L

lacquer

A solvent-based solution containing modifying agents that gives a glossy, durable finish when applied to a substrate.

letter fold

Folding a printed piece horizontally at least twice, in the same vertical direction, thereby capturing the first fold in the second. The same effect is achieved by rolling the sheet horizontally into a tube shape and flattening the tube by creasing the two horizontal edges.

letterpress

A printing method where the areas to be inked are higher than the non-printing areas. The inked areas are then placed in contact with the material to be printed, transferring the ink from the raised areas to the substrate. A similar technique is used with rubber stamps. See also: Flexography; relief plate; relief printing.

letterset

See dry offset.

line art

A drawing rendered in only 100% black and 100% white, with no gray areas. (e.g., black lines drawn on white substrate or a vector graphic produced by a computer drawing, CAD, or illustration application.) See also: bitmap; object-oriented; raster; vectors.

linen tester

A magnifying lens mounted in a small frame that, when placed on the material to be viewed, stands at a height equal to the focal length of the lens. Able to be folded into a small, flat package that easily fits in a pocket, the linen tester is often used in quality control to view small details of an image. See also: loupe; magnifier.

lithography

An technique were the printing plate's image area is specially treated to accept only ink and the non-image area is specially treated to only accept water. See also: dry offset; gravure; offset gravure; offset printing.

live matter

Refers to the type characters of piece to be printed.

loupe

An optical device containing a precision ruler used to observe very small details. See also: linen tester; magnifier.

lowercase

A term applied to letters of the alphabet that are not capitalized.

lupe

See luope.