LACQUER A clear coating, dull or glossy, that is applied to the printed surface of printed materials for protection, to improve appearance, to draw attention to certain areas of the surface, or to add stiffness. The lacquer coating can be glossy or dull, but usually is glossy. See also UV COATING VARNISH

LAID PAPER A high-quality paper that carries a pattern of fine parallel lines and crosslines on its surface, which is visible when held up to the light. These markings project an air of style and sophistication. The lines are marks caused by the wire belt during papermaking. See also DANDY ROLL: FELT SIDE PAPER WIRE SIDE

LAMINATE A thin transparent coating applied to paper or board as protection and to give it a glossy finish. The laminate is usually clear plastic, either in liquid form or as a film. Also, the process of applying such a film to paper or board, usually by means of heated rollers. Finally, to join together two separate sheets of paper into one to create a certain thickness or surface. See also BOARD MYLAR UV COATING

LAMINATED Constructed of a succession of layers. Book jackets are often laminated. That is, they have been covered with a thin layer of clear plastic sheet for added durability and an attractive, glossy appearance. See also DUST JACKET GLOSS FINISH

LAMINATION A laminated structure. Also, the act or process of laminating paper or board with foil or plastic, etc. The term is also often used in reference to the laminating film, which is applied to printed paper or board. See also MYLAR PAPER

LANDSCAPE In word processing and desktop publishing, the term portrait and landscape refer to whether the document is oriented vertically or horizontally. A page with landscape orientation is horizontally oriented. It is wider than it is tall. Not all printers are capable of generating text in landscape mode. Of those that are, some require special landscape versions of their fonts; others can rotate the standard portrait fonts 90 degrees. The term is also used to indicate the orientation of tables or illustrations that are printed sideways. Many printers offer a choice of portrait or landscape orientation. See also ORIENTATION PORTRAIT WORD PROCESSING

LANDSCAPE ORIENTATION In this page layout, text and graphics are printed across the length of the paper. As a result, the page's width is greater than its height (or depth). Landscape orientation is one of two common page orientations. See also INVERSE LANDSCAPE MODE ORIENTATION PORTRAIT ORIENTATION

LAP REGISTER Another term for trap -a term to describe the overlaying of a very narrow strip of the second color of two adjoining colors by the first color where the two colors meet in order to achieve registration. See also CHOKE REGISTRATION TRAPPING

LASER An acronym for Light Amplification by Simulated Emission of Radiation. A laser is a low-power, highly concentrated, narrow-band beam of light, which creates images by the use of impulses. The laser-generating device takes advantage of the amplification process of electromagnetic waves to simulate the emission of radiation. It operates in the region of infrared, ultraviolet, or visible light. Lasers are used in communications, facsimile machines, electronic storage, and electronic printing. See also LCD PRINTER OPTICAL DISK

LASER PRINTER An electrophotographic printer that is based on the technology used by photocopiers. It uses a laser beam and a rotating mirror to draw an image on a photosensitive drum in accordance with the instructions of a computer that holds the bitmapped image to be printed.. This image is then converted on the drum to an electrostatic charge. In turn, this attracts and holds toner. The toner is pulled off the drum onto electrostatically-charged paper as the paper is rolled against the drum. Heat bonds the toner to the paper.

Laser printers provide high-quality output of text and graphics. They are quiet and fast. The higher initial cost of a laser printer is offset by lower printing costs. However, for multipart forms, one must use a dot-matrix printer. See also DOT-MATRIX PRINTER HEWLETT PACKARD INK-JET PRINTER LCD PRINTER NONIMPACT PRINTER PAGE PRINTER

LAYDOWN SEQUENCE The sequence in which colors are printed, when two or more are being printed. In the case of four-color process printing, the sequence is usually, yellow, magenta, cyan, and, then, black. See also CMYK FOUR-COLOR PROCESS PROCESS COLOR

LAY-FLAT BINDING A method of creating perfect-bound publications, which enables them to be laid flat, when open. The spine cover is not glued to the edges of the bound pages in this method. Lay-flat binding is also called stay-flat binding. See also BINDING MARKING UP PERFECT BINDING SPINE

