variable scaling 1. Scaling the size of type only in width in response to specifying an expansion or condensation, and adjusting the design of a character so as to maintain desired stem thicknesses and not add any stress. The result is that characters do not look stretched or squeezed. 2. Adjusting the design of a character in response to varying its weight, still maintaining proper shape relationships and stroke thicknesses.
Variable scaling, a generic term applying to one or both of the adjustments indicated above, can be implemented in several ways and using different font formats. A mechanism for implementation using PostScript MultipleMaster protocall is particularly straightfoward: designing an axis for variable width or variable weight. However, an implementation of variable scaling was achieved in 1990, prior to the announcement of MultipleMaster, by Production First Software, using a Type 6 font format. This is a much more involved process, does not generate font instances in the process, and it is not ATM-compatible. It is also possible to implement variable scaling using TrueType GX and OpenType formats. Applications, however, must be saavy to those formats.
Production First Software Designer Font series all have variable scaling. Both the (1) and (2) adjustments can be done from within standard applications like PageMaker without having to run a utility beforehand. Variable scaling can be applied separately from, and in addition to, optical scaling.
variant glyph See alternate glyph.
variant See alternate glyph.
Varigraph A device, named after a company by the same name, which allows letterforms to be traced in an altered style or special effect (such as backslanted, obliqued, italic, expanded, vertically stretched, etc.). The device is placed on a blank page, and a pen, connected to a tracing tool through mechanical linkages, marks the altered letterform outlines on the paper.
Varityper or Varityper machine A typesetting machine, designed more like a typewriter, which allowed the typist to change (or « vary ») the typeface very quickly. The Varityper also created a coded paper tape, which could then be used to run another type body-creating apparatus.
(another definition follows)
Varityper The type foundry named after the Varityper machine, which also produced cutting-edge proprietary typesetting systems. Varityper also introduced the first high-precision color-ready PostScript imagesetters which were nevertheless extremely rugged, and which made use of a technique they invented called page buffering. The company was bought by AM International in the early 1980's and then sold to Tegra in the late 1980's. In the 1990's Tegra-Varityper became PrePress Solutions, Inc., still remaining cutting-edge in imagesetter technology.
vastly parallel processor (VPP) A computer consisting of a very large number of complex processor cells, with global connectivity and global access to resources, in numbers far greater than thousands, that is, 10x, x >> 3. Compare with von Neumann computer, massively parallel processor, molecular computing, and cellular computing.
VDSL An abbreviation for Very High Bit Rate DSL. Allows extremely high capacity high bandwidth services by using a number of existing (twisted pair) lines simultaneously.
vector-based Refers to a class of computer instructions which specify shapes by defining a series of straight lines from starting and ending locations. Output devices which are vector-based are plotters and some computer monitor screen display systems.
vector font A font containing glyph images constructed using vector line drawing operations. Vector fonts have also been classified as object-oriented fonts, but this is a misnomer.
vector graphics format See metafile.
vendor-neutral A term relating to technology or practice which is promoted by an entity (usually a third party) which does not commercially profit directly by its use.
Venetian Old Style See Old Style.
Ventura International character set The character set used by Ventura Publisher, GEM version.
Ventura Publisher Developed by Xerox Corp., one of the first PostScript-compatible page layout applications available. In addition to the original GEM versions, versions are available for Macintosh System 6/7 and Microsoft Windows 3.x. Ventura was subsequently sold to Corel Corporation.
verso Referring to left-hand, as in the left-hand page (or verso page) of a document or book.
vertical justification The adjustment of leading and pointsize so as to regulate the vertical height of a text block.
vertical stacking See conjoin.
VIA An achronym for Virtual Interface Architecture for Linux.
.VIC file or VICAR See bitmap formats.
Vietnamese Quoted-Readable convention See VIQR.
viewer A software utility, applet, or application which is designed to display, on-screen, data files of a specific type. Examples include: Web browsers, Adobe Acrobat Reader, and Microsoft WordView. Some applications can serve as a viewer, although it may not be the only purpose for which they were written. Examples include: Macintosh TeachText and SimpleText, and Adobe PhotoShop.
virama A character in certain Indic scripts which creates a dead consonant by deactivating the associated default vowel.
virgule A 'slash', foward slash, or 'solidus' glyph ( / ).
virtual font See composite font.
virtual reality modelling A technique whereby human senses (smell, sound, touch, temperature, vision) are simulated by transducers (touch by mechanically-activated gloves, sound by headphones, vision by helmuts or goggles with built-in video screens, etc.) which are driven by computers in response to simulation software.
