An original movie poster is a poster that was released for display in cinemas by one of the following; the studio producing the movie; or an authorised printer; or the National Screen Service (NSS).

A studio issue movie poster is a poster that was produced directly by the movie studio, with no involvement from the NSS.

The National Screen Service (NSS) produce and distribute promotional material for use before and during a movies release. This was the standard for almost all movies up until the mid 1980's. Nowadays, however, the NSS is not used by movie studios so much.

The NSS also created a coding system for movie posters they distributed. For each movie that passed through them a different code was assigned. Once a code was assigned to a specific movie, that code was printed on every poster that the NSS handled.

For example, the Bond film "Dr. No" was assigned the code '62-410'.

This code can be broken down as:
"62" (the year the movie was released) and "410" (the 410th movie poster to be distributed by the NSS that year).

Studios usually issue more than one poster for each movie and the way they differentiate between the posters is by calling them "Style A", "Style B" and so on & so forth.

A Teaser poster is a poster that is issued months before the movie is released, sometimes up to one year before. Quite often containing very little, such as single pictures or single words, these posters are issued to generate initial hype & interest in the movie.

An Advance poster is a poster that is issued usually 2-4 months before the release of a movie.
They are often almost identical to the regular poster, with only an extra line added, such as "Coming Soon" or "This Summer".

A Regular poster is the main poster used in the promotion of a movie.
It contains the final artwork and design.

A re-issue or re-release movie poster is one that has been produced to promote a movie that has been re-released after its original showing. Although not as popular, these posters are still original and are very collectable in their own right.

A re-strike movie poster is a poster that was produced after the original release of a given movie and was printed by the studio or the NSS; hence why they are sometimes called "Second Printings" - these are not true original movie posters. Some can be easy to spot, however, some can also be very hard to spot.

These posters are licensed copies of original posters - an organisation or printer has the permission from the movie companies to print certain posters.

Sometimes they are almost identical to the original poster; sometimes they are significantly different. They all have the relevant printers name located usually at the bottom left or right side of each poster with copyright attributed to the copyright holder. Examples of those who sell licensed reprints are: Pyramid Posters, GB Posters & ZigZag.

Almost all of these posters have no monetary value at all.

Some reprints/reproductions, however, do have value due to a number of factors including limited print runs and/or the significance of the printer/licencee. Examples include The VinMag Store in the UK & SpyGuise Entertainment in the USA.

A bootleg movie poster is, in the simplest of terms, a FAKE movie poster.
They are unlicensed & sold all over the world. They have no value. Some fakes are very easy to spot, but some are not - they are printed to deceive the uneducated buyer, so beware & purchase posters only from reputable sources such as ourselves.

A single-sided poster is a poster that has the image, words - everything - printed on only one side. The front of the poster contains the artwork; the back of the poster is white (or the base papers colour). This was how posters were always printed up until the late 1980s/early 1990s. Since then the use of single-sided posters has declined considerably.

A double-sided poster, on the other hand, has the image printed on both sides and is now the main printing method for almost all movie posters. That said, some movie studios still release single and double-sided versions of the same poster.

A video poster is a poster printed to advertise a particular movie release on video, or more appropriately in todays world, on DVD. They are usually the same size as original theatrical one sheets and are in a lot of cases identical to them; the only difference is that they have words printed on them to the effect of "For Home Entertainment".

A DVD poster is usually smaller in size compared to a video poster.

A wilding poster is a poster that is printed for the purpose of being pasted up on walls and boards around towns and cities. They vary in size, but are usually similar in size to one sheet posters, and some can be very, very rare.

Mylar posters give off a 3D or mirrored effect. They are expensive to produce; hence why they are quite rare. They are created by printing the artwork of a poster on top of a base paint, either silver or gold, which is printed on a thin sheet of plastic called mylar. These posters are very striking and usually come in either one sheet or quad sizes.

Lenticular posters provide a holographic or 3D effect showing different artwork when looked at from different angles, and are very rare & very expensive to produce; more so than a mylar poster. They are printed on a thicker plastic and can be very hard to photograph. They mostly come in one sheet size, but are known to be printed in quad size as well as larger & smaller sizes, too.

Linen-backing is a way of preserving a poster for future generations.

A poster is applied to a thin layer of Japanese rice paper, which is then affixed to a sheet of linen with an acid-free, reversible glue. Any amount of restoration can be performed during the linen-backing process, such as fold line touch-up and/or major repairs.

It should be noted that the general advice on linen-backing is if you are considering having a poster linen-backed, be sure it actually needs it.

For instance, a unbacked & unrestored Dr. No UK Quad (that is in mint condition) will always be more coveted by collectors than a linen-backed version of the same poster (of the same quality).