Glossary of print, D. Deboss, die cut, dot gain.

Print, paper and printing technology terms and definitions beginning with the letter D.

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Deboss

Debossing involves pressing an image into the sheet of paper to create an impression. Also known as tooling.

Also see: Embossing

Die cut

Die cutting is the process whereby shapes are cut out of paper, or other substrates. Designers will generally have to specify a cutting grid, in their page layout or vector drawing program, that the printer will use as a guide for making the Die.

Dot gain

Dot gain is where the halftone dots of an image print larger than the size they were on the films or printing plates. This results in some loss of detail. Some degree of dot gain is an unnavoidable part of the printing process and there are settings in a number of desktop publishing tools to allow for this. Adobe Photoshop, in particular, has settings to allow for dot gain under it's color settings preferences.