GLOSSARY OF TECHNICAL TERMS
(IN PROGRESS)

FACSIMILE: a copy of an original manuscript. The name comes from the Latin command Fac simile! ('Do the same!'). In the context of manuscript studies, the word implies a very high quality copy, usually photographic. However, the common-or-garden office FAX is also a facsimile copy. Digital imaging enables us to make available very high quality colour images, which used to be prohibitively expensive in paper books.

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LACUNA: a gap in the text. From the Latin for 'a hole in the ground'.

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LIGATURE: (from the Late Latin meaning 'a tie, fastening') the conjoining of two letters so that they share the same stroke:

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RESOLUTION: think of an electronic image of being made up of a mosaic of tiny squares. These squares are called pixels ('picture cells'). If you use the 'Enlarge' tool on an image in an image-manipulation package such as Adobe Photoshop or Microsoft Photo Editor, you can enlarge the image until it pixellates (breaks up into its component pixels).

A high resolution scan photographs the original so that there are a very large number of pixels per (original) inch (ppi). This will print out sharply at its original size, but will display on the computer screen as an enlargement.

Conversely, the fewer pixels per inch, the smaller the scan will display on screen, but it will print out at exactly the same size (though probably at a lower quality).

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SERIF: the short stroke which begins or terminates a penstroke, curved or straight.
Their main purpose is to make the ends of these strokes look tidy: however, they can be elaborated to a degree where they become a major stylistic feature of a particular script.
For example, they can be

flicked, or triangular,
or diamond, or forked.

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© MEG TWYCROSS 1999