LAYOUT A sketch or preliminary drawing of a page to show the position of text and graphics on it and how it will generally look when printed. A mock up. The layout helps one to evaluate the overall appearance of the design and determine which aspects to add, improve, delete, or change. The layout also provides instructions regarding type and photographs or illustrations required. In word processing and desktop publishing, layout denotes the actual arrangement of text, headlines, graphics, captions, etc., on a page. See also AIR DESKTOP PUBLISHING BLEED LAYOUT GREEK TEXT KEY LINES MECHANICAL MOCKUP NON-REPRO PENCIL ROUGH LAYOUT TEMPLATE WORD PROCESSING

l.c. An abbreviation for lower case. See LOWERCASE

LCD PRINTER A liquid crystal display printer. An electrophotographic printer similar to a laser printer and with a bright light source, typically a halogen lamp. Instead of using a laser to create an image on the drum, it shines the light through a liquid crystal panel. The light passes through, or is blocked by, the individual pixels in the crystal panel, creating an image comprised of dots on the drum. The quality of printing of liquid crystal printers is equal to that of laser printers. LCD printers are also called liquid crystal shutter printers. See also LASER PRINTER LED PRINTER NONMPACT PRNTER PAGE PRINTER PIXEL

LEAD The opening passage of a story or initial paragraph of a news story. Also, the major story contained in a newsletter. The term is sometimes purposely misspelled as lede. See also DATELINE FEATURE AGENCY

The term also used to describe a strip of soft metal used between lines of metal type for vertical spacing. Today, it denotes the vertical distance from the baseline of one line to the baseline of the next. It is measured in points or fractions of points. Lead is also called leading. See also HOT METAL TYPESETTING LEADING POINT REGLET

LEADER A series of characters, usually dots or dashes, used to lead the eye from one text element across the page to another related, but separated, text element. It provides a path for the eye to follow. This enhances readability. Leaders are used commonly in tables of contents, as in this example

Chapter 5………………………………………………………233

Word processing programs usually permit one to define tab stops that insert leaders when one presses the Tab key. See also CHARACTER DOT LEADER ELLIPSIS TAB STOP

LEADING In typography, the vertical space between lines of text added to make the document legible. The space is measured in points from the baseline (bottom) of one line to the baseline of the next and, less frequently, measured from ascender to ascender. The term originally referred to the thin lead spacers that printers used to physically increase space between lines of metal type. The word has remained the term for interline space. However, the leading value now also includes the size of the font. For example, 10-point text with 2 points of spacing between lines would result in a leading of 12 points.

The default in computer graphics is normally set at 2 points of leading. Therefore, a 12 point type uses 14 points of leading and 14 point type uses 16 points of leading. Longer lines should be balanced with greater leading for readability. Linespacing should always be greater than wordspacing. In turn, wordspacing should be greater than letterspacing. Although negative leading was impossible with metal type, it is possible with computer-generated text to have negative leading. In this case, the lines of text overlap. Leading is also called the spacing. See also BASELINE CARDING DEFAULT FONT INTERNAL LEADING NEGATIVE LEADING POINT QUAD SET SOLID VERTICAL JUSTIFICATION

LEAD TIME The time required in advance for preparation. In publishing, the time interval from start of initial planning of a magazine issue or book to the date of its publication. The period beginning with conception and ending with publication. The lead time required for monthly magazines is typically is three months, whereas daily newspaper require one day. The lead time for weeklies is somewhere in between. See also PUBLICATION DATE PUT TO BED

LEAF A single sheet of paper consisting of two pages of a book or manuscript. Each side of the leaf is a page - a recto or a verso. See also CANCEL LEAF CONJUGATE LEAVES INTERLEAVED MANUSCRIPT OVERLEAF PAGE QUARTO QUIRE RECTO PAGE SHEET SIGNATURE VERSO

LEAFLET A small printed sheet of paper, single or folded in the center, but not stitched, and distributed free. A leaflet usually contains advertising copy or material of a similar nature.See also BROCHURE CIRCULAR FLYER

LED PRINTER An electrophotographic printer that is similar to LCD and laser printers. The light source, which LED, laser, and LCD printers use, constitutes the chief difference between them. LED printers use an array of small light-emitting diodes instead of a laser. Laser printers have greater resolution and higher printing speeds. See also LASER PRINTER LCD PRINTER NONIMPACT PRINTER PAGE PRINTER RESOLUTION

