PUBLISHING

L
LaTeX
A document markup language in use since
the 1980s, mainly for typesetting scientific
documents. LaTeX is particularly useful
for rendering complex mathematical
formulas.
Layout
The overall visual design of a document.
In the case of printed matter, layout includes
elements such as page dimensions
and margins, font type and size, markup
formatting, the placement of various
elements within the page, and various
other elements such as headings and
page numbers. In the case of reflowable
documents such as ebooks, the layout is
dynamically adapted to each screen size
and screen aspect ratio.
LCD
Acronym for Liquid Crystal Display.
The technology used for producing the
flat-panel color display screens found on
most contemporary computers, tablets
and smartphones, as well as a variety of
other devices. TFT (Thin Film Transistor)
LCD displays are the most common type
of display today, so that the term ‘TFT’ is
often used interchangeably with ‘LCD’.
See also E-paper.
Linux
A popular Open Source, Unix-compatible
operating system. Linux is named after its
creator Linus Torvalds, who still supervises
its development by many developers
worldwide. Most web servers today run
Linux. Google’s Android operating system
is also based on Linux. (Unix, originally
developed in the early 1970, is also the
foundation of other operating systems
such as Mac OS X and iOS.)
M
Markdown
A simple markup language for plaintext
files which uses common, easily
readable symbols such as #, * and _ to
define document formatting. Markdown
was originally developed for blogs, as a
quick and easy way of writing texts that
would be eventually be converted into
HTML. Nowadays, Markdown can also be
converted to other document formats including
EPUB. See also the more powerful
extension of Markdown, MultiMarkdown.
Markup
Symbols/codes inserted in a text document
in order to define additional
attributes such as formatting instructions
(bold, italics, etc.), structuring instructions
(chapters, headings, references, etc.)
or metadata. Based on the information
contained in the markup code, software
applications can render the text document
for a specific output medium (such
as a screen or print).
Markup language
A document format consisting of a clearly
defined syntax of markup codes. Markup
languages are typically created for specific
purposes: For example, HTML and CSS for
formatting web pages, LaTeX for scientific
typesetting.
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