Glossary
Every term you’ll hear, in plain English.
Wrap, tint, sign, and print vocabulary defined without jargon — so you can read a quote, compare two shops, and know exactly what you're buying.
Wraps & vinyl
- Cast vinyl
- Premium wrap film cast as a liquid and cured flat, so it has no built-in tension. It conforms to curves and recesses without shrinking back, which is why every quality vehicle wrap uses it. See cast vs. calendered.
- Calendered vinyl
- Cheaper film squeezed to thickness through rollers, which leaves internal stress. It wants to return to its original shape, so on curves it shrinks back and lifts. Fine for flat signage, wrong for vehicles.
- Conformability
- How willingly a film stretches into curves, channels, and recesses without lifting afterwards. The property that separates wrap film from sign vinyl.
- Laminate
- A clear protective layer applied over printed vinyl. It carries the UV inhibitors that stop the print fading and takes the abrasion instead of the ink. An unlaminated wrap is an unfinished wrap.
- Post-heating
- Heating installed film above a set temperature so it loses its memory and stops trying to pull back out of recesses. Skipping it is the most common cause of edges lifting weeks after an install.
- Relief cut
- A deliberate cut made during installation so film can lay into a complex area without bunching. Placed where a seam or panel line hides it.
- Full wrap
- Vinyl covering all painted body panels. Maximum coverage and complete design freedom. See vehicle wraps.
- Partial wrap
- Coverage of selected panels, usually the rear and lower sides, using the vehicle’s own paint as part of the design. See partial wraps.
- Spot graphics
- Cut logos, lettering, and details applied to bare paint. The most affordable way to brand a vehicle. See lettering and decals.
- Color change wrap
- A wrap in a solid colour or finish rather than printed graphics, used to change how a vehicle looks while protecting the paint underneath. See color change wraps.
- Chrome delete
- Covering a vehicle’s factory chrome trim with vinyl, usually gloss or satin black. See chrome delete.
- Air-release liner
- A micro-channelled adhesive backing that lets trapped air escape during application instead of forming bubbles. Standard on quality wrap film.
Window film & tint
- VLT
- Visible Light Transmission — the percentage of visible light a window lets through. Lower number, darker window. Missouri requires at least 35% on front side windows; see the tint law guide.
- TSER
- Total Solar Energy Rejected — the share of the whole solar spectrum a film rejects, covering infrared, visible, and ultraviolet together. The most honest single number for comparing how much cooler a film will actually make a vehicle.
- Infrared (IR) rejection
- The proportion of infrared — the part of sunlight you feel as heat — that a film blocks. Not the same as darkness; see does tint block heat.
- Ceramic film
- Window film using non-conductive ceramic particles. High heat rejection with no signal interference and no fading to purple. What we install — see window tint.
- Dyed film
- Entry-level film that darkens glass with dye. Modest heat rejection, and the dye breaks down under UV, which is why old cheap tint turns purple and bubbles.
- Metallized film
- Film using metal particles to reflect heat. Effective and durable, but conductive, so it can interfere with GPS, cell signal, keyless entry, and tyre-pressure sensors.
- AS-1 line
- The mark near the top of a windshield indicating how far down manufacturer tinting extends. In Missouri, windshield film is limited to that factory-shaded upper band.
- Curing
- The days after installation while the moisture used to apply the film evaporates. Haze and small water pockets during this period are normal. See tint care.
- Security film
- A thick laminate that holds broken glass together in its frame rather than letting it fall out. Slows forced entry; it is not bullet resistant. See security film.
- Frosted film
- Film giving an etched-glass appearance that obscures the view while passing daylight. Used for privacy in offices and conference rooms. See privacy film.
Signage & print
- Coroplast
- Corrugated plastic sheet — light, inexpensive, weatherproof for months rather than years. The standard material for yard signs.
- Dibond
- An aluminium composite panel: two thin aluminium skins bonded to a plastic core. Stays flat at large sizes, which makes it the choice for big permanent exterior signs.
- PVC board
- Rigid foamed plastic sheet with a smooth printable face. Clean-looking and economical, best used indoors or under cover.
- Perforated film
- Vinyl printed with thousands of small holes so a graphic reads as solid from outside while remaining see-through from inside. Used on rear glass and storefront windows. See window graphics.
- Cut vinyl
- Contour-cut lettering and shapes with no printed background, applied directly to a surface. What gives storefront glass and vehicle doors their clean, background-free look.
- Standoffs
- Barrel-shaped mounts that hold a sign a set distance off the wall, creating a shadow line. Standard for reception logo walls — see dimensional signage.
- Grommet
- A reinforced metal ring set into a banner’s hem so it can be tied or bungeed without tearing.
- Mesh banner
- Perforated banner material that lets wind pass through instead of acting as a sail. The right answer for fences and exposed building faces — see the banner guide.
- Bleed
- Artwork extended past the intended trim line so a slight cutting variation never leaves an unprinted sliver at the edge.
- Safe area
- The margin inside a trim line where important content should stay, so nothing critical is lost to cutting or wrapped around an edge.
- CMYK
- The four process inks printing uses to build colour. Screens use light (RGB) and can display colours ink cannot reproduce, which is why some bright screen colours print duller. See print-ready artwork.
- Pantone (PMS)
- A standardised spot-colour system. Specifying a Pantone number is the reliable way to communicate a brand colour across different materials and print runs.
- Vector
- Artwork stored as mathematical curves rather than pixels, so it scales to any size without losing sharpness. The format we need for logos going onto vehicles and large signage.
- Raster
- Pixel-based artwork (JPG, PNG). Fixed in resolution, so enlarging it past its native size makes it soft or blocky.
- DPI
- Dots per inch — print resolution. Only meaningful alongside a final printed size: 300 DPI on a two-inch image is not enough for a two-foot print.
- Substrate
- The material something is printed on or applied to — the vinyl, board, fabric, glass, or wall underneath the graphic.
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