Abrade

To roughen a mesh surface, yielding what is termed "tooth."

Absorption

Property, which causes paper to take up liquids or vapors in contact with it. In optics, the partial suppression of light through a transparent or translucent material.

Account-opener

Direct premium offered by a bank or savings institution to a depositor opening a new account.

Acetate

Silk like in appearance and feel. Resistant to stretch and shrinkage. Fiber-forming substance is cellulose acetate.

Acknowledgement

Written notice to a distributor from a supplier that an order has been received.

Acrylic

Soft and woolly. Appearance varies from smooth and thin to a thick woven texture. Springs back when crushed.

Ad Copy

Lettering imprinted on any item. Usually an advertiser's name, sales message, trademark or slogan.

Advance premium

Merchandise gives to a new customer on the condition that he or she earns it via a later purchase.

Advertiser

Purchaser of specialties. Also know as an end-user or buyer.

Advertising specialty

Useful or interesting article or merchandise, usually carrying an imprinted advertising or promotional message, given with no obligation. Also known as a giveaway adcentive or promotional product.

Aetz

Imitation lace made on an Schiffli loom. The end result of the aetzing process.

Aetzing

The process of eliminating the base fabric leaving only the threads remaining, resulting in lace.

Airbrush

Graphic technique in which ink is applied with compressed air, similar to spray painting, to render a soft, airy effect.

Allover

Continuous embroidery that covers all of the fabric from selvage to selvage.

Analog color proof

Off-press color proof made from separation films.

Anniversary plan

Goodwill-building promotion in which employees or customers receive a specialty or business gift on their hiring anniversaries.

Anti-static

Prevents the accumulation of static electricity and helps keep the fabric from clinging to the wearer or to other garments.

Application

A.k.a. "app" "program" "software" Used interchangeably with program and software, this is a general term for a program that performs specific tasks, such as word processing, database management, e-mail sending or retrieval, or Web browsing. Unlike system software, which maintains and organizes the computer system (such as the operating system), an app is an end-user program.

Appliqué

1. An embroidered motif, aetzed or cut, which can be used as a separate embroidered figure (Schiffli embroidery). 2. Fabric, which may or may not be previously embroidered, sewn to another piece of fabric or to a garment.

Argyle

Multicolored diamond pattern used in knitwear, especially socks and sweaters.

Art

All illustration copy used in preparing a job for printing.

Art proof

Artwork submitted for client approval, usually a black-and-white stat of the camera-ready art.

ASCII

Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. The general specification of bits in a computer to input, store, process, and output text characters.

Attachment (or) attached file

A.k.a. "enclosure" A file (or group of files) that is included (or “attached”) with an e-mail message. You can attach files through almost any popular e-mail program, such as Eudora or Outlook Express. Usually, this is accomplished by simply clicking the “attach file” button and then browsing through your computer system to find and select the desired file or image. Be careful with attachments, however, as they stay on your computer unless you go into your attachments folder and delete them. The best thing to do if you want to save an attachment is to open it, do a “save as,” and put it in a folder on your computer. That way, you can routinely go into your attachments folder and delete them all without worrying about losing one you want. Never open any attachment you receive from someone you do not know; it may contain a virus.

Author's alterations (AAs)

Changes in type at the proof stages, made by and chargeable to the client.

Award

Recognition merchandise, often personalized, used to acknowledge performance or milestones.

Baby herringbone

Herringbone knit using fine yarns resulting in a lighter and smoother fabrication.

Baby pique

Pique knit using fine yarns - same as baby herringbone.

Backing

Woven or non-woven material used underneath the item or fabric being embroidered to provide support and stability.

Badge

An insignia of identification

Basket weave

Variations of the plain weave in which two or more warp and weft threads are woven side by side to resemble a "basket" look. Fabrics have a loose construction and a flat appearance.

Beaded placket

Design detail at the opening of the placket that is formed by rolling the underside of the top placket to the face creating a piped or ridge detail at the edge. Sometimes the beading is in a contrast color.

Bean Stitch

Three stitches applied back and forth between two points, in the same space as one regular stitch. This stitch is used to provide secure registration in place of a repeated, single stitch outline that may not align properly.

Bengaline

Lustrous durable fabric with heavy crosswise ribs, used to make coats and suits.

Binary

Any downloadable file that contains more than simply human-readable, ASCII text. Typically it refers to a runnable program available text. Typically, it refers to a program available for download, but it can also refer to pictures, sounds, or movies, among other things. Most newsgroups have subgroups specifically for binaries; a posting in comp.sys.mac.comm might announce that a program is available for download, but the binary (the file itself) would be found in comp.sys.mac.comm.binaries. Newsgroups, such as alt.pictures.binaries, contain files for download (in this case, pictures). You will need a newsreader to download and decode binary files.

Binary numbers

A numbering system with a base (radix) of 2, it is unlike the numbering systems most of us use, which have bases of 10 (decimal numbers), 12 (measurement in feet and inches), and 60 (time). Binary numbers are preferred for computers, for precision and economy. Building an electronic circuit that can detect the difference between two states (high current and low current, or 0 and 1) is easier and less expensive than building circuits that detect the difference among 10 states (0 through 9). The word bit is derived from the phrase BInary digiT.

BIOS

Basic Input/Output System (pronounced: buy-ohss) A technical computing term used to describe what is coded into a PC’s ROM to provide the basic instructions for controlling the system hardware. The operating system (OS) and application programs both directly access BIOS routines to provide better compatibility for such functions as screen display. Some makers of add-in boards, such as graphics accelerator cards, provide their own BIOS modules that work in conjunction with (or replace) the BIOS on the system’s motherboard.

Biowashed

Caps are dyed normally and then very gently washed with stones in a chemical solvent to create a very subtle worn look.

Bird's eye

Small diamond pattern accentuated by a dot in the middle, resembling the eye of a bird. Commonly used in suitings.

Birthday plan

Sale whereby employees or customers receive a specialty or business gift on their birthdays.

Bit

Basic unit of digital information.

Bitmap

Any picture you see on a Web page is a bitmap. Bitmaps come in many file formats, such as GIF, JPG, TIF, BMP, PCT, PCX, and DIB (Device Independent Bitmap). They can be read and edited by paint programs and image editors such as Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro. As its name suggests, a bitmap is a map of dots or pixels. If you zoom in or try to scale up a bitmap, it will look blocky.

Blanket cloth

Thick heavily fulled woolen fabric with a softly brushed finish similar to an actual blanket, used for outerwear.

Blatt Stitch

A term used in Schiffli embroidery, referring to zig zag stitches laid close together. In Multihead embroidery, the term is Satin Stitch.

Blazer cloth

General term for a variety of flannels and meltons used to make blazers.

Blends

Two or more types of staple fibers in one yarn to achieve color mixtures, unusual dyeing variations, or better performance characteristics. The most common blend is cotton and polyester.

Blind embossing

Design stamped without metallic leaf or ink, giving a bas-relief effect.

Blind Stamping

Hot-stamping without fail. The approach, used often with leather, gives a subtler imprint than hot stamping and a shallower imprint than debossing.

Bobbin

A pre-wound reel or spool of thread, usually plain white. The contents of the bobbin, the bobbin thread, are stitched to the back of the fabric.

Boiled wool

Thick dense fabric that is heavily fulled to completely obscure its knitted construction. It has the suppleness of a knit, with the ability and shape retention of a woven fabric.

Bonding

The joining together of two fabrics permanently with a bonding agent (also known as heat sealing).

Bore

A sharp pointed instrument used to puncture goods, part of the Schiffli embroidery machine.

Boring

Openwork incorporated into embroidered designs; a sharp-pointed instrument punctures or bores the fabric, and stitches are made around the opening to enclose the raw edges.