LEFT JUSTIFICATION A term in typesetting, word processing, and desktop publishing, for text that has been aligned evenly along its left margin, but left ragged on its right. Also, the process of so aligning text in a column or on a page. Text that is left-justified is easier to read than text, which is right-justified or fully justified. See also JUSTIFY RAGGED RIGHT JUSTIFICATION

LEFT JUSTIFY To align the left margin of text. Left-justified text has a left edge that is aligned and a right edge that is ragged. Text aligned on its left margin is known as left-justified text, flush-left text, or ragged right. See also JUSTIFY RIGHT JUSTIFY

LEGAL SIZE A term that denotes page dimensions of 8½ " ´ 14." These are the dimensions of paper used for legal documents in America. See also BASIS SIZE LETTER SIZE PAGE SIZE

LEGEND The descriptive words or statement appearing directly below an illustration to identify or explain it, often called a caption, figure legend, or cutline. Also, the key or explanation on a chart, map, or timetable, to the signs or symbols used. See also CAPTION CUTLINE KEY PLATE

LENDING LIBRARY Any library that rents books for a fee. Such libraries deal mostly in fiction. Lending libraries are also called rental libraries or circulating libraries. See also LIBRARY LIBRARY BINDING LIBRARY EDITION

LETTER An alphabetic character. One of the marks or signs normally used in writing and printing to represent speech sounds. Also, a piece of type bearing such a mark or character.

Letters differ in various ways. The first difference after size and shape results from the choice between upper case and lower case letters. Another difference involves the choice between upright letters (roman) and letters that slant to the right (italic). Finally, there may be differences in the three main parts of letters - x-height, ascender, and descender. The relative proportions of these elements vary by style of type. For example, some typefaces may have small x-heights and long ascenders and descenders, whereas others may have greater x-heights and shorter descenders and ascenders. See also ALPHANUMERIC APEX ARM ASCENDER BODY BOWL CHARACTER COASTLINE COUNTER CROSSBAR DESCENDER EAR EYE GLYPH LOWERCASE NATIONAL CHARACTER STROKE TAIL TERMINAL UPPER CASE X-HEIGHT

LETTER FOLD Another term for panel fold. See PANEL FOLD

LETTERFORM A term for individual characters of a specific typeface. See CHARACTER TYPEFACE

LETTERHEAD A printed heading on stationery, particularly one providing the name and address of a business, organization, etc. A sheet of paper with such a headline. Also, the stationery itself that is unique to a particular business, organization, company, etc..See also BOND PAPER PREPRINTED STOCK TYPEWRITER PAPER

LETTERPRESS The oldest of the main printing methods, letterpress printing is a relief printing process. That is, the image area is raised, or in relief, from the flat surface of the type. It is reversed so that, when printed, it will not appear backwards. Ink is applied to the surface of the metal type. The image is transferred to paper by placing the paper against it and applying pressure. An impression of the image is left on the paper. Only letterpress printing is done directly from type, rather than from intaglio plates or planographically. A rubber stamp provides an example of a simple device for relief printing. See also BED INTAGLIO PROCESS PLANOGRAPHY RELIEF PRINTING

LETTER QUALITY A term used to denote high quality printing from a computer printer at least equal to that of a typed business letter. Printing output that is sufficiently dark and crisp to use in business letters in the United States. A quality of printing that is better than the draft quality produced by dot-matrix or other printers. See also BALL PRINTER DOT MATRIX PRINTER DRAFT QUALITY NEAR-LETTER QUALITY PRINT QUALITY

LETTER-QUALITY PRINTER Any printer that prints fully formed text characters of a quality at least equal to that created by a high-quality office typewriter. Its output is of sufficiently high quality to be acceptable for use for business letters. See also DAISY-WHEEL PRINTER LASER PRINTER

LETTERSET A printing process that combines offset printing with letterpress relief techniques. A process of rotary printing in which the image is transferred from a wraparound plate with letters in relief (as in letterpress) to an intermediate or blanket cylinder, and then to the paper. See also LETTERPRESS OFFSET LITHOGRAPHY

LETTER SHOP A business service that assembles and prepares mailings for others. It specializes in folding and collating printed materials; addressing, stuffing, and sealing envelopes; arranging envelopes in zip code sequence; and bundling and mailing the outgoing mail. Also called mailing service. See also COLLATING SORTING ZIP CODE SEQUENCE