VISCII An acronym for VIetnamese Standard Code for Information Interchange. An encoding standard for Vietnamese script, a variant Roman-based alphabet.
visibility One of the component properties constituting typographic color - the ability of a reader to identify words in text without having to identify each letter of the word.
VIQR An acronym for the VIetnamese Quoted-Readable convention. A convention for representing the Vietnamese Roman alphabet using sequences of 7-bit ASCII characters for each Vietnamese letter. The VIQR convention can be utilized by an input method editor in conjunction with the VISCII encoding standard for producing Vietnamese text, in lieu of a direct encoding method.
VLDB An abbreviation for Very Large DataBase.
VM An abbreviation for virtual memory. Besides being used as a term in general computing, it specifically applies to PostScript virtual memory, an area of output device memory where PostScript instructions, downloaded fonts, the font cache, the rasterizer frame buffer, and other data are stored. Also known as « printer VM. »
vmail or Vmail An electronic mail message comprising only of an audio-video data file, with no text data. Several standard formats can be used, including .AVI, .MPG, and .MOV formats.
VML An abbreviation for Vector Markup Language. A markup language vector graphics standard originated by Microsoft for the construction and rendering of images. A « competitor » to PGML.
VoDSL An abbreviation for Voice-over-DSL. A technology which combines a standard telephone voice line with a DSL line. Both portions can be used independently and simultaneously.
VoiceXML A markup language standard based on XML and developed by the VoiceXML Forum (formed by AT&T, IBM, Lucent Technologies, and Motorola). VoiceXML was developed to provide voice access to Websites over the telephone.
VoxML A Voice Markup Language developed by Motorola with technical contributions by AT&T, IBM, and Lucent Technologies, as a voice-based interface to Websites, and for enabling users to request data by speaking over the telephone. Requested data is delivered as common synthesized speech. Compatible (and similar in syntax to HTML), it can also be integrated into a Website, so that a Website link could talk.
von Neumann computer or von Neumann machine A processor system having three characteristics:
(1) a single device or arithmetic unit;
(2) serial processing of tasks; and
(3) complex architecture of the device.
Compare with cellular computing, massively parallel processor, molecular computing, and vastly parallel processor.
vortal A contraction for vertical portal. A portal which contains only content and services specific to a particular technology or industry and makes it available to its members.
vortex Lower junction point in character stems which meet at less than 90 degrees. M, N, V, v, W, w have vortices.
vowel sign A character (usually a diacritical mark or non-alphabetic) used to designate a vowel sound or vowel characteristic.
VPN or virtual private network A methodology of providing a secure private pathway over intranets and the Internet between an end-user and a server. This is achieved by encrypting and packaging the data, transmitting the packaged data on the Internet to its destination, then unpackaging and unencrypting the data.
VRML An abbreviation for Virtual Reality Markup Language. A markup language for virtual reality modelling originally developed by Silicon Graphics Incorporated.
.VTC file A lossy compression progressive image file format using MPEG-4 technology (MP4) with includes embedding of copyright information. It prevents image copying from a Web page using a browser. Images can only be viewed if the user downloads a browser plugin. Equivalent resolution images could be 50% less in size than in JPEG format.
vulgar fraction See case fraction.
VXML An abbreviation for Voice eXtensible Markup Language. A markup language for Web pages which can enable end-users to act on Web pages by telephone. VXML is based on proprietary standards of AT&T and Lucent Technologies existing in 1999, but it was crafted as an international standard adaptable by the W3C. See also VoxML.
vyaz' In typography, a variation of Greek titling style with numerous ligatures and with many words abbreviated and contracted. It is found in old BulgariAnd Russian manuscripts, early Russian Orthodox religious prints, and religious icons.
Some Production First Software Cyrillic Extended descendant fonts contain some viaz' glyphs, mostly ligatures.
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