Borrowed interest

Technique in which a marketer associates a promotion or product with a better-known property for the purpose of attracting attention or implied endorsement.

Boucle

French for buckled, curled or ringed. It describes a knitted or woven fabric characterized by loops, knots, or curls on one or both sides, made with a variety of looped, curled, or slubbed yarns in one or both directions.

Boucle

A yarn with loops producing a rough, nubby appearance on woven or knitted fabric.

Bounce

When an e-mail message cannot get to its recipient for some reason, it is returned or bounced to the sender, with an error message informing the user that it was not sent. This is also known as “bouncing back.” You may hear someone say, “I tried to send you an e-mail message but it got bounced back.” If this happens to you, check the e-mail address and contact tech support at your ISP.

Bounce-back

Bonus direct-mail offer sent along with a premium won or earned by the consumer.

Break for color

To separate, by color, elements to be printed in different colors.

Brights (Color Families)

Grouping made up of vibrant, primary colors such as blue, green, red, and yellow.

Broadcloth

Close plain weave fabric made of cotton, rayon, or a blend of cotton or rayon with polyester. The term broadcloth is also used in reference to a plain or twill weave wool or wool-blend fabric that is highly napped (brushed) and then pressed flat.

Broken link (or) broken graphic

A link that no longer works or a graphic that does not appear when a Web page loads are said to be "broken." In other words, when a link or image is "clicked on" and it does not take you to the correct destination, but instead an error message appears, the link is broken. When an image doesn’t load, and instead you see the alt text or some generic icon shapes, it’s a broken graphic. Broken links and broken graphics occur for several reasons: the server hosting the Web site has shut down temporarily or has been restarted; the Web site has moved to an entirely new server; the file or files have been moved or deleted; or the HTML code is incorrect.

Browser

Used to view and navigate Web pages and other information on the World Wide Web.

Browser compatibility

A term used to compare the way a Web page looks on one WWW browser as opposed to another. For example, if you view NetLingo.com on Netscape, it will look pretty much the same as it does on Internet Explorer (illustrating browser compatibility). Some time ago, though, if you viewed NetLingo.com on the AOL browser, it would’ve looked jumbled (a case of browser incompatibility). The reason these incompatibilities exist relates to the way a browser interprets the code that creates a Web page (HTML). Browser compatibility can also refer to cross-platform compatibility, which is, for example, the way a page renders or displays on a Windows system as opposed to on a Mac. The differences are usually very slight, however, just enough to annoy some Web designers and their clients into spending great time and energy on beta-testing a Web site with every browser on every type of system. Browser compatibility is often mentioned in conjunction with the term browser support, but the two should not be confused.

Brushing

Finishing process for knit or woven fabrics where brushes or other devices are used to raise a nap in fabrics to create a novelty surface texture. Used mainly in fall or winter seasons because of its warm feel.

Buckram

Liner that adds support to the front of a cap.

Bug

Manufacturer's identification mark printed on a form or product, usually in an inconspicuous area.

Bullion

A hand made emblem, made with brass or silver hollow thread. These finished emblems are a product of India or Pakistan.

Business gift

Merchandise given by a business for goodwill, without obligation to its customers and employees. Also known as an executive gift.

Buy-in

Opportunity for travel incentive participants to purchase part of a trip if they do not fully qualify by sales performance.

Byte

Unit of digital information, equivalent to one character or 8 or 32 bits.

CAD/CAM

Computer Assisted Design/Computer Assisted Makeup or Manufacturing.

Calvary twill

Strong rugged fabric with a pronounced twill line on the back. Made with a steep 63-degree twill weave, worsted yarns and a very tight weave. Used for sportswear, uniforms, coats, and suits.

Camera-ready art

Any drawing, photos, illustration or lettering suitable for photographic reproduction.

Canvas

Heavy, firm, strong plain weave or basket weave fabric often made of cotton. It is produced in many grades and qualities and may have a soft or firm hand.