LETTER-SIZE Another term to describe a #10 envelope, the envelope used in United States for business letters. An 8-½": × 11" sheet of paper, which has been folded twice, fits easily into the envelope. Outside of the United States, ISO size A4 is the nearest equivalent size of paper. See also ENVELOPE PAPER PAGE SIZE INTERNATIONAL PAPER SIZES

LETTERSPACING The act or process of adjusting the spaces between letters of words for greater visual appeal and greater ease of reading, to fit more or less copy into the space available, or to lengthen the line. Kerning permits adjustments between individual letters, whereas letterspacing is applied to an entire block of text. Letterspacing is also called tracking or track kerning. See also FIXED KERNING NEGATIVE LETTERSPACING TRACKING WIDTH WORDSPACING

LEXICON The words of a language and their definitions. Also, the special vocabulary of a group, an occupational field, or an individual. See also DICTIONARY EXCEPTION DICTIONARY GLOSSARY THESAURUS

LEXICOGRAPHIC SORT A sorting operation that arranges items in the sequence in which they would appear in a dictionary. Numbers, for example, are placed where they should appear, if they were actually spelled out. As a result, 123 would appear in the O section. See also ASCENDING ORDER DESCENDING ORDER SORT ZIP CODE

LIBEL Written defamation that causes injury to another person. Defamation by written or printed words, pictures, or in any form, except by spoken word or gesture. Anything that is defamatory, misrepresents maliciously, or causes loss of income, damage to reputation, or embarrassment. Libel requires publication. In contrast, slander does not. It can be a private communication. See also DEFAMATION

LIBRARY A collection of books for reading or study, or a room or building where such a collection is kept. The word comes from "liber," the Latin word for book." The Latin word "biblioteca" is the origin of library in the Romance languages, Russian, and German. Many libraries contain periodicals, slides, films, tapes, and other materials today, in addition to books. The number of libraries of al types in the United States has been estimated to exceed 122,000. Also, a collection of programs, files, or electronic documents. See also CATALOG DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM LENDING LIBRARY LIBRARY BINDING LIBRARY EDITION LIBRARY JOURNAL LIBRARY OF CONGRESS NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

LIBRARY BINDING A book bound according to American Library Association standards. Such books have strong endpapers, muslin-reinforced end signatures, and canton flannel backlining. They are sewn with four-cord thread. The book covers are of Library or Caxton Buckram cloth with round corners. Books that have library bindings usually sell at a lower discount due to their higher manufacturing cost. See also ENDPAPERS LIBRARY SIGNATURE SPINE VARIANTS

Library binding also refers to the business of providing specialized binding services to public, private, and institutional libraries. Library binding requires specialized equipment, such as board cutters, blocking presses, rounding and backing machines, smashing and nipping machines, in addition to sewing machines. Services offered by library binders include prebinding, rebinding, periodical or magazine binding, box and portfolio construction, general repair work and, sometimes, rebinding rare books, Bibles, etc. The goal of library binding is to provide a book that will open easily, retain its shape after continued use, and be durable.

LIBRARY CLASSIFICATION SYSTEMS The systems currently prevailing include the Dewey Decimal Classification, the Library of Congress Classification, and the Bliss Classification and Colon Classification. The last two are bibliographic classifications more than literary classifications. Special libraries and research libraries may devise their own systems, based partly on existing classifications, to describe their collections and permit access to them. However, most public libraries in the United States and Canada use the Dewey Decimal System. Universities and special libraries find the Library of Congress Classification system better suited to handle their special collections. See also DEWEY DECIMAL SYSTEM LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER

LIBRARY EDITION A book that has a reinforced binding designed to withstand the stresses of extensive use. See also LIBRARY LIBRARY BINDING

LIBRARY JOURNAL A magazine published by R.R. Bowker Company, which is directed to the public and private libraries of America. The magazine, to which about 300,000 books are submitted each year, reviews 4,500 books annually. It does so to judge their value to the library market. The Library Journal began in 1876 and is now read by more than 100,000 library administrators, and others in public, academic, and special libraries. It is the "bible" of the library world. Library Journal.com is an electronic development of the Library Journal. See also BOOK REVIEW LIBRARY R.R. BOWKER COMPANY

