williams | silverpeakarts.ca

Who’d have thought?

Something as simple as the definition of a printing term would cause so much discussion. Once, a heated discussion was had at the office over the use of the word LIVE AREA.

Now, to clarify this is what I think it is in my own words:
Live Area: Also known as a visible or image area. The term is often used in a situation where part of your creative may be covered… ie in framed poster media the live or visible area is the part of the creative that is seen and not hidden by the frame.

Safe Area: An area within the live or visible area in which you must keep all your text or important graphics to avoid them being trimmed, cut off, or too close to the edge.

The Alternate Definition
The dissenting viewpoint insists that LIVE is the same as SAFETY.

Problem is that in checking on 2 printing term glossary sites, One agreed with me and the other with my counterpoint.

http://www.cdlinc.com/glossary.htm says:

Live area. Alternate term for Image area.

Image area. Portion of a negative or plate corresponding to inking on paper; portion of paper on which ink appears.

But http://www.printindustry.com/glossary.htm#L says:

Live Area: Area on a mechanical within which images will print. Also called safe area.

So who is right?

I would think that if I researched it enough I would find that one definition is more prevalent than the other. But not all glossaries deals with the term. On two pages of GOOGLE search results for the string “print terms glossary” I found only one other site which defined “Live area” and THAT site was a carbon copy of the printindustry.com definition so it is from the same source but not an independant voice:

http://www.morganpress.com/glossary.html#L says:

Live Area: Area on a mechanical within which images will print. Also called safe area.

So they are saying that live is defined as both the entire image area and the safe area. Now if they had said INCLUDING the safe area I would have agreed with them and even though it is 2 to 1 against my definition I still do not agree (I am stubborn and need more proof)

So what’s an artist to do until the Globe and Mail prints an exposé on the strife within our industry and sets the record straight?

I have said it before in posts on preflight and shipping files. Overstate your intentions, add notes to everything that is leaving your hands and try to be as clear as possible as to the intention of what you are trying to convey.

Ultimately you can argue the definitions of industry terminology all day or you can simply clarify what you mean by saying something like “Live / Visible Area” and “Type / Graphic Safety” and move on.

LIFE’s too short to argue about LIVE.

david

May 23rd, 2008 | Tags: definition, glossary, live area, printing terms, safe area | Category: graphic artist's resource, industry notes, print production | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL