Here is a listing of terms specific to Elixir and/or the electronic document printing industry.  This section will be helpful for new Elixir users and thoses not familiar with the printing industry.  If you are looking for a term that relates specifically to fonts, jump to the Glossary of Font Terms.

If we have left out terms that you believe should be included please send an E-mail listing your terms to elixigroup@elixigroup.org.
 
 
Application: Any program you run on your PC. Elixir applications are represented by icons on the ElixirForm/ Elixir Desktop. If an Elixir application is not in-stalled on your PC, its icon does not display.

Centralized printer: Also called production printer. A classification of large, high speed Xerox printers. Examples of centralized printers are the 4050, 4650, 4090, 4850, 4890, 8700, 8790, 9700, and 9790. See also distributed printers.

Coded Font: In AFP fonts, a file that is a table of correspondence between character set names and code page names.

Code Page: In AFP fonts, the file that maps key-board entries (code points) to graphic character IDs (GCIDs) in a character set.

Converter icon: The icon that converts font, form, image and document files to and from different formats.

Dispatcher icon: An icon that allows you to store and start DOS commands.

Distributed printers: A classification of Xerox printers that are smaller and slower than Xerox production (also known as centralized) printers. Examples of distributed printers are the 2700, 3700, 4045, and 4700.

File filter: The use of DOS wildcard characters to display only those files with selected name characteristics in a window or dialog box. For example, to display only files that begin with ABC in a directory of many files you could enter ABC*.*. See also, Wild-card character.

Elixir FSL: The subset of FSL generated by Elixir.

Form elements: The individual lines, shapes, images, and text that compose a form. You can create, change, move, copy, delete, import, or load a form element.

Form template: A form loaded as an overlay or visual guide only for the purpose of designing new form elements around it. A form template does not be-come part of the form when the form is saved, only the new elements added are saved with the form.

Free text: Text on a form that is not bound by a column with a set height and width. The width of the form is the only restriction.

Form font list: An ASCII .LST file (Flist) in the default ElixiForm screen fonts directory. This file lists up to 24 screen font stem names which can be used to create an Elixir form.

Form list file: A form list (.DAT) is an ASCII file that contains a list of Elixir form file names (.ELX files) and commands that control how specific forms are printed.

.FSC file: (ElixirScan's own form format file) stores the results of form recognition

Generic Elixir format: The DOS file format an Elixir application uses (such as ElixirFont, ElixirImage, and ElixirFont).

GCID: Graphic Character ID, an identifier associated with each character in an AFP font.

Head to head: In duplex printing, when the page top is printed in the same position on both sides of the page.

Head to toe: In duplex printing, when the top of one side of the page is printed in the same position as the bottom of the other side of the page.

Importing files: The process of copying non-Elixir format files from different storage media (such as a hard disk, a diskette, or tape) to the appropriate Desktop input folder or to the Work area.

Information box: A white square at the right of the menu bar identified with an "i". Clicking on the information box displays information about the open Elixir Desktop application.

Inverse Landscape: The orientation of fonts, logos, or images on a page. See the definition for portrait for a figure describing the orientation of fonts on pages.

Inverse Portrait: The orientation of fonts, logos, or images on a page. See the definition for portrait for a figure describing the orientation of fonts on pages.

Kerning: The technique of changing the printed space between characters from the normal spacing. The effect is created by overlapping characters. Inverse Landscape

Keyboard Mapping File: When creating "pruned" Elixir versions of AFP fonts, this ASCII .KMP file maps the GCID for each AFP font character to the corresponding ASCII keyboard position.

Keyboard shortcut: A special one or two-key combination that allows you to execute an option without displaying a pull-down menu. Keyboard shortcuts areshown on each menu beside the name of the option and are listed in the "Keyboard shortcuts" appendix.

Landscape: The orientation of a page or the fonts, logos, or images on a page. A landscape page is nar-rower on the sides than on the top. See the definition of portrait for a figure describing the orientation of fonts on pages.

Metacode: The 9700 printer series Xerox-format print stream.

Portrait: The orientation of a page, or the fonts, lo-gos,or images on a page. A portrait page is narrower on top than on the side (like pages in this book). See the following figure for the orientation of fonts on pages.

Printer icon: An icon representing a proof printer connected to your PC.

Raster graphics: Pictures composed of bit maps, where each element of the picture is a dot defined as black or white.

Replaceable parameter: A parameter (usually %1) used in DOS commands to represent a selected file name. The selected file name replaces the parameter during certain operations.

Scanner icon: The icon representing a scanner connected to your PC.

Screen version: The version of a color or font composed such that its appearance on a screen display is as close as possible to its appearance when printed.

Snap to: A function that causes form elements to automatically align with the nearest grid point when a grid is displayed in the Work area.

Tape icon: The icon representing a tape drive connected to your PC.

Trashbin icon: The Trashbin icon is in the lower right corner of the Desktop and represents a receptacle for items you want to delete. You delete a file by dragging it to the Trashbin icon.

UDK: (User Defined Key) a substitute escape character defined by a user for specific print jobs. See also XES.

User Tools icon: The icon that links applications to files.

Utilities: Special-purpose applications with which you can per-form functions from the DOS prompt. For example, the ELIXIDISK utility allows you to read, write, and format Xerox printer format diskettes.

Wildcard character: A character in a file name, usually an asterisk (*), that specifies a matching set. For example, *.FNT represents all files that end with the .FNT extension.

Xerox-labeled files: Files containing 128-byte or 512-byte Xerox headers, or labels.

XES: (Xerox Escape Sequence) a Xerox printer command language recognized by Xerox distributed printers (such as 2700, 3700, 4045, 4235, and 4700).

 
Ascender: The part of a lowercase letter which extends above the x-height. Another name for a spacing character.

Baseline: An imaginary line which is used to position a character. Characters may rest on the baseline or extend above or below it. Characters are normally positioned so that their baselines are aligned. Such characters are said to be base aligned.

Bitmap: A two-dimensional array of dots or pixels which is used to represent each character in a computerized font. Each black dot in a bitmap is represented in the computer as a number 0, and each white dot is represented as a number 1.

Bold: A darker version of a font or character formed using heavier strokes. See also weight.

Cell: An imaginary frame surrounding a character whose width equals the set width and whose height equals the linespacing of the font.

Cell height:  The cell height of a character is equal to the linespacing of the font.

Cell width: The cell width of a character is equal to the set width.

Character header: A record stored in the computer for each character which contains information such as the set width and the position of the descender relative to the baseline.

Debolden: To lighten a character by removing bits from it.

Delta-x: The delta-x of a character is the same as the set width.

Descender: The part of a lowercase letter which extends below the baseline.

Dot: See point.

Embolden: To darken a character by adding bits to it. A complete set of characters of a certain size and orientation (such as portrait or landscape) in one typeface.

Fixed-pitch: See monospace.

Font header: A record within the computer which contains information applicable to the entire font such as the font name, the linespacing, and the orientation.

Glyph: Another name for a character.

Halftoning: The application of line or shading patterns to a character so it may appear gray or textured.

Inverse landscape orientation: Refers to printing from right to left across the length of the page.

Inverse portrait orientation: Refers to printing from right to left across the width of the page.

Kerning: Kerning is the process of adjusting the spacing between certain character pairs to enhance readability and to visually equalize the spacing among all characters within a line. The amount of space added or subtracted between certain character pairs is dependent upon the font and point size used. Right kerning is when the character extends outside of its cell to the right. Left kerning is when the character ex-tends outside of its cell to the left.

Landscape orientation: Refers to printing from left to right across the length of the page.

Leading: The amount of white space placed at the top or bot-tom of characters to prevent overlapping between succeeding lines. Usually linespacing is equal to the point size plus the leading.

Linespacing: The distance between succeeding lines of text when printed on a page. In other words, the linespacing is the distance from the top of the characters on one line to the top of the characters on the next line.

Monospace: The characteristic of a font family whose characters are all assigned the same horizontal spacing (also called fixed-pitch).

Mirroring: The flipping of a character so that its top becomes its bottom or its right becomes its left.

Nonblank character: A printable character with a bitmap containing a character or symbol.

Null character: An unprintable character that occupies an unused position in a font.

Overstrike: To print characters over each other.

Page: A number of characters and their cells which fill a screen.

Pica: One pica is 12 points or 1/12 of an inch. The length of a printed line of characters is measured in picas.

Picture element: See pixel.

Pitch: A fixed pitch font has the same set widths for all characters. With proportional pitched, the set widths vary from character to character.

Pixel: The smallest mark that can be printed. A pixel is sometimes referred to as a dot. Character bitmaps are made up of dots or pixels. The word pixel is a contraction of picture element.

Point: The size of the characters of a font when they appear on paper is given in points. One point is 1/72 of an inch or 0.352 mm.

Point size: The number of points from the top of the ascender to the bottom of the descender. Sometimes the point size is given in dots or pixels, and in other instances, it is given as how many points (or units of 1/72nd of an inch) the font will have when the characters are printed on paper. Thus, if the characters in a font are, on average, 1/2 inch high when printed, the font is said to have a "point size of 36" or to be a "36 point font."

Portrait orientation: Refers to printing from left to right across the width of the page.

Reverse: To switch a character from black on white to white on black, or vice versa.

Sans serif:  Without a serif. See serif.

Serif: A short stroke that projects out from the main part of the font.

        For example:
    dSerif font d Sans serif font

Set width: The distance from the start of the character to the beginning of the next character.

Spacing character: A blank or all white character that is used for position-ing characters on a line. These characters do the same thing as a space key on a typewriter.

Style: A modified version of a typeface. An example of a style is Italic. Thus, a Press Roman typeface may be in the Italic style.

Typeface: A unique design for printed letters, such as Press Roman.

Underline: A black rectangle positioned in the character cell.

Weight: The thickness of a font which can be changed by emboldening or deboldening characters in a font.

X-height: The height of the lowercase x character.

 
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