| 3B2 | Advent Publishing Systems powerful publishing software package. |
| Acetate | A transparent sheet placed over artwork allowing the artist to write instructions or indicate where second colour is to be placed. See overlay. |
| ACS | Advent Composition Service. |
| ActiveX | The name Microsoft has given to a set of "strategic" object-oriented program technologies and tools. |
| Addendum | Material additional to the main body of a book and printed separately at the start or end of the text. |
| Air (US) | An amount of white space in a layout. |
| Alphabet (length or width) | The measurement of a complete set of lower case alphabet characters in a given type size expressed in points or picas. |
| AMTOSS | Aircraft Maintenance Task Oriented Support System |
| Anodized plate | An offset printing plate with a specially treated surface to reduce wear during printing. |
| API | Application program interface is the specific method prescribed by a computer operating system or by another application program by which a programmer writing an application program can make requests of the operating system or another application. |
| Applet | An applet is a little application program. Prior to the World Wide Web, the built-in writing and drawing programs that came with Windows were sometimes called "applets." On the Web, using Java, the object-oriented programming language, an applet is a small program that can be sent along with a Web page to a user. Java applets can perform interactive animations, immediate calculations, or other simple tasks without having to send a user request back to the server. |
| Apron (US) | Additional white space allowed in the margins of text and illustrations when forming a foldout. Art paper - a smooth coated paper obtained by adding a coating of china clay compound on one or both sides of the paper. |
| Art (US) | An graphic arts usage, all matter other than text material e.g. illustrations and photographs. |
| ASCII | ASCII stands for American Standard Code for Information Interchange. ASCII is a code for representing English characters as numbers, with each letter assigned a number. |
| Balloon | A circle or bubble enclosing copy in illustrations. Used in cartoons. |
| Bank | A lightweight writing paper. |
| Base artwork | Artwork requiring additional components such as halftones or line drawings to be added before the reproduction stage. |
| Batch process | See Blackbox. |
| Bed | The base on which the forme is held when printing by letterpress. |
| Binding | The various methods used to secure loose leaves or sections in a book, e.g. saddle-stitch, perfect bound. |
| Black patch | Material used to mask the window area on a negative image of the artwork prior to 'stripping in' a halftone. |
| Blanket cylinder | The cylinder via which the inked litho plate transfers the image to the paper. The cylinder is covered with a rubber sheet which prevents wear to the litho plate coming into contact with the paper. |
| Blind emboss | A raised impression made without using ink or foil. |
| Block in | To sketch in the main areas of an image prior to the design. |
| Blow up | An enlargement, most frequently of a graphic image or photograph. |
| Board | Paper of more than 200gsm. |
| Bond | A sized finished writing paper of 50gsm or more. Can also be used for printing upon. |
| Box | A section of text marked off by rules or white space and presented separately from the main text and illustrations. Longer boxed sections in magazines are sometimes referred to as sidebars. |
| Bristol board | A fine board made in various qualities for drawing. |
| Broadside | An original term for work printed on one side of a large sheet of paper. |
| Bromide | A photographic print made on bromide paper. |
| Bronzing | An effect produced by dusting wet ink after printing with a metallic powder. |
| Calendered finish | Produced by passing paper through a series of metal rollers to give a very smooth surface. |
| Caliper | The thickness of a sheet of paper or board expressed in microns (millionths of a metre). Also the name of the tool used to make the measurement. |
| CALS | Continuous Acquisition and Lifecycle Support. Before was understood as Computer-aided Acquisition and Logistic Support. From which developed the CALS tables model standard. |
| CALS/CE | CALS/Concurrent Engineering. |
| Camera ready | Artwork or pasted up material that is ready for reproduction. |
| Carbonless | Paper coated with chemicals and dye which will produce copies without carbon paper. Also referred to as NCR (No Carbon Required). |
| Caret marks | An indication to the printer of an omission in the copy indicated as (^) showing the insertion. |
| Cartridge | A thick general purpose paper used for printing, drawing and wrapping. |
| Case bound | A hardback book made with stiff outer covers. Cases are usually covered with cloth, vinyl or leather. |
| Cast coated | Art paper with an exceptionally glossy coated finish usually on one side only. |
| Cast off | A calculation determining how much space copy will take up when typeset. |
| Catchline | A temporary headline for identification on the top of a galley proof. |
| CBT | Computer based training. |
| CD | Compact disc. A small circular piece of hard plastic on which high quality recorded sound or large quantities of information can be stored. |
| CD-ROM | Compact Disc Read Only Memory. A CD on which large quantities of information can be stored to be used by a computer. |
| Century schoolbook | A popular serif typeface used in magazines and books for text setting which has a large x-height and an open appearance. |
| CGI | Common gateway interface based queries in HTML. The common gateway interface (CGI) is a standard way for a Web server to pass a Web user's request to an application program and to receive data back to forward to the user. |
| CGM | Computer Graphics Metafile - ISO 8632. |
| Chalking | A powdering effect left on the surface of the paper after the ink has failed to dry satisfactorily due to a fault in printing. |
| Character count | The number of characters; i.e. letters, figures, signs or spaces in a piece of copy, line or paragraph used as a first stage in type calculations. |
| Chase | A metal frame in which metal type and blocks (engravings) are locked into position to make up a page. |
| Close up | A proof correction mark to reduce the amount of space between characters or words indicated as ('). |
| Coated | Printing papers which after making have had a surface coating with clay etc, to give a smoother, more even finish with greater opacity. |
| Cold type | Type produced without the use of characters cast from molten metal, such as on a VDU. |
| Collate | To gather separate sections or leaves of a book together in the correct order for binding. |
| Colour separations | The division of a multicoloured original or line copy into the basic (or primary) process colours of yellow, magenta, cyan and black. These should not be confused with the optical primaries; red, green and blue. |
| Column inch | A measure of area used in newspapers and magazines to calculate the cost of display advertising. A column inch is one column wide by one inch deep. |
| Column rule | A light faced vertical rule used to separate columns of type. |
| Compose | To set copy into type. |
| Compound document | A compound document is something like a display desktop that can contain visual and information objects of all kinds: text, calendars, animations, sound, motion video, 3-D, continually updated news, controls, etc. |
| Concertina fold | A method of folding paper. Each fold opens in the opposite direction to its neighbour, giving a concertina or pleated effect. |
| Condensed | A style of typeface in which the characters have an elongated appearance. |
| Continuous tone | An image in which the subject has continuous shades of colour or grey without being broken up by dots. Continuous tones cannot be reproduced in that form for printing but must be screened to translate the image into dots. |
