Parallel—acommunicationsinterfacethatsends or receives8bits of
informationpluscontrolsignalsat atime.
Parity—abitin aserialinformationthatallowsacomputerandprinter to
automaticallycheckforerrorsin transmission.
Pitch—thewidthof atypefacemeasuredin charactersper inch.
Point—theheightof atype fon~measumdinpoints,or 1/72of an inch.
Portrait—printingonpaperacrossitsnarmwerdimension,suchasaletter
on paperthat is8.5 in.wide and11 in.high; portraitpicturesare
usuallytallerthan theyarewide.
Proportionaltype—atypefaceinwhichsomeletters takeupmoreroom
onapnntedlinethanothers,suchasWtakingmomspacethanl.The
spacingofthelettersis alsointendedtoenhancetheestheticquality
ofthe printedpage.
RAM—RandomAccessMemory,or memorythat can be used to store
informationtemporarily,such as textor printing configurations.
RAM-storedinformationiserasedwhenthe poweris turnedoff.
ROM—Read OnlyMemory,ormemoryin which informationcan be
storedpermanently,whetherthepoweris on or off.
RS-232—awiringconfigurationfor sendingand receivingserialtransmis-
sions, includingdataand acknowledgmentsbetweensendingand
receivingequipment(“handshaking”).
Serial—acommunicationsinterfacethat sendsornxeives 1bit ofinfor-
mationat atime ataspecifiedbaudrate.
StopBit—1or2bitsusedby thecomputerforthetimingofatransmission
ofinformation.
Strokeweight—theintensityof aprintedcharacter,suchaslight,medium,
orbold. Normalprintingismediumweight.
SymbolSet—the enthelistof ASCIIletters,numbers,andsymbolsused
withaparticularlanguage,suchas Englishor Spanish.
VMI(VerticalMotionIndex)—refersto linespacing,thesmallestincre-
mentthatcanbemadeintheverticaloryaxis.
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