Cartoon

Prior to the modern method of digitizing on-screen, an enlarged picture or cartoon of a design was drawn, using the industry-standard six to one ratio (the cartoon being six times larger than the resulting design).

CAS (Certified Advertising Specialist)

Designated industry title signifying that the holder has attained seven certified education units by attending 70 hours of educational offerings.

Casting

Method in which molten metal is forced into a mold of rubber or plaster, then cooled into the desired shape.

Catalog price

Price of a product shown in a supplier's catalog. There can be no requirement, implied or expressed, by the supplier that the price is adhered to by any person selling that product. Also known as Suggest List Price.

CD-ROM

Compact Disc - Read Only Memory An optical storage technology that stores and plays back data. “Read only” means the information on the disc may be capable of being displayed or used but not deleted. CD-ROMs are commonly used for encyclopedias, dictionaries, and software libraries, and they are also used for multimedia applications. One CD-ROM can hold around 650 megabytes, or the equivalent of 700 floppy disks. CD-ROMs have become a favorite medium for installing programs, since they cost only slightly more to manufacture than floppy disks and most major software applications would require at least five floppies. Most computers now have a CD-ROM drive. Don’t sound hopelessly out of touch with technology—be sure to use the term “CD-ROM” to refer to the technology or the discs, but not to the hardware you play the discs on; that’s a “CD-ROM drive.”

Chain Stitch

Named for its resemblance to a chain link, this stitch is usually applied using a single head embroidery machine.

Chalk stripes

White or light-colored stripes woven against a dark back group, like a chalk mark on a blackboard. They are usually more widely spaced than pin stripes.

Challis

High-quality, lightweight, especially soft fabric made with tightly spun worsted yarns and a plain weave, although sometimes a twill weave is used. Originally printed with small floral designs, now also made in plain colors and dark all-over prints. Used for scarves, blouses, and dresses.

Chambray

Plain weave fabric usually of cotton, rayon, or a blend of these. Chambray usually has yarn dyed yarns in the warp direction, and white yarns in the filling direction. It is often made in striped patterns. It is also frequently made with indigo or pigment dye to face with multiple washings.

Chenille

Form of embroidery in which a loop stitch is formed on the topside of the fabric. Uses heavy yarns of wool, cotton, or acrylic. Also known as loop piling.

Chenille

A form of embroidery widely used in the college apparel markets, in which a large loop stitch is left on the top of the fabric. This embroidery utilizes the chain stitch described above.

Cheviot

Broad term for rough surfaced, heavily fulled woolen or worsted fabrics used to make suits and overcoats.

Chino

Twill weave fabric with a slight sheen, often made in a bottom weight fabric of cotton or cotton/polyester. Frequently, it is made of combed, two-ply yarns in both warp and filling and vat-dyed in khaki.

Clean-up charge

Factory charge added for the labor costs involved in cleaning the printing press after using nonstandard ink. Also known as a wash-up charge.

Clients

Individuals who buy promotional products from distributors.

Cloisart

Hot-stamp procedure where the desired logo/copy is foil hot-stamped on a solid brass or metal base, and then covered with epoxy dome.

Cloisonné

Product in which a colored paste, made from ground glass, is applied to recessed areas, then fired at 1400 degrees and polished by stone and pumice to achieve brilliant color. Since gullies and ridges separate each individual color, fine lines between them are difficult to achieve.

CMYK

Cyan, magenta, yellow, black subtractive colors for process color reproduction.

Collateral materials

Advertising materials that are not transmitted to consumers via traditional ad media, such as catalogs, shelf cards, posters, specification sheets and trade information materials.

Collectibles

Premiums designed to have inherent value based upon their perceived collectibility.

Color correction

Any method, such as masking, dot etching, re-etching and scanning, used to improve color rendition.

Color families

Traditional tones are classic and timeless shades often deep and saturated. These colors include navy blue, forest green, burgundy, olive, along with khaki and cream.

