What is a score in printing and packaging?
A score is a line impressed into paper or board to control where it folds. The word is often used interchangeably with crease; in strict trade use, scoring tends to describe the operation on lighter paper stock, and creasing the equivalent on heavier packaging board.
The purpose is the same in both cases: give the sheet a designed weak line so that it folds where you intend and not where the material would rather go. Without one, anything above roughly 170 gsm folded by hand or machine will fold unevenly, and coated stock will crack along the fold.
Scoring shows up most visibly on covers and folders. A perfect-bound cover that has not been scored at the spine hinge will crack on the first opening; a presentation folder that has not been scored along its pocket lines will bow instead of sitting flat. Neither is a printing fault and both are avoidable at the finishing stage.
Direction relative to the grain of the paper matters. Folding along the grain is easy and clean; folding across it is harder, and it cracks more readily, so scoring across the grain has to be deeper. Where a job allows it, prepress lays the work up so that the main folds run with the grain, which quietly improves the finished result at no cost.
On a die-cut packaging job the score lines are cut into the same steel-rule die as the cutting rules, so they are made in the same pass and stay in perfect register with the trim.
Related
Terms that go with this one
- Crease A crease is a line pressed into board by a rounded steel rule so that it folds in a controlled… Read more about Crease
- Perforation Perforation is a line of small cuts separated by uncut ties, so that a section can be torn off cleanly… Read more about Perforation
- Die-cutting Die-cutting is the process of cutting printed sheets to a shape that is not a rectangle, using a steel-rule die… Read more about Die-cutting
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