforations in a continuous form which define the end of one form and the beginning of the next.

Thin, lightweight, opaque printing paper for use when low bulk is important, as in bibles, prayer and hymn books, dictionaries, insurance rate books, and for multi-fold package inserts. Basis weights range from 25″ x 38″ – 18 lbs/ream to 30 lbs/ream. Some grades are made from strong, new cotton and linen rags; others flax. Greatest tonnage is made from chemical wood pulp alone or in combination with rag fibers. Also called India or India Bible.

In forms writing equipment, attachment or feature which permits unit forms to be handled by a machine that normally handles only continuous forms.

Bond, writing, news manila writing. Grade depends upon the purpose for which the blank book will be used.

Is the spent liquid obtained as part of the sulphate pulping process.

Precipitated or artificial barium solution.

Area of stripe-coated carbon paper which is not coated.

Heavyweight paperboard stocks that range from 15 points to 48 points in thickness. Can be coated, uncoated and in colors.

Pulp fibers are generally bleached to produce white fibers for papermaking. Other reasons are: to increase the chemical stability and permanence of wood fibers by chemical purifications; and to obtain clean, sanitary fibers as required for food packaging papers.

Carbon formulated to resist tendency to transfer some pigments to materials which come in contact with the coated surface.

Separation of the paper’s coating from the body stock which appears in the form of eruptions. Caused when paper in process of manufacturing is dried too quickly.

Printed pattern that obscures write-through of selected areas of a form.

Blotter advertising still represents considerable annual volume. Special tops are made for letterpress and offset printing, available coated and uncoated.

Base stock, or coating raw stock for plain or decorated papers.

Paper used for letterheads and forms. Basic size: 17″ x 22″. Substance weight: 13 to 24 lbs. Bonds are characterized by strength, rigidity, good absorptiveness and erasability. Bond used for fanfold purposes, called register bond, is lightweight, 17″ x 22″ – 11 lbs/ream to 20. It posseses high tensile and tearing strengths, and good manifolding properties. Usually made from chemical wood pulp and/or cotton fiber pulp.

Cohesiveness of fibers within paper. Paper with good bonding strength will not pick during the printing process.

General description given to any type of paper suitable for printing, exclusive of newsprint and boards. Made as wove or laid and can have finishes of antique, eggshell, machince, supercalendered, coated, dull, matte or glossy.

Special body paper coated with an adhesive mixture. Must resist blocking under humid conditions.

Term designating board used in the manufacture of boxes. May be made of wood pulp or wastepaper. My be plain, lined or clay coated. Standard size: 25″ x 40″ containing 1,000 sq. inches.

Wide varitey of white and colored papers, coated, uncoated, flint glazed and embossedl cast coated. Basic size: 20″ x 26″. Basis weight: 25 to 40 lbs per ream. Also comes in basic size: 25″ x 38″. Basis weight: 40 to 60 lbs.

Either plain or coated papers usually colored and embossed.

Smooth, high strength paper suitable for the production of raised dots needed to manufacture reading material for the blind.

Number one roll over which a Fourdrinier wire passes.

Light reflecting property of paper in comparison with a reference standard. For the explanation of the test to determine brightness of the surface of paper or bond.

A printing substrate usually with a caliper thickness of 0.006 and up – (90 lbs. 24″ x 36″ – 500 sheets and up). Types of bristols include printing, vellum, postcard, tag and file folder.

Sets pasted as a continuous carrier sheet. Also, with pasted margin and narrow carbon, which when burst function as a unit set.

Term designates the transformation of paper or paperboard after it comes off the manufacturing machine, to a variety of forms such as envelopes, bags, boxes and containers. Also, an offset plate that has been converted from a relief image plate.

Describes the act of coating paper after it is off the papermaking machine. Conversion coating is now generally referred to as off-machine coating.

Company that converts paper from its original form to usable products including envelopes, boxed writing papers, bags, adding machine rolls, coated papers and gummed tapes.

Paper changed from its original state into a new product. Examples include envelopes and gummed tape.

In papermaking, the act of treating raw material with chemicals under pressure and extreme heat to produce pulp from which paper can be made.