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS (LC) The mission of the Library of Congress is to make its resources available and useful to Congress and the American people, and to sustain and preserve a universal collection of knowledge and creativity for future generations. The Library is situated in Washington, D.C., and serves as the research arm of Congress. It is recognized as the national library of the United States. Its collections comprise the world's most comprehensive record of human creativity and knowledge. The Library of Congress is the world's largest library and an important resource to scholars and researchers. See also COPYRIGHT ISBN ISSN LIBRARY

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER (LCNN) A unique number assigned by the Library of Congress to identify and catalog an individual bibliographic item. Following application by the publisher, the Library of Congress issues an identification number, which is printed on the book's preliminary page along with the copyright information. This control number is also known as the Library of Congress Catalog Card Number. See also CATALOGING IN PUBLICATION LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

LIBRARY PICTURE A term to denote a photograph or other illustration obtained from a library of available pictures, rather than one specifically taken or prepared in order to satisfy the present requirement. See also ILLUSTRATION STOCK ART

LIGATURE Bound together. In typography and printing, ligature is used to denote two or more letters joined together as a single unit for aesthetic reasons. Letters bound together as ligatures include ae, as, ce, oe, ff, fi, ffl, and fl.

Ligatures combine or overlap letters in order to reduce the space between them. They were common during the early days of printing when two or more letters were cast into one letter on one mold. Common ligatures included fi, ffi, and the ff combinations. A ligature differed from a kerning pair in which two separate letters overlapped on the same mold. Some sophisticated word processing programs automatically change pairs of letters into ligatures. In addition, characters can be squeezed together more tightly (kerned) on sophisticated electronic equipment. A ligature is also called tied letters. See also DIPHTHONG KERNING

LIGHT BOX A wooden or metal rectangular box that contains a lamp inside and has a translucent panel on top to permit light to shine through. The translucent panel provides a useful surface on which to place transparencies and other transparent materials for viewing, and on which to work with them. See also LINEUP TABLE TRANSPARENCY

LIGHTFACE A face that has finer strokes than the normal weight of medium typeface. Also used when discussing boldface to describe the opposite, an unbolded type. See also BOLDFACE STROKE STROKE WEIGHT ULTRABOLD TYPE

LIGHTFAST Unaffected by light, especially sunlight. Colorfast. A term applicable to any paper or other substrate that resists fading or color change (e.g., yellowing) when exposed to sunlight. See also ACID-FREE PAPER ALKALINE PAPER BROWNING

LIGHT TABLE Another term for a lineup table. See LINEUP TABLE

LIGHT TYPESTYLE A term to denote a slender version of the roman typestyle. Also called thin. See also LIGHTFACE TYPESTYLE ROMAN

LIGNIN A natural adhesive that binds wood fibers together and imparts rigidity to the tree. Together with cellulose, lignin forms the main part of wood tissue. The brightness of pulp depends on the amount of lignin still remaining in the pulp. A high lignin content will cause paper to "yellow" in sunlight. See also BROWNING MECHANICAL PAPER MECHANICAL PULP

LIMITED EDITION A term used in reference to books or prints and denoting a special printing of a limited quantity. Limited edition copies of a book may be numbered consecutively and are sometimes signed by the author. They occasionally are sold in a special slipcase. A book bearing the numbers 100/500 is probably the 100th copy of an edition of 500 copies. See also EDITION SLIPCASE

LINE A line of printed text, typically 60 to 70 characters. Although non-graphical computer screens can accommodate about 80 characters per line, a line length of about 65 is easier to read. More characters can be accommodated if serif is used. See also LINE LENGTH MEASURE SERIF WORD COUNT

LINE ART Artwork or illustrations consisting entirely of black and white images without shades of gray. Line art does not require screening in order to reproduce it. Line art can reproduced accurately by printers that have only low-to-medium-resolution. Examples of line art include solid black and white logos or icons and drawings by pen-and-ink. Continuous tone images, such as photographs, are not line art. Another term for line art is line drawing. See also CONTINUOUS TONE GRAPHICS HALFTONE LINE DRAWING RESOLUTION

LINE BREAK A term to indicate where the last word, or part of a word, on a line of text ends prior to the remainder of the word continuing on a new line, or a new word beginning. See also BAD PAGE BREAK SOFT RETURN

LINE COPY Any text that contains no intermediate tones (halftones). No screening is required in order to reproduce line copy. It is high contrast material, generally only in black and white. Line copy is sometimes called line art or line work. See also HALFTONE LINE ART SCREEN

LINE COUNT Another term for screen frequency. See SCREEN FREQUENCY

LINE CUT In printing, an unscreened photoengraving, typically on zinc, that consists only of lines or areas of solid black tone. Line cut is also termed line etching, line engraving, or zinc etching. Compare to HALFTONE SCREEN

LINE DRAWING A term applicable to any black-and-white drawing or illustration that contains no shades of gray. It requires no screening for reproduction. It consists merely of solid black lines and black on a white background. It has no gray or middle tones (halftones). Also termed line art. See also LINE ART HALFTONE

LINE GAUGE A metal ruler used by printers to measure in picas and points. It is 72 picas (11.952 in.) in length. See also PICA POINT RULER

LINE LENGTH The length of a line of text using the combined number of characters and word spaces as units of measure. A line of 80 characters is a standard length for text mode displays. It has its origin in the punched card of mainframe computer systems. Line lengths can contain more or fewer characters depending on the fonts chosen.

The standard line length for books is 10 words per line (about 60 characters). For newspapers, the standard length is about five words per line (about 30 characters). For readability, the smaller the type, the shorter should be the length of the lines. Lines having less than five words will have too many uncomfortable word breaks if one is hyphenating, or too many too short lines, if one is not. This will make it more difficult to read with comprehension. See also LINE MEASURE

LINE NEGATIVE A negative made from line copy. A line negative is a negative of high contrast. It is used when there is no need for continuous tone. See also CONTINUOUS TONE HIGH CONTRAST LINE COPY

LINEN FINISH A paper surface that simulates a linen texture. The fibers form a woven, linen-like pattern. The term also describes a book cloth containing white threads that add a two-tone effect to the colored material. See also DANDY ROLL PAPER

LINEN TESTER See LOUPE

LINE PRINTER A term applicable to any computer that prints one line at a time, rather than character by character or one page at a time. This includes drum printers, print-chain printers, and band (belt) printers. Line printers are high speed printers, usually driven by mainframe or networked computers, which are capable of printing up to 3,000 lines per minute. Their output is typically printed on 11" × 17" fanfold paper. Because line printers are impact printers, they are noisy. However, their main disadvantages are their low print quality and inability to print graphics. See also CHARACTER PRINTER IMPACT PRINTER LINES PER MINUTE PRINTER

LINE RATE A term used in reference to the cost of advertising space in newspapers, particularly classified advertisements. The line rate is the price charged for one agate line. See AGATE LINE CLASSIFIED AD COLUMN INCH

LINE SCREEN The number of lines per inch (lpi) of the screen used in halftone creation. See HALFTONE LINES PER INCH SCREEN

LINE SHOT A term for any print, negative, or printing plate that contains only solid areas of the image and no halftones. See also HALFTONE NEGATIVE

LINE SPACING See LEADING

LINES PER INCH (LPI) A measure of resolution for halftone screens (shades of gray or colors). This is the number of lines (of the printer's screen) per inch in a screen tint, halftone, or separation. It is also called the screen frequency. The greater the number of lines, the more accurate will be the halftone. Newspaper screens typically have 85 LPI, whereas quality magazines may use 150 LPI.

In general, the DPI of the output device and the number of shades of gray needed determine the LPI of the halftone. A screened output of 300-DPI is approximately equivalent to a 50-LPI (draft quality) screen. A screened output of 600 DPI is approximately equivalent to a 100-LPI screen and would be adequate for most work. If higher resolutions are required, a screened output of 2400-DPI should suffice. See also DOTS PER INCH FREQUENCY HALFTONE RESOLUTION SCREEN

LINES PER MINUTE (LPM) The number of lines of characters that a printer can print in one minute. Lines per minute is used as a convenient comparative measure of printer speed, particularly for dot-matrix printers. Pages per minute is a more commonly used measure of printing speed for laser and inkjet printers. See also DOT MATRIX PRINTER LINE PRINTER PAGES PER MINUTE

LINE STYLE A term in desktop publishing, high-end word processing, and printing for the quality and form of a line, as expressed by terms such as hairline, dotted line, or double line. See also DESKTOP PUBLISHING HAIRLINE