Color proof

First or early printing of a finished color ad, combining impressions from each of the separate progressive color plates.

Color separation

Separation of multicolored original art by camera or laser-scan techniques to produce individual separated colors. There are four common separations: yellow, magenta, cyan and black.

Colorfast

Prevents the dyed color of a garment from fading due to sunlight, body moisture, laundry bleaches, or stained removal.

Column Stitching

Tightly placed zigzag stitching. Straight or curved, it is commonly used in lettering and in borders. Also known as Satin Stitching or Steil stitching.

COM

Although it’s in all capital letters, COM is not an acronym. It’s a contraction of communications, and it’s used to describe the serial port on a PC. COM is generally used in conjunction with a number, as in COM1, COM2, COM3, or COM4 (for example, a printer port).

Combination sale

Tie-in of a premium with a purchase at a combination price; sometimes self-liquidating; on an on-pack.

Compacting

Mechanical process in which knit fabrics are compressed in the lengthwise direction to tighten the construction and control shrinkage.

Complex Fill

A digitizing term used to describe a pre-defined section of a design that includes areas of knock out (fabric show through).

Comprehensive layout

Final stage of a layout, finished to very closely resemble how the printed piece will look.

Compression

The process of making computer data smaller so less is needed to represent the same information and, consequently, the information takes up less disk or file space and may be transmitted in less time.

Computerized composition

All-inclusive term for the use of computers to automatically perform the functions of the hyphenation, justification, and page formatting.

Condensed Format

Type of embroidery machine output format. The recording of only the points digitized which are later expanded to include all the stitches the machine will stitch in the format required.

Consumer promotion

Program that uses premiums or other incentives to get buyers to sample, purchase or remain loyal to a product or service.

Container premium

Product packed inside a special reusable container that is different from the product's standard packaging.

Content

Textual information, images, art, diagrams, videos that appear on the Web site.

Content management

Process by which information is modified on a Web site.

Contest

Competition based on skill, in which prizes are offered. Proof-of-purchase is usually required with entry.

Continuity program

Promotion in which a set of related specialties or premiums are offered over a period of time.

Continuity promotion

Supermarket or other retail plan. (See Piece-a-Week and/or Tape Plan) Term may also apply to Coupon Plan.

Continuous tone art

Photography, painting or other piece of art in which black-and-white tones gradually merge into one another.

Contrasting

Using an embroidery thread color different from the color of the garment. For example, yellow and white thread used to embroider a navy blue shirt.

Controlled-markdown plan

Retail stamp or tape-redemption program that apples all markdowns to a limited group of grocery items and restricts them to loyal customers.

Cooperative (Co-op) program

Arrangement whereby the marketing elements (usually dealers) of a company order specialties from a specific distributor who has been awarded the exclusive right to imprint the corporate logo, in return for advantages to the company and dealers.

Coordinating

Thread colors are chosen that coordinate with the garment. For example, a navy blue shirt with a dark green collar and cuffs would have dark green embroidery.

Copy

Written content of advertising or editorial matter in the media.

Copy testing

Tests to determine consumer response to advertising copy and more broadly, to the total content - written and visual - of advertisements.

Cost per inquiry

Cost to generate an inquiry in direct-response advertising. Calculated by the total cost of the direct-response advertising divided by the number of inquires it generates.

Cost per thousand (CPM)

Traditionally called CPM, because the "M" represents the Roman numeral for thousand. Dividing circulation or audience calculates the figure by a thousand and dividing the result into the cost of the advertising unit.

Cotton-carded

Coarse, uneven yarns are made from lower grade short staple cotton fibers into less expensive fabrics.

Cotton-combed

Smooth, even yarns are made of long staple cotton fibers into fine weave or fine gauge knit fabrics.

Cotton-ring spun

Spinning process that further refines a yarn to achieve the desired yarn size. This results in a smoother and more uniform yarn and produces fabrics that take dyes evenly and have superior hand feel.