| Contrast | The degree of tones in a photograph ranging from highlight to shadow. |
| Cookie | A cookie is information that a Web site puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time. (More technically, it is information for future use that is stored by the server on the client side of a client/server communication.) Typically, a cookie records your preferences when using a particular site. |
| Copyright | The right of copyright gives protection to the originator of material to prevent use without express permission or acknowledgment of the originator. |
| CORBA | Common Object Request Broker Architecture is an architecture and specification for creating, distributing, and managing distributed program objects in a network. It allows programs at different locations and developed by different vendors to communicate in a network through an 'interface broker.' |
| Corner marks | Marks printed on a sheet to indicate the trim or register marks. |
| Cropping | The elimination of parts of a photograph or other original that are not required to be printed. Cropping allows the remaining parts of the image to be enlarged to fill the space. |
| Cross head | A heading set in the body of the text used to break it into easily readable sections. |
| CSS | Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a mechanism for adding style, for example, fonts, colors and spacing to Web documents. |
| Cut flush | A method of trimming a book after the cover has been attached to the pages. |
| Cutout | A halftone where the background has been removed to produce a silhouette. |
| DCOM | Distributed Component Object Model. This allows 3B2 to run across multiple PCs, sharing the workload of a printing task. |
| DHTML | Dynamic HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is a collective term for a combination of new HTML tags and options, style sheets, and programming that will let you create Web pages that are more responsive to user interaction and contain more animations and than previous versions of HTML. |
| Die | A hardened steel engraving stamp used to print an inked image. Used in the production of good quality letter headings. |
| Disk Operating System (DOS) | Software for computer systems with disk drives which supervises and controls the running of programs. The operating system is 'booted' into the computer from disk by a small program which permanently resides in the memory. Common operating systems include MS-DOS, PC-DOS (IBM's version of MS-DOS), CP/M (an operating system for older, 8-bit computers), Unix and BOS. |
| DNS | The domain name system (DNS) is the way that Internet domain names are located and translated into IP (Internet Protocol) addresses. A domain name is a meaningful and easy-to-remember "handle" for an Internet address. |
| DoD | Department of defence |
| DOM - Document Object Model | The document object model is a platform- and language-neutral interface that will allow programs and scripts to dynamically access and update the content, structure and style of documents. The document can be further processed and the results of that processing can be incorporated back into the presented page. |
| Dot matrix printer | A printer in which each character is formed from a matrix of dots. They are normally impact systems, ie a wire is fired at a ribbon in order to leave an inked dot on the page, but thermal and electro-erosion systems are also used. |
| Double density | Double density is a method of recording on floppy disks using a modified frequency modulation process that allows more data to be stored on a disk. |
| Double page spread | Two facing pages of newspaper or magazine where the textual material on the left hand side continues across to the right hand side. Abbreviated to DPS. |
| DPI (Dots Per Inch) | The measurement of resolution for page printers, photo type setting machines and graphics screens. Currently graphics screens reproduce 60 to 100dpi, most page printers work at 300dpi and typesetting systems operate at 1,000dpi and above. |
| Drawn on | A method of binding a paper cover to a book by drawing the cover on and gluing to the back of the book. |
| Dry transfer (lettering) | Characters, drawings, etc, that can be transferred to the artwork by rubbing them off the back of the transfer sheet. Best known is Letraset. |
| DSSSL | Document style semantics and specification language - ISO 10179. DSSSL is the international standard programming language for stylesheets and document transformations. It is not a fixed, descriptive style language but rather an arbitrarily extensible programming language for creating complete two-dimensional presentational environments. DSSSL is fully internationalised and designed to support left-to-right, right-to-left, and top-to-bottom scripts equally well. |
| DTD | A document type definition (DTD) is a specific definition that follows the rules of the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). A DTD is a specification that accompanies a document and identifies the code (or markup) that separate paragraphs, identify topic headings, etc. and how each is to be processed. |
| Dye transfer | A photographic colour print using special coated papers to produce a full colour image. Can serve as an inexpensive proof. |
| E-Business | Electronic business refers to increasing efficiency by using electronic business practices based on Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), Technical Data Interchange (TDI), Supply Chain Management and other computer based technologies. |
| E-Commerce | Electronic Commerce. Refers to commercial transactions using electronic (digital) formats, usually the Internet. |
| EDGAR | EDGAR stands for Electronic Data Gathering, Analysis, and Retrieval system. It performs automated collection, validation, indexing, acceptance and forwarding of submissions by companies and others who are required by law to file forms with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). |
| EDI | Electronic Data Interchange refers to standard commercial transactions in electronic (digital) format, using ANSI X12, EDIFACT or other standard. |
| EDIFACT | Electronic Data Interchange for administration, commerce and transport (language). |
| EDMS | Electronic Document Managing System. |
| EGA (Enhanced Graphics Adapter) | A graphics standard for the PC which can be added or built into a system to give sharper characters and improved colour with the correct display device. Standard EGA resolution is 640 by 350 dots in any 16 out of 64 colours. |
| Eight sheet | A poster measuring 60 x 80in (153 x 203cm) and, traditionally, made up of eight individual A4 sheets. |
| Electronic publishing | A generic term for the distribution of information which is stored, transmitted and reproduced electronically. Teletext and Videotext are two examples of this technology in its purest form, for example, no paper. Desktop publishing forms just one part of the electronic publishing market. |
| Embedding | Adding the source data for an item to a document; use the paste function. |
| Embossing | Relief images formed by using a recessed die. |
| End papers | The four page leaves at the front and end of a book which are pasted to the insides of the front and back covers (boards). |
| Epson emulation | The industry standard control codes for dot matrix printers were developed by Epson and virtually all software packages and most dot matrix printers either follow or improve on these codes. |
| ERP | Enterprise resource planning. |
| Expanded type | A typeface with a slightly wider body giving a flatter appearance. |
| Express | A printer control language developed by OASYS. |
| Filler | Extra material used to complete a column or page, usually of little importance. |
| Flag | The designed title of a newspaper as it appears at the top of page one. |
| Flexography | A rotary letterpress process printing from rubber or flexible plates and using fast drying inks. Mainly used for packaging. |
| Floppy disk | (See disk). |
| Flyer | An inexpensively produced circular used for promotional distribution. |
| FMECA | Failure mode effects and criticality analysis. |
| Foil blocking | A process for stamping a design on a book cover without ink by using a coloured foil with pressure from a heated die or block. |
| Font (or fount) | A complete set of characters in a typeface. |
| Form letter | Used in word processing to describe a repetitive letter in which the names and addresses of individuals are automatically generated from a data base or typed individually. |
| Forme | Type and blocks assembled in pages and imposed in a metal chase ready for printing. |
| FOSI | Formatting output specification instance. |
| Four colour process | Printing in full colour using four colour separation negatives - yellow, magenta, cyan and black. |
| French fold | A sheet which has been printed on one side only and then folded with two right angle folds to form a four page uncut section. |
| Galley proof | Proofs taken from the galleys before being made up into pages. |
| Galleys | The printing term for long metal trays used to hold type after it had been set and before the press run. |
| Gatefold | An oversize page where both sides fold into the gutter in overlapping layers. Used to accommodate maps into books. |
| Gathering | The operation of inserting the printed pages, sections or signatures of a book in the correct order for binding. |
| GEM | Digital Research's Graphics Environment Manager. A graphical interface designed both to make the operation of software simpler for the non-expert and to allow programs to communicate with one another. Two key desktop publishing packages, Ventura and DR's own GEM Desktop Publisher operate under this environment. |
| GIF | GIF is one of the two most common file formats for graphic images on the World Wide Web. The other is the JPEG. On the Web and elsewhere on the Internet (for example, bulletin board services), the GIF has become a de facto standard form of image. |
| Gloss ink | For use in litho and letterpress printing on coated papers where the ink will dry without penetration. |
| Golden ratio | The rule devised to give proportions of height to width when laying out text and illustrations to produce the most optically pleasing result. |
| Gothic | Typefaces with no serifs and broad even strokes. |
| Gravure | A rotary printing process where the image is etched into the metal plate attached to a cylinder. The cylinder is then rotated through a trough of printing ink after which the etched surface is wiped clean by a blade leaving the non-image area clean. The paper is then passed between two rollers and pressed against the etched cylinder drawing the ink out by absorption. |
| Greeking | A software device where areas of grey are used to simulate lines of text. One of desktop publishing's less clever methods of getting round the slowness of high resolution displays on the PC. |
| Grey scale | A range of luminance values for evaluating shading through white to black. Frequently used in discussions about scanners as a measure of their ability to capture halftone images. |
| Grid | A systematic division of a page into areas to enable designers to ensure consistency. The grid acts as a measuring guide and shows text, illustrations and trim sizes. |
| GSM | Grams per square metre. The unit of measurement for paper weight. |
| Guard | A narrow strip of paper or linen pasted to a single leaf to allow sewing into a section for binding. |
| GUI | A GUI (usually pronounced GOO-ee) is a graphical (rather than purely textual) user interface on a computer. |
| Gutter | The central blank area between left and right pages. |
| Hairline rule | The thinnest rule that can be printed. |
| Hairlines | The thinnest of the strokes in a typeface. |
| Half up | Artwork is reproduced one and a half times its size. |
| Halftone | An illustration reproduced by breaking down the original tone into a pattern of dots of varying size. Light areas have small dots and darker areas or shadows have larger dots. |
| Halftone screen | A glass plate or film placed between the original photograph and the film to be exposed. The screen carries a network of parallel lines. The number of lines to the inch controls the coarseness of the final dot formation. The screen used depends on the printing process and the paper to be used, the higher the quality means more lines can be used. |
| Hard disk | A rigid disk sealed inside an airtight transport mechanism. Information stored may be accessed more rapidly than on floppy disks and far greater amounts of data may be stored. Often referred to as Winchester disks. |
| Hardback | A case bound book with a separate stiff board cover. |
| Head | The margin at the top of a page. |
| Helvetica | A sans serif typeface. |
| Hickies | A dust particle sticking to the printing plate or blanket which appears on the printed sheet as a dark spot surrounded by an halo. |
| Highlight | The lightest area in a photograph or illustration. |
| House style | The style of preferred spelling, punctuation, hyphenation and indentation used in a publishing house or by a particular publication to ensure consistent typesetting. |
| HTML | Hyper Text Markup Language. HTML is the standard language used to format and display data on the Internet. |
| HyTime | Hypermedia/Time-based Structuring Language is an SGML architecture that specifies the generic hypermedia structure of documents. Following the guiding principle of SGML, HyTime-defined structure is independent of any presentation of the encoded document. |
| Icons | Pictorial images used on screen to indicate utility functions, files, folders or applications software. The icons are generally activated by an on-screen pointer controlled by a mouse or trackball. |
| Imposition | Refers to the arrangement of pages on a printed sheet, which when the sheet is finally printed on both sides, folded and trimmed, will place the pages in their correct order. |
| ImPress | A page description language developed by Imagen and supported by over 60 software products including Crystal, TeX, Superpage and AutoCAD. Almost certainly the first commercially available PDL. |
| Impression cylinder | The cylinder of a printing machine which brings the paper into contact with the printing plate or blanket cylinder. |
| Imprint | The name and place of the publisher and printer required by law if a publication is to be published. Sometimes accompanied by codes indicating the quantity printed, month/year of printing and an internal control number. |
| Insert | An instruction to the printer for the inclusion of additional copy. |
| Integer | Any number comprised of whole increments, e.g 2 5 6 7. |
| Interface | The circuit or physical connection which controls the flow of data between a computer and its peripherals. |
| International paper sizes | The International Standards Organisation (ISO) system of paper sizes is based on a series of three sizes A, B and C. Series A is used for general printing and stationery, series B for posters and series C for envelopes. |
| Internationalisation | The Web was originally developed to enable people throughout the world to communicate with one another. Having a single system that can deal with all languages and cultures has many advantages: when the same protocols are used everywhere, the same software can be used. W3C has successfully stressed the role of Unicode as the basis for identifying characters in documents. |
| Interpolation | To add or substitute words into a piece of text - often used in variables. |
| Interpress | Interpress is Xerox Corporation's page description language which was the first such product to be implemented. At present the language still has to be adopted commercially by a third party. |
| ISBN - International Standard Book Number | A reference number given to every published work. Usually found on the back of the title page. |
| ISDN | Integrated Services Digital Network is a set of CCITT/ITU standards for digital transmission over ordinary telephone copper wire as well as over other media. |
| ISO | International Organization for Standardization - the source of International Standards for business, government and society. |
| Italic | Type with sloping letters. |
| Ivory board | A smooth high white board used for business cards etc. |
| Java | Java is a programming language expressly designed for use in the distributed environment of the Internet. It was designed to have the 'look and feel' of the C++ language, but it is simpler to use than C++ and enforces a completely object-oriented view of programming. |
| JavaScript | JavaScript is Netscape's cross-platform, object-based scripting language for client and server applications. |
| JPEG | Joint Photographic Experts Group - ISO CD 10718. The JPEG image file format was originally designed to compress photographs. |
| K (Kilobyte) | 1024 bytes, a binary 1,000. |
| Keep standing | To hold type or plates ready for reprints. |
| Keyline | An outline drawn or set on artwork showing the size and position of an illustration or halftone. |
| Knowledge management | The name of a relatively new concept in which an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organizes, shares, and analyzes its knowledge to further its aims. |
| Kraft paper | A tough brown paper used for packing. |
| Laid | Paper with a watermark pattern showing the wire marks used in the paper making process. Usually used for high quality stationery. |
| Laminate | A thin transparent plastic coating applied to paper or board to provide protection and give it a glossy finish. |
| LAN | Local Area Network - A data communications network which is geographically limited (typically to a 1 km radius) allowing easy interconnection of terminals, microprocessors and computers within adjacent buildings. Ethernet and FDDI are examples of standard LANs. |
| Landscape | Work in which the width used is greater than the height. Also used to indicate the orientation of tables or illustrations which are printed 'sideways'. |
| Laser printer | A high quality image printing system using a laser beam to produce an image on a photosensitive drum. The image is transferred on to paper by a conventional xerographic printing process. Currently, most laser printers set at 300dpi with newer models operating at up to 600dpi. |
| Lateral reversal | A positive or negative image transposed from left to right as in a mirror reflection of the original. |
| Layout | A sketch of a page for printing showing the position of text and illustrations and giving general instructions. |
| Legend | The descriptive matter printed below an illustration, mostly referred to as a caption. Also an explanation of signs or symbols used in timetables or maps. |
| Letraset | A proprietary name for rub-down or dry transfer lettering used in preparing artwork. |
| Letterpress | A relief printing process in which a raised image is inked to produce an impression; the impression is then transferred by placing paper against image and applying pressure. |
| Letterset | A printing process combining offset printing with a letterpress relief printing plate. |
| Letterspacing | The addition of space between the letters of words to increase the line-length to a required width or to improve the appearance of a line. |
| Library picture | A picture taken from an existing library and not specially commissioned. |
| Line block | A letterpress printing plate made up of solid areas and lines and without tones. |
| Line gauge | A metal rule used by printers. Divided into Picas it is 72 picas long (11.952in). |
| Line tester | A magnifying glass designed for checking the dot image of a halftone. |
| Lineup table | A table with an illuminated top used for preparing and checking alignment of page layouts and paste-ups. |
| Lining figures | Numerals that align on the baseline and at the top. |
| Linotype | Manufacturers of a range of high resolution phototypesetting machines such as the 100, 202, 300 and 500. The 100, 300 and 500 series are capable of processing PostScript files through an external RIP and typesetting desktop publishing files direct from disk at 1270dpi and beyond. |
| Linux | A UNIX-like operating system that was designed to provide personal computer users a free or very low-cost operating system comparable to traditional and usually more expensive UNIX systems. |
| Lithography | A printing process based on the principle of the natural aversion of water to grease. The photographically prepared printing plate when being made is treated chemically so that the image will accept ink and reject water. |
| Logo | Short for logotype. A word or combination of letters set as a single unit. Also used to denote a specially styled company name designed as part of a corporate image. |
| Loose leaf | A method of binding which allows the insertion and removal of pages for continuous updating. |
| Lower case | The small letters in a font of type. |
| LSA | Logistics support analysis. |
| M (Megabyte) | One million bytes. |
| Machine glazed (MG) | Paper with a high gloss finish on one side only. |
| Magnetic ink | A magnetized ink that can be read both by humans and by electronic machines. Used in cheque printing. |
| MA(H)T | Machine assisted (human) translation. |
| Make-up | The assembling of all elements to form the printed image. |
| Making ready | The time spent in making ready the level of the printing surface by packing out under the forme or around the impression cylinder. |
| Manilla | A tough brown paper used to produce stationery and wrapping paper. |
| Manuscript (MS) | The original written or typewritten work of an author submitted for publication. |
| Mask | Opaque material or masking tape used to block-off an area of the artwork. |
| Masthead | Details of publisher and editorial staff usually printed on the contents page. |
| MathML | Mathematical Markup Language - MathML is intended to facilitate the use and re-use of mathematical and scientific content on the Web, and for other applications such as computer algebra systems, print typesetting, and voice synthesis. MathML can be used to encode both the presentation of mathematical notation for high-quality visual display, and mathematical content, for applications where the semantics plays more of a key role such as scientific software or voice synthesis. |
| Matt art | A coated printing paper with a dull surface. |
| Measure | Denotes the width of a setting expressed in pica ems. |
| Mechanical binding | A method of binding which secures pre-trimmed leaves by the insertion of wire or plastic spirals through holes drilled in the binding edge. |
| Mechanical tint | A pre-printed sheet of dots, lines or patterns that can be laid down on artwork for reproduction. |
| Memory | The part of the computer which stores information for immediate access. Nowadays this consists exclusively of RAM (random access memory), which holds the applications software and data or ROM (read only memory), which holds permanent information such as the DOS bootstrap routines. Memory size is expressed in kilobytes (k) or megabytes (M). |
| Menu-driven | Programs which allow the user to request functions by choosing from a list of options. |
| Metallic ink | Printing inks which produce an effect in gold, silver, bronze or metallic colours. |
| MG (Machine glazed) | Paper with a high gloss finish on one side only. |
| MIL | Military. |
| MIL-HDBK | Military handbook. |
| MIL-SPEC | Military specification. |
| MIL- STD | Military standard. |
| MIME | Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions is an extension of the original Internet e-mail protocol that lets people use the protocol to exchange different kinds of data files on the Internet: audio, video, images, application programs, and other kinds, as well as the ASCII handled in the original protocol, the Simple Mail Transport Protocol (SMTP). |
| Mock-up | The rough visual of a publication or design. |
| Modem (MOdulator-DEModulator) | A device for converting digital data into audio signals and back again. Primarily used for transmitting data between computers over telephone lines. |