LINE-UP BOARD See PASTE-UP BOARD

LINEUP TABLE A table constructed for use in viewing transparencies and slides, working with negatives, checking the alignment of page layouts, and pasting up artwork. The table resembles a long shallow box on legs. It has a white upper surface of glass that is lit from inside. The light shining up through it the glass top is of great help when pasting-up layouts, as it enables one to see through the paper, facilitating alignment of elements. See also LAYOUT LIGHT BOX PASTE-UP TRANSPARENCY

LINE WIDTH See MEASURE

LINING A term used to describe the material pasted onto the spine of a book after the case has been sewn, glued, and rounded, but before it is casebound. The lining reinforces the glue and helps to hold signatures together. Also, the act of lining books. See also CASE CASEBOUND SIGNATURE SPINE

LINING PAPERS Another term for endpapers or endsheets. See ENDSHEETS

LINK The connecting line between the bowl and the tail of the lowercase g. See also BOWL TAIL

LINO A shortened form of Linotronic. See LINOTRONIC

LINOTRONIC Any in the series of the high-quality printers known as Linotronic laser imagesetters, which are capable of printing at resolutions of up to 2,540 dots per inch (dpi). These machines use PostScript Page Description Language and are typically connected to PostScript raster image processors in order that typesetting can be done directly from a computer. Linotronic is a copyrighted brand name. See also IMAGESETTER POSTSCRIPT RASTER IMAGE PROCESSOR

LINOTYPE A trademak for a type of "hot type" typesetting machine that casts complete lines of type, each on slugs of metal, for relief printing. The type is selected automatically by keyboard. The machine was invented in 1886 by Ottmar Margenthaler. The machines are available in several series, including three that are able to process PostScript files through an external RIP and typeset desktop publishing files direct from disk. See also HOT METAL TYPESETTING IMAGESETTER LINOTRONIC SLUG

LIST A term in book publishing to denote a list of all titles available for sale from a book publisher. See also BACK LIST FRONT LIST TITLE

LIST PRICE In book publishing, the suggested retail price of a book. The price suggested by the publisher to a bookseller at which to resell to consumers. This differs from the net or discounted price at which bookstores or distributors purchase from the publisher. A bookstore typically receives a 40 percent discount from list price. ("list price less a 40 percent discount" or "40 percent off list"). List price is also called cover price. See also COURTESY DISCOUNT DISCOUNTS SHORT DISCOUNT TRADE LIST

LITERAL In accordance with the primary or strict meaning of the word, statement, or text. Not figurative or metaphorical. The most straightforward meaning. A literal translation is one that attempts to follow the words of the original very closely and convey the exact meaning of the text. True to fact and without exaggeration. See also FIGURE OF SPEECH IRONY METAPHOR

LITERARY AGENT A person or company that acts as an intermediary between author and publisher and who is paid a commission by the author for managing the commercial exploitation of rights of his works on his behalf. This includes submitting a book to publishers, negotiating a contract, collecting money due, and exploiting other rights not held by the publisher, such as broadcasting and film rights. A literary agent's commission is typically 15% of domestic sales and 20% of foreign sales.

As the number of book publishers who will consider only agent-submitted manuscripts grows, more writers turn to agents to sell their manuscripts. However, because agents derive their income from the sales of their clients' work, they must represent only writers who sell regularly to good markets. Therefore, it is often difficult for an unpublished author to find a competent literary agent who is prepared to represent him. See also AGENT MANUSCRIPT

LITERARY MARKET PLACE (LMP) An extensive directory of the book publishing and distribution industry that is published by R.R. Bowker Company and updated annually. LMP contains more than 20,000 names, addresses, and telephone numbers of persons in the industry, agents, publishing-related agencies and associations, researchers, copy editors, indexing firms, commission reps, book manufacturers, wholesalers by their field of activity, remainder dealers, prebinders, book exporters and importers, export representatives, and suppliers. In addition, LMP lists more than 3,000 publishers of books, magazines, and newspapers. The publication is considered to be the Bible of the book publishing industry. It does not contain book retailers. See also BOOK TRADE MARKET R.R. BOWKER COMPANY

LITHOGRAPHY A printing process invented in 1798 in Munich, lithography is based on the natural aversion of water to grease. It is one of a class of processes termed planographic, because the printing surface (stone, zinc, or a similar smooth-surfaced material) is not incised. Both image area and non-image areas are on the same plane (plate). However, the photographically prepared printing plate, when made, was treated chemically so that the image will accept ink and repel water.

A flat printing plate of metal, plastic, or paper is used. The image on the plate is lightly coated with grease. When water is applied to the plate, it is repelled by the grease, although a thin coating of moisture forms over the non-image area. When ink is applied to the plate, it adheres to the grease-covered areas, but is repelled by the moist areas.

In modern commercial lithographic printing, the inked image is offset from the plate to a rubber blanket covering a cylinder. Lithographic printing on a modern rotary offset press can produce high quality impressions of fine detail at high speed. The term, lithography, comes from the Greek lithos for stone, as a porous Bavarian limestone was used for the first lithographic printing plate. See also DRIOGRAPHY HYDROPHILIC OFFSET LITHOGRAPHY

LJ The abbreviation of Library Journal. See LIBRARY JOURNAL

LMP Literary Market Place. See LITERARY MARKET PLACE

LOGO A shortened version of logotype, a printing term. See LOGOTYPE

LOGOTYPE A single piece of type that bears two or more separate and uncombined letters, a syllable, or a word. Also, a word or combination of letters used as a single unit in a specially styled symbol to represent a company. An advertising mark somewhat similar to a trademark and used by a business to contribute toward the creation of a particular desired corporate, product, or brand image. See also DEVICE SYLLABLE SYMBOL TRADEMARK WATERMARK

LONG CROSS See OBELISK

LONG INK A term that describes the flow characteristic of an ink. A long ink will flow well on the rollers of a printing press. However, it will also tend to mist. See also INK INK MIST SHORT INK

LOOP An alternative term for tail. See TAIL

LOOSE A reference to letterspacing that has been increased. Space between letters that has been adjusted to provide more room between letters. See also L:OOSE LINE TIGHT

LOOSE LEAF A method of binding that facilitates the insertion and removal of pages for continuous updating. Individual sheets of paper are bound in an exchangeable form, enabling the addition to, removal from, or relocation of, pages in the book. A loose-leaf binding is useful if records will change continuously, as with catalogs and. Instruction manuals. A loose leaf publication is also termed ring-bound. See also DRILLING MECHANICAL BINDING RING BINDING

LOOSE LINE A term applicable to a line of printing that has looser word spacing than that of the surrounding text. The line has too much blank space, usually between words. The space between words in conventional printing typically ranges between one third and one fourth of the point size. See also JUSTIFICATION LETTERSPACING POINT SIZE

LOSSY A computer image compression method that is slightly degenerative. Minor tonal and color variations are deleted following which the image is compressed. As a result, there is some loss of detail at high compression. See also DECOMPRESSION

LOUPE A small free-standing magnifying glass used to examine fine detail on a page, printed image, film, or plate. Also termed linen tester. See also FILM GLASS PLATE

LOWERCASE (l.c.) A term descriptive of small letters in a font of type (e.g., a, b, c), as distinct from uppercase or capital letters (e.g., A B, C). The term originated in the location of the type drawers, called cases, in which typographers stored their metal or wood letterforms during the early days of letterpress printing. The capital letters were traditionally kept in the upper case and the small letters were stored in the lower case. Programs that are able to distinguish between lowercase and uppercase are called case-sensitive. See also LETTER MINISCULE MIXED CASE UPPERCASE X-HEIGHT X-LINE

LOW KEY IMAGE A dark image that is missing noticeable highlights. A picture lacking in tonal gradations and contrast. For example, a dark subject on a dark background would form a low key image. See also CONTRAST GRADATION HIGHLIGHT

LOW RESOLUTION A term describing an image or screen that provides relatively coarse detail. It applies particularly to raster-oriented computer displays and printing. The number of pixels or dots in an image determines its resolution. Fewer pixels cause a lower resolution. Draft-quality dot-matrix printing at 125 dots per inch would constitute low-resolution printing. See also DOTS PER INCH HGH RESOLUTION RESOLUTION

LPI The abbreviation of lines per inch. See LINES PER INCH

LPN See LINES PER MINUTE

LQ Abbreviation for letter quality. See LETTER QUALITY

LUMINOSITY Luminance. The attribute or characteristic of intellectual brilliance or being inspired or enlightened. Also, the brightness of an image or amount of light it contains. See also BRIGHTNESS