Cotton-sueded

Fabric that goes through a brushing process to raise the nap and give the garment a soft hand.

Coupon plan

Program in which premiums can be earned by accumulating proof-of-purchase coupons, labels or other tokens.

Cover stitch

Multineedle decorative topstitch traditionally used on underwear, T-shirts, Henley’s, and long johns, but more recently used as a fashion/design detail on a variety of knits.

Cover stitching

Using two needles to overlap threads underneath, covering the over-edged seams with a smooth-seamed layer of threads.

Coverage

The geographic area reached with specified intensity by an advertising medium. Also that reaction of an audience that is reached one or more times by a particular advertising schedule.

Covert

Rugged, water-repellent fabric made with a compact twill weave and tightly twisted worsted yarns. Usually, two shades of a color are twisted together, creating a two-ply yarn with a flecked or specked appearance. Used for topcoats, suits, and sportswear.

Credit-card offer

Direct mailing to a credit card holder, offering merchandise. It often uses premiums or sweepstakes to close a sale or trial-offer acceptance.

Crepe

Textured surface fabric found in both wovens and knits. It can be used in knits as the reverse side of a special jacquard. A crinkly surface is achieved via use of high twist yarns, chemical treatments, weave, construction, or some form of embossing or surface treatment. Crepes are available in an unlimited variety of fibers and blends and in may different constructions.

Cromalin proof

Chemically created facsimile of a full-color reproduction.

Crop

To eliminate a portion of a picture, illustration or photography that contains unnecessary material, or to highlight a certain area of the image.

Crop marks

Indicators on artwork to show where an illustration is to be cut or sized.

Cross grain

Grain or fibers stitched diagonally or irregularly.

Cross platform independence

Feature on the Web enabling people from different computer systems to easily access information on the Web.

Customer

Person who receives the advertising specialty from the buyer, often a client or prospective client of the buyer. Also known as the recipient.

Cut

Broad term encompassing all plates associated with letterpress and hot-stamp printing.

Cut charge

Factory charge for producing a cut.

Cyberstore

Virtual shop on the Web enabling transactions.

Data

In general, data is information, factual information such as text, numbers, sounds, and images, anything that can be processed on a computer. Data also represents concepts, and sensations that are suitable for communicating, interpreting, or processing. As futurist Marshall Mcluhan said, "The electric light is pure information," meaning everything perceptible is data. The word data is plural; the singular form is datum, however data is commonly used to refer to both singular and plural.

Dealer incentive

Premium, merchandise or travel offered to a retailer with the specified purchase of products. Also called a dealer loader or dealer premium.

Deboss and color-fill

Combing hot stamping with debossing, so foil fills an image that is pushed down into the product.

Debossing

Depression of an image into a material such as paper, leather or suede, so the image sits below the product surface.

Decal transfer

Imprinting method in which the decal is printed on an offset or letterset press, submerged in water and placed on the product. Excess water and air squeegeed off and the product is kiln-fired, a process that fuses the decal with the glaze.

Demographics

Descriptive audience statistics that reflect consumer qualities like age, sex, race, income, residence, and education level.

Denim

Twill weave, yarn dyed fabric, usually made of cotton/polyester blend. The warp yarns are colored and the filling yarns are white.

Denim weights

Weight is determined by weighing one yard of fabric. Some popular denim weights are: 5 oz., 7 oz., 9.5 oz., 10 oz., 11.5 oz., 12 oz., and 14.5 oz.

Density

Amount of stitches in a given area.

Diagonal

Another name for any fabric with a visible twill line.

Die

Mold into which molten metal, plastic or other material is forced to make a specific shape. Also, a tool of very hard material used to press a particular shape into or onto a softer material.

Die charge

Charge by the supplier for creating a die from artwork supplied by the supplier.

Die-casting

Process where molten metal is injected into the cavity of a carved die.