Four-color Glossies N. 1. Literature Created By Marketroids That Allegedly Contains Technical Specs But Which Is In Fact As Superficial As Possible Without Being Totally Content-free.

HomeFortune CookiesJargon File

four-color glossies n.

1. Literature created by
marketroids that allegedly contains technical specs but which
is in fact as superficial as possible without being totally
content-free. "Forget the four-color glossies, give me the
tech ref manuals." Often applied as an indication of
superficiality even when the material is printed on ordinary paper
in black and white. Four-color-glossy manuals are never
useful for solving a problem. 2. [rare] Applied by extension to
manual pages that don't contain enough information to diagnose why
the program doesn't produce the expected or desired output.

Related: