PUBLISHING

Metadata
Literally: data about data. Metadata contains
general descriptions of the data contained
within a particular document. For
example: if a book is data, then a library
index card for that book is its metadata.
MOBI
An ebook file format developed by Mobipocket,
and the basis of Amazon’s earliest
AZW ebooks for the Kindle e-reader.
Mobipocket
A French company founded in 2000 that
produced Mobipocket Reader, an e-reader
software application that ran on some
handheld computers, wireless telephones
and desktop operating systems. The technology
was later purchased by Amazon
for its Kindle platform.
Monitor
The screen on which the output from a
computer is displayed. Also referred to as
display screen.
Monochrome
Monochrome images are either in one
color (black and white) or shades of one
color (grayscale).
MP3
Acronym for ‘MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio
Layer III’. A common compression format
for digital audio. MP3 shrinks audio files to
a fraction of their original size. The technology
was developed in the 1990s and
has not (yet) been superseded by newer
and technically superior compression
formats such as MP4 AAC.
MP4
Also known as MPEG-4. A common
compression format for digital video (MP4
AVC) and audio (MP4 AAC). The MP4 AAC
audio format is the default audio format
for Apple’s iPod, iPhone and iPad devices
and iTunes store. MP4 AVC is currently the
standard video compression format for
BluRay, digital TV, internet video (on You-
Tube, Vimeo, Netflix, etc.), mobile devices
and consumer video cameras.
MultiMarkdown
An extension of the markup language
Markdown, with additional support for
footnotes, tables, mathematical formulas,
cross-references, bibliographies and
definition lists.
Multimedia
The integration of two or more media
(text, images, audio, video, animation,
etc.) in a single document or software
application.
O
Open Source
Open Source originally refers to software
that can be freely used, copied, adapted
and modified. In order to allow modification,
Open Source software provides users
and developers not only with the installable
software, but also its human-readable
‘source’ code. (An analogy would be a restaurant
where customers can not only order
dishes, but are also given the cooking
recipes for unrestricted – personal as well
as commercial – reuse.) The term has also
been used to describe similar practices in
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