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Dash - a short horizontal rule used for punctuation.

Descender - any part of a lower case letter that extends below the x-height, as in the case of y and j.

Densitometer - A quality control devise to measure the density of printing ink.

Density - the degree of darkness (light absorption or opacity) of a photographic image.

Diazo - A light sensitive coating used on printing plates

Die - a hardened steel engraving stamp used to print an inked image. Used in the production of good quality letter headings.

Die-cutting - the process of using sharp steel dies to cut special shapes in paper, board, or other material.

Disk Operating System (DOS) - software for computer systems with disk drives, which supervises and controls the running of programs. The operating system is 'booted' into the computer from disk by a small program that permanently resides in the memory. Common operating systems include MS-DOS, PC-DOS (IBM's version of MS-DOS), CP/M (an operating system for older, 8-bit computers), Unix and BOS.

Digital color proof - an off-press proofing process where a composite color proof is made directly from digital date without the need for separation films. Digital proofing processes include Iris prints and dye sublimation prints.

Digital plates - plates that can be exposed directly from a digital prepress system, without using separation films.

Digital press - a printing press that has a RIP and platemaking functionality (or some alternate technology) built-in, enabling fast, affordable short-run color printing without the expenses of creating films and proofs. Digital presses are generally more cost-effective than traditional offset color printing for print runs under 5,000 pieces. Common digital presses include the Heidelberg GTO-DI and Quickmaster- DI, the Indigo E- Print, and the AGFA Chromapress.

Display type - larger type used for headings etc. Normally about 18 point or larger.

Dot - An element of halftones. Using a loupe you will see that printed pictures are made many dots.

Dot gain or spread - A term used to explain the difference in size between the dot on film v paper. A small degree of dot gain almost always occurs during printing on offset and web presses, so the effects must be compensated for during prepress.

Dot matrix printer - a printer in which each character is formed from a matrix of dots. They are normally impact systems, i.e. a wire is fired at a ribbon in order to leave an inked dot on the page, but thermal and electro-erosion systems are also used.

Dots per inch (DPI) - the resolution an output device (such as a laser printer or imagesetter) is capable of reproducing. The measurement of resolution for a bitmap image such as a scanned photograph.

Double burn - Exposing a plate to multiple images.

Double density - a method of recording on floppy disks using a modified frequency modulation process that allows more data to be stored on a disk.

Double page spread - two facing pages of newspaper or magazine where the textual material on the left-hand side continues across to the right hand side. Abbreviated to DPS.

Downloadable fonts - typefaces that can be stored on a disk and then downloaded to the printer when required for printing. These are, by definition, bit-mapped fonts and, therefore, fixed in size and style.

DPI (Dots Per Inch) - the measurement of resolution for page printers, phototypesetting machines and graphics screens. Currently graphics screens reproduce 60 to 100dpi, most page printers work at 300dpi and typesetting systems operate at 1,000dpi and above.

Drawdown - A sample of ink and paper used to evaluate ink colors.

Drawn on - a method of binding a paper cover to a book by drawing the cover on and gluing to the back of the book.

Drop cap - a large initial letter at the start of the text that drops into the line or lines of text below.

Dropout - portions of originals that do not reproduce in copying or printing, especially colored-lines and light backgrounds. Dropout often occurs on purpose, as in the case with bluelines on mechanicals or paste-up boards.

Dry transfer (lettering) - Characters, drawings, etc that can be transferred to the artwork by rubbing them off the back of the transfer sheet. Best known is Letraset.

DTP - is the acronym for Desk Top Publishing

Dummy - A rough layout of a printed piece showing position and finished size.

Duotone - a term for a two-color halftone reproduction from a one-color photographic image. See also tritone and quadtone.

Duplex paper - paper with a different color or finish on each side.

Dye Sublimation Proof - A digital, non-film proofing process in which CMYK dye solutions are applied to a paper carrier to approximate the final color images.

Dye transfer - a photographic color print using special coated papers to produce a full color image. Can serve as an inexpensive proof.

Dylux - Photographic paper made by DuPont and used for bluelines.