In information handling, a
hard copy is a permanent reproduction, or copy in the form of a physical object, of any media suitable for direct use by a person (in particular
paperPaper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
), of displayed or transmitted
dataThe term data means groups of information that represent the qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables...
. Examples of hard copy include
teleprinterA teleprinter is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communications channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the...
pages, continuous printed tapes,
facsimileFax is a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies of documents, especially using affordable devices operating over the telephone network. The word telefax, short for telefacsimile, for "make a copy at a distance", is also used as a synonym...
pages, computer printouts, and radio photo prints.
Magnetic tapes, diskettes, and non printed punched paper tapes are not hard copies.
Dead tree edition is a term referring to a printed
paperPaper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
version of an article, as opposed to digital alternatives such as a
web pageA webpage or web page is a document or resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a computer screen....
.
In information handling, a
hard copy is a permanent reproduction, or copy in the form of a physical object, of any media suitable for direct use by a person (in particular
paperPaper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
), of displayed or transmitted
dataThe term data means groups of information that represent the qualitative or quantitative attributes of a variable or set of variables. Data are typically the results of measurements and can be the basis of graphs, images, or observations of a set of variables...
. Examples of hard copy include
teleprinterA teleprinter is a now largely obsolete electro-mechanical typewriter which can be used to communicate typed messages from point to point and point to multipoint over a variety of communications channels that range from a simple electrical connection, such as a pair of wires, to the...
pages, continuous printed tapes,
facsimileFax is a telecommunications technology used to transfer copies of documents, especially using affordable devices operating over the telephone network. The word telefax, short for telefacsimile, for "make a copy at a distance", is also used as a synonym...
pages, computer printouts, and radio photo prints.
Magnetic tapes, diskettes, and non printed punched paper tapes are not hard copies.
"Dead tree edition"
Dead tree edition is a term referring to a printed
paperPaper is thin material mainly used for writing upon, printing upon or for packaging. It is produced by pressing together moist fibers, typically cellulose pulp derived from wood, rags or grasses, and drying them into flexible sheets....
version of an article, as opposed to digital alternatives such as a
web pageA webpage or web page is a document or resource of information that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a computer screen....
. It is a mildly deprecating term for
hard copyIn information handling, a hard copy is a permanent reproduction, or copy in the form of a physical object, of any media suitable for direct use by a person , of displayed or transmitted data...
; variations include
dead tree format and
dead-tree-ware. "Dead tree" refers to trees being cut down for raw material for producing paper.
The GuardianThe Guardian is a British daily newspaper owned by the Guardian Media Group. Founded in 1821, it is unique among major British newspapers in being owned by a foundation .The Guardian Weekly, which circulates worldwide, provides a compact digest of four newspapers...
website on 29 November 2006 printed:
"Maybe this is more a multimedia victory for Jeff Randall himself: he did manage a dead-tree front page, web scoop, vodcast and major plug on the 10 O'clock news."
A related saying among
computerA computer is a machine that manipulates data according to a set of instructions.Although mechanical examples of computers have existed through much of recorded human history, the first electronic computers were developed in the mid-20th century . These were the size of a large room, consuming as...
fans is
"You can't grepgrep is a command line text search utility originally written for Unix. The name is taken from the first letters in global / regular expression / print, a series of instructions in text editors such as ed...
dead trees", from the
UnixUnix is a computer operating system originally developed in 1969 by a group of AT&T employees at Bell Labs, including Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Brian Kernighan, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna...
command
grepgrep is a command line text search utility originally written for Unix. The name is taken from the first letters in global / regular expression / print, a series of instructions in text editors such as ed...
meaning to search the contents of text files. This means that an advantage of keeping documents in digital form rather than on paper is that they can be more easily searched for specific contents. An exception are texts stored as
digital imageA digital image is a representation of a two-dimensional image using ones and zeros . Depending on whether or not the image resolution is fixed, it may be of vector or raster type...
s (digital
facsimileA facsimile is a copy or reproduction of an old book, manuscript, map, art print or other item of historical value that is as true to the original source as possible using, normally, some form of photographic technique...
), as they cannot be easily searched, except by sophisticated means such as
optical character recognitionOptical character recognition, usually abbreviated to OCR, is the mechanical or electronic translation of images of handwritten, typewritten or printed text into machine-editable text....
or examining the infrequently used image
metadataMetadata is "data about data", of any sort in any media. Metadata is text, voice, or image that describes what the audience wants or needs to see or experience. The audience could be a person, group, or software program...
. On the other hand, dead trees have tremendous
data integrityData integrity is a term used in computer science and telecommunications that can mean ensuring data is "whole" or complete, the condition in which data is identically maintained during any operation , the preservation of data for their intended use, or, relative to specified operations, the a...
in proper conditions.
Related terms include
tree carcass for a book and
tree-killer for a
computer printerIn computing, a printer is a peripheral which produces a hard copy of documents stored in electronic form, usually on physical print media such as paper or transparencies. Many printers are primarily used as local peripherals, and are attached by a printer cable or, in most newer printers, a USB...
. These terms are all examples of
dysphemismIn language, dysphemism , malphemism , and cacophemism refer to the usage of an intentionally harsh word or expression instead of a polite one; they are rough opposites of euphemism...
.
External links
- Hard copy as defined in Federal Standard 1037C
Federal Standard 1037C, titled Telecommunications: Glossary of Telecommunication Terms is a United States Federal Standard, issued by the General Services Administration pursuant to the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949, as amended....
.