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Rag paper - high quality stationery made from cotton rags.

Ragged - lines of type that do not start or end at the same position.

Ragged left - Type that is justified to the right margin and the line lengths vary on the left.

Ragged right - Type that is justified to the left margin and the line lengths vary on the right.

Raster Image Processor (RIP) - the hardware engine which calculates the bit-mapped image of text and graphics from a series of instructions. It may, or may not, understand a page description language but the end result should, if the device has been properly designed, be the same. Typical RIPs, which aren’t PDL-based, include the Tall Trees JLaser, the LaserMaster and AST's TurboLaser controller. A basic page printer comes with a controller and not a RIP, which goes some way to explaining the lack of control

Ream - 500 sheets of paper.

Recto - Right-hand page of an open book.

Reference marks - symbols used in text to direct the reader to a footnote. E.g. asterisk (*), dagger, double dagger, section mark (), paragraph mark ().

Reflective copy - Copy that is not transparent.

Register - To position print in the proper position in relation to the edge of the sheet and to other printing on the same sheet especially when printing one color on another.

Register marks - Cross-hair lines or marks on film, plates, and paper that guide strippers, platemakers, pressmen, and bindery personnel in processing a print order from start to finish.

Resolution - the measurement used in typesetting to express quality of output. Measured in dots per inch, the greater the number of dots, the more smooth and cleaner appearance the character/image will have. Currently Page (laser) Printers print at 300, 406 and 600dpi. Typesetting machines print at 1,200 dpi or more.

Rest in Proportion (RIP) - an instruction when giving sizes to artwork or photographs that other parts of the artwork are to be enlarged or reduced in proportion.

Retouching - a means of altering artwork or color separations to correct faults or enhance the image.

Reverse - The opposite of what you see. Printing the background of an image. For example: type your name on a piece of paper. The reverse of this would be a black piece of paper with a white name.

Revise - indicates the stages at which corrections have been incorporated from earlier proofs and new proofs submitted. E.g. First revise, second revise.

Right reading - a positive or negative that reads from left to right.

Rip film - A method of making printing negatives from PostScript files created by desktop publishing.

Roman - type which has vertical stems as distinct from Italics or oblique that are set at angles.

Rotary press - a web or reel fed printing press, which uses a curved printing plate mounted on the plate cylinder.

Rough - a preliminary sketch of a proposed design.

Royal - a size of printing paper 20in x 25in (508 x 635mm).

Ruler - rulers displayed on the screen that show measures in inches, picas or millimeters.

Runaround (see also Text wrap) - the ability within a program to run text around a graphic image within a document, without the need to adjust each line manually.

Running head - a line of type at the top of a page, which repeats a heading.