PUBLISHING

fields other than software development,
such as design (Open Design), publishing
(Open Access), engineering, and even
medical research.
Operating system
The most basic piece of software running
on a computer. Operating systems generally
manage storage and file access as well
as network connectivity, and provide a user
interface including keyboard/mouse input
and screen/audio output. Well-known
operating systems include Windows, Linux
and Mac OS X, as well as mobile operating
systems such as Android and iOS.
Optical Character Recognition
(OCR)
OCR software automatically recognizes
printed text (or even handwriting) in
scanned or photographed images and
converts it into digital text files.
P
PDA
(Personal Digital Assistant)
A miniature computer/handheld device
with standard software applications such
as an agenda, address book, notebook
and web browsing. PDAs were popular
from the 1990s to the mid-2000s, when
they were superseded by smartphones.
PDF
Acronym for Portable Document Format.
PDF was developed by Adobe Systems
as a file format for ensuring that documents
would retain their visual layout and
typographic details, and thus be rendered
identically, across all operating systems.
PDF is generally a read-only format, and
not a suitable format for editable documents.
It originated in the field of desktop
publishing and became the standard file
format for master copies of print publications.
Since PDF is, for the most part, a
fixed-layout (as opposed to reflowable)
document format, designed for print, it is
less suitable than EPUB as an all-purpose
electronic publishing format. Since 2008,
PDF has been an open standard.
Pixel
All text and images on a display screen are
made up of a grid of thousands (or even
millions) of small colored dots known
as pixels. The term ‘pixel’ is derived from
‘picture element’. See also Resolution.
Plain text
Text without any visual formatting (such
as bold, italic, font types and sizes, clickable
hyperlinks, etc.). ASCII is the oldest
and still most common plain-text format.
Platform
A generic term to describe technology
that serves as a foundation for other
technology. For example, the internet is a
platform for other network services, and
operating systems are platforms for other
software applications. (Platform-independent
software can, theoretically, run
on any computer.)
Print-on-demand (POD)
Print-on-demand (POD) is a digital printing
technology in which a book or other
publication is not printed in an edition of
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