Printing Terms Dictionary
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X-Y-Z
Vacuum Frame: In platemaking and composite film making, a vacuum device for holding stripped materials in exact position while making close contact to a photosensitive material (film or plate) prior to and during exposure.
Value: A density or numeric assignment of a color, tone or density made by direct comparison or by use of a densitometer. Color printing values range from 2% minimum controllable dot to 98% maximum controllable dot. Values in color can be pre-selected for density, hue and depth by using a process printing guide. This is an excellent way to pre-visualize how a particular color may be expected to reproduce on a printing press.
Value Key: Windows 95 - A parameter under a key or subkey in the Registry. A value entry has three components: name, type, and value. The value component can be a string, binary data, or DWORD.
Vaporware: A semi-affectionate slang term for software which has been announced and perhaps even demonstrated, but not delivered to commercial customers.
VAR/VAD: Value Added Reseller/Dealer. Essentially, VARs or VADs are companies that buy equipment from computer or telephone manufacturers, add some of their own software and possibly some peripheral hardware to it, then resell the whole computer or telephone system to end users.
VCR: Video Cassette Recorder. A magnetic recording and playback machine. Generally used for recording and viewing full-motion video, but useful (when adapted) as a data backup device.
VDT: Video Display Terminal. Generic, slightly inaccurate name for any display terminal.
Vector: Images defined by sets of straight lines, defined by the locations of the end points. At larger magnifications, curves may appear jagged. This condition is call aliasing.
Vector Display: Terminal that displays images with vectored line segments, rather than pixels.
Vector Font: A series of dots connected by lines that can be scaled to different sizes. Also known as stroke fonts.
Vectorization: Translation of a pixel-based image to a vector-based image.
VGA: Video Graphics Array. Standard IBM video display standard. Provides medium-resolution text and graphics.
Video Camera: Camera capable of acquiring and delivering to a recording device full-motion video. Converts the moving image into a series of horizontal lines, which are further broken down into continuously varying pixels for display. Most often analog, but digital video cameras which use charge coupled devices (CCDs) are becoming common.
Vignette: An illustration in which the background fades gradually away until it blends into the unprinted paper.
Virtual Device Driver (VxD): The x represents the type of device. For example, a virtual device driver for a display is a VDD and a virtual device driver for a printer is a VPD.
Virtual Machine: An environment created by Windows running in 386 enhanced mode in which an application can run and behave as if it had an entire machine all to itself. Windows in 386 enhanced mode can have multiple applications running in their own separate virtual machines at the same time.
Virtual Memory: The use of a portion of the hard disk to swap out data when insufficient RAM exists to hold all such data.
Virus: A small program, commonly imbedded in another program, that infects programs and causes them to malfunction. It is often designed to destroy data and infect other programs, drives and disks.
Virtual Private Network (VPN): A private data network that makes use of the public telephone infrastructure. Privacy is maintained by the use of a tunneling protocol, encryption, and other security features.
Volatile Storage: Computer storage that is erased when power is turned off. RAM is volatile storage.
Volume Label: A name that identifies a disk. In Windows File Manager, the volume label appears in the title bar of the Directory Tree window.