| Moiré pattern | The result of superimposing half-tone screens at the wrong angle thereby giving a chequered effect on the printed halftone. Normally detected during the stage of progressive proofs. |
| Montage | A single image formed from the assembling of several images. |
| Mounting board | A heavy board used for mounting artwork. |
| Mouse | A hand-held pointing device using either mechanical motion or special optical techniques to convert the movement of the user's hand into movements of the cursor on the screen. Generally fitted with one, two or three buttons which can control specific software functions. |
| MPEG | Motion picture experts group develops standards for digital video and digital audio compression. |
| MP3 - | MPEG-1 Audio Layer-3 is a standard technology and format for compressing a sound sequence into a very small file (about one-twelfth the size of the original file) while preserving the original level of sound quality when it is played. |
| MS (Manuscript) | The original written or typewritten work of an author submitted for publication. |
| Namespace | When using the Extensible Markup Language (XML) to create and share a collection of data about something with others on the Web, a namespace is a document at one specific Web site that identifies the names of particular data elements or attributes used within the XML file. The XML file creator identifies the namespace by specifying its Web address near the beginning of the XML file. |
| Newsprint | Unsized, low quality, absorbent paper used for printing newspapers. |
| Nipping | A stage in book binding where, after sewing, the sheets are pressed to expel air. |
| Oblique stroke | (/) |
| OCR (Optical Character Recognition) | A special kind of scanner which provides a means of reading printed characters on documents and converting them into digital codes that can be read into a computer as actual text rather than just a picture. |
| OCX | An OCX is an Object Linking and Embedding (OLE) custom control, a special-purpose program that can be created for use by applications running on Microsoft's Windows systems. OCX is a custom control that provides functionality that can be utilised by other programs. The OCX (ActiveX) technology is only available under Microsoft's Windows systems. ActiveX is a set of technologies that enables software components to interact with one another regardless of the language in which they were created. OCXs provide such functions as handling scroll bar movement and window resizing. |
| ODA | Office/ Open document architecture (ISO 8613). |
| ODBC | Open Database Connectivity is a widely accepted application programming interface (API) for database access. Open Database Connectivity enables programs to communicate with a database using a standard set of instructions, known as API (Application Programming Interface). ODBC is a standard protocol for database servers providing a common language for Windows applications to gain access to a database. It is possible to install ODBC drivers for various databases that enable you to connect to the databases and access their data. |
| Offprint | A run-on or reprint of an article first published in a magazine or journal. |
| Offset lithography | See lithography. A printing method whereby the image is transferred from a plate onto a rubber covered cylinder from which the printing takes place. |
| OLE | Object Linking and Embedding is Microsoft's framework for a compound document technology. Briefly, a compound document is something like a display desktop that can contain visual and information objects of all kinds: text, calendars, animations, sound, motion video, 3-D, continually updated news, controls, and so forth. |
| Onion skin | A translucent lightweight paper used in air mail stationery. |
| OOP | Object-orientated programming language. A revolutionary concept that changed the rules in computer program development, OOP is organized around objects rather than actions and data rather than logic. |
| Opacity | The term used to describe the degree to which paper will show print through. |
| Optical centre | A point above the true centre of the page which will not appear 'low' as the geometric centre does. |
| Optical disks | Video disks on which large amounts of information can be stored in binary form representing characters of text or images. The disks cannot be used to view the information using a modified compact disk player and TV. Mainly used for reference works such as dictionaries, encyclopaedias, etc. |
| OS | An operating system is the program that, after being initially loaded into the computer by a bootstrap program, manages all the other programs in a computer. |
| Overlay | A transparent sheet used in the preparation of multicolour artwork showing the colour breakdown. |
| Overprinting | Printing over an area already printed. Used to emphasise changes or alterations. |
| Overs | Additional paper required to compensate for spoilage in printing. Also used to refer to a quantity produced above the number of copies ordered. |
| Ozalid | A trade name to describe a method of copying page proofs from paper or film. |
| Page printer | The more general (and accurate) name used to describe non-impact printers which produce a complete page in one action. Examples include laser, LED and LCD shutter xerographic printers, ion deposition, electro-erosion and electro-photographic printers. |
| Page Description Language (PDL) | A special form of programming language which enables both text and graphics (object or bit-image) to be described in a series of mathematical statements. Their main benefit is that they allow the applications software to be independent of the physical printing device as opposed to the normal case where specific routines have to be written for each device. Typical PDLs include Interpress, ImPress, PostScript and DDL. |
| Page proofs | The stage following galley proofs, in which pages are made up and paginated. |
| Pagination | The numbering of pages in a book. |
| Pantone | A registered name for an ink colour matching system. |
| Parse | Once a SGML/XML document is divided into known element types, a special purpose program (called a parser) can be used to process a document and check that all the elements required for that document are present and correctly ordered. This means that different documents of the same type can be processed in a uniform way. |
| Perl | An acronym for Practical Extraction and Reporting Language, Perl is a script programming language that is similar in syntax to the C language and that includes a number of popular UNIX facilities such as sed, awk, and tr. Perl is an interpreted language that can be compiled just before execution into either C code or cross-platform byte-code. When compiled, a Perl program is almost (but not quite) as fast as a fully precompiled C language program. Perl is regarded as a good choice for developing Common Gateway Interface (CGI) programs because it has good text manipulation facilities (although it also handles binary files). |
| Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) is a standard for electronic document distribution. | |
| Photogravure | See gravure. A printing process where the image is etched into the plate cylinder. The main advantage of this method of printing is the high speed, long run capability. Used mainly for mail order and magazine work. |
| Picking | The effect of ink being too tacky and lifting fibres out of the paper. Shows up as small white dots on areas of solid colour. |
| Pipelining | The ability of a program to flow text automatically from the end of one column or page to the beginning of the next. An extra level of sophistication can be created by allowing the flow to be re-directed to any page and not just the next available one. This is ideal for US-style magazines where everything is 'Continued on...'! |
| Plug-and-Play | Plug-and-Play (PnP) is a standard that gives computer users the ability to plug a device into a computer and have the computer recognize that the device is there. |
| Portrait | An upright image or page where the height is greater than the width. |
| Positive | A true photographic image of the original made on paper or film. |
| PostScript | A page description language developed by Adobe Systems. Widely supported by both hardware and software vendors it represents the current 'standard' in the market. John Warnock and Chuck Geschke of Adobe both worked for Xerox at the Palo Alto Research Centre where PDLs were invented and set up their company to commercially exploit the concepts they had helped develop. |
| Preview mode | A mode where word processing or desktop publishing software which doesn't operate in WYSIWYG fashion can show a representation of the output as it will look when printed. The quality ranges from acceptable to worse than useless. |
| Primary colours | Cyan, magenta and yellow. These three colours when mixed together with black will produce a reasonable reproduction of all other colours. |
| Print engine | The parts of a page printer which perform the print-imaging, fixing and paper transport. In fact, everything but the controller. |
| Printer command language | A language developed by Hewlett Packard for use with its own range of printers. Essentially a text orientated language, it has been expanded to give graphics capability. |
| Progressives | Colour proofs taken at each stage of printing showing each colour printed singularly and then superimposed on the preceding colour. |
| Proof | A copy obtained from inked type, plate, block or screen for checking purposes. |
| Proof correction marks | A standard set of signs and symbols used in copy preparation and to indicate corrections on proofs. Marks are placed both in the text and in the margin. |
| Proportional spacing | A method of spacing whereby each character is spaced to accommodate the varying widths of letters or figures therefore so increasing readability. Books and magazines are set proportionally spaced, typewritten documents are generally monospaced. |
| Public domain | Programs that are uncopyrighted because their authors intended to share them with everyone else are in the public domain. The UNIX community has developed a number of such programs over the years. Programs in the public domain can be used without restriction as components of other programs. |
| Pull-down menus | Developed from Xerox research (like just about everything else we take for granted in desktop publishing) these are a method of providing user control over software without cluttering up the screen with text. Using the mouse or cursor keys the user points to the main heading of the menu he or she wants and the menu pulls (Windows) or drops (GEM) from the heading. When the required function has been selected, the menu rolls back up into the menu bar leaving the screen clear. |
| Pulp | The raw material used in paper making consisting mainly of wood chips, rags or other fibres. Broken down by mechanical or chemical means. |
| Quadding | The addition of space to fill out a line of type using en or em blocks. |
| Quire | 1/20th of a ream (25 sheets). |
| Rag paper | High quality stationery made from cotton rags. |
| Raster graphics | Digital images created or captured (for example, by scanning in a photo) as a set of samples of a given space. |
| 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. |
| Reference marks | Symbols used in text to direct the reader to a footnote. Eg asterisk (*), dagger, double dagger. |
| Register | The correct positioning of an image especially when printing one colour on another. |
| Register marks | Used in colour printing to position the paper correctly. Usually crosses or circles. |
| Resolution | The measurement used in typesetting to express quality of output. Measured in dots per inch, the greater the number of dots, the more smoother 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 colour separations to correct faults or enhance the image. |
| Reverse out | To reproduce as a white image out of a solid background. |
| Revise | Indicates the stages at which corrections have been incorporated from earlier proofs and new proofs submitted. E.g. First revision, second revision. |
| RFC | Request for comments. |
| RGB | Red, green, and blue. Refers to a system for representing the colours to be used on a computer display. Red, green, and blue can be combined in various proportions to obtain any colour in the visible spectrum. |
| Right reading | A positive or negative which reads from left to right. |
| Rocket eBook | A portable reading device about the size of a paperback book that promises to be the first usable, mass-marketed "electronic book". The Rocket eBook can be conveniently updated from book stores and other sites on the Web. |
| Roman | Type which has vertical stems as distinct from italics or oblique which 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). |
| RTF | Rich Text Format is a file format that lets you exchange text files between different word processors in different operating systems. |
| Ruler | Rulers displayed on the screen that show measures in inches, picas or millimetres. |
| 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. |
| S/S (Same size) | An instruction to reproduce to the same size as the original. |
| Saddle stitching | A method of binding where the folded pages are stitched through the spine from the outside, using wire staples. Usually limited to 64 pages size. |
| SAX | (Simple API for XML) is an application program interface (API) that allows a programmer to interpret a Web file that uses the Extensible Markup Language (XML) - that is, a Web file that describes a collection of data. SAX is an alternative to using the Document Object Model (DOM) to interpret the XML file. |
| Scale | The means within a program to reduce or enlarge the amount of space an image will occupy. |
| Scaling | A means of calculating the amount of enlargement or reduction necessary to accommodate a photograph within the area of a design. |
| Scamp | A sketch of a design showing the basic concept. |
| Scanner | A digitising device using light sensitivity to translate a picture or typed text into a pattern of dots which can be understood and stored by a computer. To obtain acceptable quality when scanning photographs, at least 64 grey scales are required. |
| Schema | Schemas express shared vocabularies and allow machines to carry out rules made by people. They provide a means for defining the structure, content and semantics of XML documents. |
| Scraperboard | A board prepared with black indian ink over a china clay surface. Drawings are produced by scraping away the ink to expose the china clay surface. |
| Seamless interface | A seamless interface is the joining of two computer programs so that they appear to be one program with a single user interface. |
| Section | A printed sheet folded to make multiple pages. |
| Security paper | Paper incorporating special features (dyes, watermarks etc.) for use on cheques. |
| Set size | The width of the type body of a given point size. |
| Set solid | Type set without leading (line spacing) between the lines. Type is often set with extra space; e.g. 9 point set on 10 point. |
| Set off | The accidental transfer of the printed image from one sheet to the back of another. |
| SGML | Standard Generalized Mark-up Language is an ISO standard for defining document structures for the application of mark-up schemes. It provides a consistent and precise manner of applying mark-up for describing the component parts of a document, enabling the exchange of revisable documents between different computer systems. |
| Sheet | A single piece of paper. In poster work refers to the number of Double Crown sets in a full size poster. |
| Sheet fed | A printing press which prints single sheets of paper, not reels. |
| Sheetwise | A method of printing a section. Half the pages from a section are imposed and printed. The remaining half of the pages are then printed on the other side of the sheet. |
| Show-through | See opacity. |
| Side stabbed or stitched | The folded sections of a book are stabbed through with wire staples at the binding edge, prior to the covers being drawn on. |
| Side heading | A subheading set flush into the text at the left edge. |
| Sidebar | A vertical bar positioned usually on the right hand side of the screen. |
| Signature | Letter or figure printed on the first page of each section of a book and used as a guide when collating and binding. |
| Sixteen sheet | A poster size measuring 120in x 80in (3050mm x 2030mm). |
| Size | A solution based on starch or casein which is added to the paper to reduce ink absorbency. |
| Slurring | A smearing of the image, caused by paper slipping during the impression stage. |
| Snap-to (guide or rules) | A WYSIWYG program feature for accurately aligning text or graphics. The effect is exercised by various non-printing guidelines such as column guides, margin guides which automatically place text or graphics in the correct position flush to the column guide when activated by the mouse. The feature is optional and can be turned off. |
| Soft back/cover | A book bound with a paper back cover. |
| Soft/discretionary hyphen | A specially coded hyphen which is only displayed when formatting of the hyphenated word puts it at the end of a line. |
| Spell check | A facility contained in certain word processing and page makeup programs to enable a spelling error check to be carried out. Dictionaries of American origin may not conform to English standards and the option should be available within the program to modify the contents. Dictionaries usually contain between 60,000-100,000 words. |
| Spider | A spider is a program that visits Web sites and reads their pages and other information in order to create entries for a search engine index. The major search engines on the Web all have such a program, which is also known as a "crawler" or a "bot". Spiders are typically programmed to visit sites that have been submitted by their owners as new or updated. |
| Spine | The binding edge at the back of a book. |
| SQL | Structured Query Language. A database query language. Used in conjunction with ODBC to communicate with relational databases. Using SQL syntax, you can construct a statement that extracts records according to the criteria you specify, for example you can define, query, modify and control the data. |
| SRA | A paper size in the series of ISO international paper sizes slightly larger than the A series allowing the printer extra space to bleed. |
| SSI | Server-side include. A variable value (for example, a file "Last modified" date) that a server can include in an HTML file. |
| Stat | Photostat copy. |
| Stem | The main vertical stroke making up a type character. |
| Stet | Used in proof correction work to cancel a previous correction. From the Latin, 'let it stand'. |
| Strap | A subheading used above the main headline in a newspaper article. |
| Strawboard | A thicker board made from straw pulp, used in bookwork and in the making of envelopes and cartons. Not suitable for printing. |
| Strike-through | The effect of ink soaking through the printed sheet. |
| Style sheet | A collection of tags specifying page layout styles, paragraph settings and type specifications which can be set up by the user and saved for use in other documents. Some page makeup programs, such as Ventura, come with a set of style sheets. |
| Subscript | The small characters set below the normal letters or figures. |
| Supercalendered paper | A smooth finished paper with a polished appearance, produced by rolling the paper between calendars. Examples of this are high gloss and art papers. |
| Surprint (US) | See overprinting. Printing over a previously printed area of either text or graphics. |
| Swash letters | Italic characters with extra flourishes used at the beginning of chapters. |
| Swatch | A colour sample. |
| Tabloid | A page half the size of a broadsheet. |
| Tabular setting | Text set in columns such as timetables. |
| Tagged Image File Format (TIFF) | A common format for interchanging digital information, generally associated with greyscale or bitmap data. |
| Tags | The various formats which make up a style sheet- paragraph settings, margins and columns, page layouts, hyphenation and justification, widow and orphan control and automatic section numbering. |
| Template | A standard layout usually containing basic details of the page dimensions. |
| Text | The written or printed material which forms the main body of a publication. |
| Text type | Typefaces used for the main text of written material. Generally no larger than 14 point in size. |
| Text wrap | See runaround. |
| Thermography | A print finishing process producing a raised image imitating die stamping. The process takes a previously printed image which before the ink is dry is dusted with a resinous powder. The application of heat causes the ink and powder to fuse and a raised image is formed. |
| Thirty two sheet | A poster size measuring 120in x 160in (3048mm x 4064mm). |
| Threaded or Chained (US) | See pipelining. |
| Thumbnails | The first ideas or sketches of a designer noted down for future reference. |
| Tied letters | See ligature. |
| Tint | The effect of adding white to a solid colour or of screening a solid area. |
| Tip in | The separate insertion of a single page into a book either during or after binding by pasting one edge. |
| Tone line process | The process of producing line art from a continuous tone original. |
| Toolbox | An on screen mouse operated facility that allows the user to choose from a selection of 'tools' to create simple geometric shapes- lines, boxes, circles etc., and to add fill patterns. |
| Transparency | A full colour photographically produced image on transparent film. |
| Trash can (US) | The icon selected for the deleting of files or objects. |
| Trim | The cutting of the finished product to the correct size. Marks are incorporated on the printed sheet to show where the trimming is to be made. |
| Trojan horse | In computing, a Trojan horse is a program in which malicious or harmful code is contained inside apparently harmless programming or data in such a way that it can get control and do its chosen form of damage, such as ruining the file allocation table on your hard disk. |
| True colour | The specification of the color of a pixel on a display screen using a 24-bit value, which allows the possibility of up to 16,777,216 possible colors. Many displays today support only an 8-bit color value, allowing up to 256 possible colors. |
| Turnkey | A system designed for a specific user and to work as an integrated unit. Usually has built-in contractual responsibilities for hardware and software maintenance. |
| Twin wire | Paper which has an identical smooth finish on both sides. |
| Typescript | A typed manuscript. |
| Typo (US) | An abbreviation for typographical error. An error in the typeset copy. |
| Typographer | A specialist in the design of printed matter, and in particular the art of typography. |
| Typography | The design and planning of printed matter using type. |
| Unicode | An entirely new idea in setting up binary codes for text or script characters. Officially called the Unicode Worldwide Character Standard, it is a system for "the interchange, processing, and display of the written texts of the diverse languages of the modern world." It also supports many classical and historical texts in a number of languages. Currently, the Unicode standard contains 34,168 distinct coded characters derived from 24 supported language scripts. These characters cover the principal written languages of the world. |
| Universal Copyright Convention (UCC) | Gives protection to authors or originators of text, photographs or illustrations etc, to prevent use without permission or acknowledgment. The publication should carry the copyright mark c, the name of the originator and the year of publication. |
| URI | URI. Uniform Resource Identifiers (aka URLs) are short strings that identify resources on the Web, e.g. documents, images, downloadable files, services, electronic mailboxes, and other resources. |
| URL | Uniform Resource Locator is the address of a file (resource) accessible on the Internet. The type of resource depends on the Internet application protocol. Using the World Wide Web's protocol, the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) , the resource can be an HTML page (like the one you're reading), an image file, a program such as a CGI application or Java applet, or any other file supported by HTTP. |
| USB | Universal Serial Bus is a "plug-and-play" interface between a computer and add-on devices (such as audio players, joysticks, keyboards, telephones, scanners, and printers). With USB, a new device can be added to your computer without having to add an adapter card or even having to turn the computer off. |
| Varnishing | A finishing process whereby a transparent varnish is applied over the printed sheet to produce a glossy finish. |
| VBScript | An interpreted script language from Microsoft that is a subset of its Visual Basic programming language. VBScript can be compared to other script languages designed for the Web, including: Netscape's JavaScript, Sun Microsystem's Tcl, the UNIX-derived Perl, and IBM's REXX. |
| Vellum | The treated skin of a calf used as a writing material. The name is also used to describe a thick creamy book paper. |
| Vignette | A small illustration in a book not enclosed in a definite border. |
| Virtual server | On the Internet, a virtual server is a server at someone else's location that is shared by multiple Web site owners so that each owner can use and administer it as though they had complete control of the server. |
| W3C | The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) describes itself as follows: "The World Wide Web Consortium exists to realize the full potential of the Web. The W3C is an industry consortium which seeks to promote standards for the evolution of the Web and interoperability between WWW products by producing specifications and reference software. Although W3C is funded by industrial members, it is vendor-neutral, and its products are freely available to all." |
| WAN | Wide Area Network - A network, usually constructed with serial lines, extending over distances greater than one kilometre. |
| Watermark | An impression incorporated in the paper making process showing the name of the paper and/or the company logo. |
| Web | A continuous roll of printing paper used on web-fed presses. |
| Weight | The degree of boldness or thickness of a letter or font. |
| Wf | An abbreviation for 'wrong font'. Used when correcting proofs to indicate where a character is in the wrong typeface. |
| Widow | A single word left on the last line of a paragraph which falls at the top of a page. |
| Windows | A software technique that allows a rectangular area of a computer screen to display output from a program. With a number of programs running at one time, several windows can appear on the screen at one time. Information can be cut and pasted from one window to another. The best known version of "windows" is that developed by Microsoft. |
| WINS | Windows Internet Naming Service, part of the Microsoft Windows NT Server, manages the association of workstation names and locations with Internet Protocol addresses (IP addresses) without the user or an administrator having to be involved in each configuration change. |
| Wire | The wire mesh used at the wet end of the paper making process. The wire determines the textures of the paper. |
| Wire stitching | See saddle or side stitching. |
| WML | Wireless Markup Language - WML, formerly called HDML (Handheld Devices Markup Languages), is a language that allows the text portions of Web pages to be presented on cellular telephones and personal digital assistants (PDAs) via wireless access. WML is part of the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). |
| Woodfree paper | Made from chemical pulp only with size added. Supplied calendered or supercalendered. |
| Word wrap | In word processing, the automatic adjustment of the number of words on a line of text to match the margin settings. The carriage returns set up by this method are termed "soft", as against "hard" carriage returns resulting from the return key being pressed. |
| Work and tumble | A method of printing where pages are again imposed together. The sheet is then printed on one side with the sheet being turned or tumbled from front to rear to print the opposite side. |
| Work and turn | A method of printing where pages are imposed in one forme or assembled on one film. One side is then printed and the sheet is then turned over and printed from the other edge using the same forme. The finished sheet is then cut to produce two complete copies. |
| Wove | A finely textured paper without visible wire marks. |
| WWW | (World wide web) A technical definition of the World Wide Web is: all the resources and users on the Internet that are using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). A broader definition comes from the organization that Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee helped found, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): "The World Wide Web is the universe of network-accessible information, an embodiment of human knowledge." |
| WYSIWYG | What-you-see-is-what-you-get (pronounced "wizzywig"). Used to describe systems that preview full pages on the screen with text and graphics. The term can however be a little misleading due to difference in the resolution of the computer screen and that of the page printer. |
| Xerography | A photocopying/printing process in which the image is formed using the electrostatic charge principle. The toner replaces ink and can be dry or liquid. Once formed, the image is sealed by heat. Most page printers currently use this method of printing. |
| XGA | Extended Graphics Array is a high-resolution video display mode that provides screen pixel resolution of 1,024 by 768 in 256 colors or 640 by 480 in high (16-bit) color. XGA monitors can be non-interlaced. The XGA standard is used in desktop and laptop computers as well as in projection systems. |
| XML | Extensible Markup Language. XML is the universal format for structured documents and data on the Web. |
| XML signature | An XML compliant syntax used for representing the signature of Web resources and portions of protocol messages (anything referenced by a URI) and procedures for computing and verifying such signatures. This is currently being developed by the W3C. |
| XQL | (XML Query Language) is a way to locate and filter the elements (data fields) and text in an Extensible Markup Language (XML) document. XML files are used to transmit collections of data between computers on the Web. XQL provides a tool for finding and/or selecting out specific items in the data collection in an XML file or set of files. It is based on the pattern syntax used in the Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) and is proposed as an extension to it. |
| XSL | Extensible Stylesheet Language. An XSL stylesheet specifies the presentation of a class of XML documents by describing how an instance of the class is transformed into an XML document that uses the formatting vocabulary. |
| XSLFO | Extensible Stylesheet Language Formatting Objects. This standard deals with rendering XML elements. XSL-FO is an XML application that describes how pages will look when presented to a reader. A style sheet uses the XSL transformation language to transform an XML document in a semantic vocabulary into a new XML document that uses the XSL-FO presentational vocabulary. |
| XSLT | Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations. XSLT is a component of XSL and is a language used for transforming XML documents. |
| XPath | XPath is a language used to address specific parts of an XML document, and is designed to be used by both XSLT and XPointer. |
| XPOINTER | XML Pointer (XPointer) is the language to be used as a fragment identifier for any URI-reference that locates a resource of Internet media type text/xml or application/xml. |