Test to identify the presence of oxidized cellulose, meaning the break-down of cellulose leaving impurities like lignin which start early deterioration of paper. The higher the copper number – up to 100 – the more degradation is necessary.

Paper used in photocopying machines.

Unit of measurement of pulpwood defined as a pile containing 128 cubic feet of wood, stacked eight feet long, four feet wide and four feet high.

Shaft in center of a roll around which the web of paper is unwound. Cores are either metal or cardboard; wither returnable or disposable.

Record of specifications included by the manufacturer in each shipment of paper.

Refers to paper left on a roll after most of the paper has been used.

Diagonal cut on one corner of a business form, at one end of the cross perforation in a continuous carbon where a tongue is formed when the form is burst. Also, when the diagonal cut is placed at one corner of register form.

Used primarily on continuos forms to assist in manual carbon extraction when the form has been burst.

Writing papers with attractive finishes. Good finish and good writing characteristics are principal qualities.

For papermaking, selected new cotton cuttings acquired from the textile industries. They are free of synthetic fibers and are the principal source of cotton fibers used in the manufacture of cotton content papers. Basic cotton linters are also used in the manufacture of pulp.

Short cotton fibers remaining on cotton seed after the ginning process. Used in the manufacture of cotton fiber content papers and as a raw material from which cellulose is derived.

Strong, heavy paper suitable for covers of publication such as brochures. Available in various colors.

The noise produced from a sheet of paper when it is shaken or handled roughly. Desirable quality in some bonds, but undersireable in many papers.

Paper embossed at the mill to resemble coars linen.

Perforation cut through all plies of a collated set of business forms, normally performed on the collator.

Paper used for crayons or watercolor. It is a heavy board, either white or tinted, with a glazed surface on one side and rough finish on the other.

Rubbing off dye from the surface of paper.

Dimension of a sheet of paper at right angles to the direction of the grain.

A laminating board, finished with good quality paper on one or both surfaces. Used for mounting photographs and prints.

Offset papers manufactured with a pH of 6.0 to 8.0 on a scale of 0 to 14.0. Neutral pH factors are built into paper as minumum value, to increase stabiltiy and improve permanence for use in printing of archival records.

The basis weight of the paper at which the paper is billed. Unless otherwise stipulated by the mill and customer a plus or minus tolerance is allowed in the actual weight.

Generally refers to paper that is manufactured specifically for use on offset presses. It is characterized by good internal bonding, high surface strength, freedom from fuzz, pick-resistance and freedom from curl. This paper must be relatively impervious to water.

Paper coated on one side only.

The property of a sheet which prevents print areas from showing through the paper to the other side.

That property of paper which prevents “show-through” of printing, or other marks; on or in contact with the backside. In photoengraving, to paint-out areas on the negative that must not appear on the plate.

Optical brighteners or flourescent dyes are extensively used to make high, bright blue-white papers. They absorb invisisble ultraviolet light and convert it to visible light falling into the blue to violet portion of the spectrum, which is then reflected back to our eyes.

Quantity of paper that is manufactured beyond the quantity specified.

Process applied to paper, after its manufacture, which imparts a grainy surface to finished paper. Also accomplished after printing.

Per thousand.

Tearing strength expressed in percentage points.

Bursting strength expressed in percentage points.

Tensile strength expressed in percentage points.

Degress of acidity or alkalinity measured on a scale from 0 to 14 with 7 the neutral point.

Substance, usually mineral or inorganic compounds, used to give paper its color.

Also known as film coated paper. It is a result of a light film applied to the paper at the size press of the paper machine to enhance the uniformity, smoothness and printability of an otherwise uncoated sheet.

Tiny holes or imperfections on the surface of the paper caused by the presence of forgein matter on the paper surface during manufacture.

One layer or sheet of paper or paperboard that makes up a multi-layer aggregate.

In reference to paper, equal to one thousandth of an inch in the measure. Utilized when the thickness of paper is considered.

Ratio obtained by dividing the result of a specific strength test by the basis weight of paper or board. Applied chiefly to tests for bursting strength.

The Mullen test which measures the bursting strength of paper. The expression evolved because paper makes a popping sound upon bursting when tested.

The degree of compactness of the fibers of the paper. For the explanation of the test to determine the porosity of the surface of paper or board.

A heavy, stiff cardboard.