Part of a continuing series on odd newspaper terms.

In the everyday world, registration brings to mind forms completed accurately, standing in line to sign up for something, or some other dreary task required by officialdom.

In the newspaper world, registration—that is, accurate registration—is everything.

The great majority of presses, including ours, use four-color process to create the effect of full color photos. Each photograph is “separated” into four colors: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. We call this CMYK. (Why not CMYB? We cannot say.) 

Each color is developed on a separate page-sized negative. The negatives are “burned” by arc lights onto coated metal plates—a variant of more familiar darkroom photo processing. These plates go on the press … the cyan plate, the magenta plate, the yellow plate, and the black plate. The black plate always contains the photo and more information in type.

Start up the press and get thos...