• obelisk

    a free-standing stone pillar that narrows off at the top, often featuring inscriptions
  • obscurantist

    a sinister character who sees himself as opposed to the core tenants of the Enlightenment
  • obverse

    face side of a coin or banknote
  • Occident

    the lands of the West, in contrast to the Orient
  • Occident

    the Christian Western World as distinct from the Orient (or Eastern World)
  • Offizin

    the traditional workshop quarters of a German printer’s
  • offline

    devices and services that are either temporarily or permanently unavailable on a particular network
  • offset paper

    paper suitable for offset printing that is not prone to dust collection
  • offset printing

    an indirect flat printing process which features a rubber blanket between printing plate and paper
  • online

    devices or computer services that are temporarily or permanently available for use within a network
  • online public access catalogue (OPAC)

    a library catalogue that is publicly accessible on a digital network
  • opacity

    the state of being non-transparent; this can be heightened in printing paper by the addition of bulking agents or wood fibre content
  • open-access shelving

    books are shelved in a library in such a way that they are directly accessible and do not need to be fetched from a storeroom
  • optical character recognition technology (OCR)

    computer-aided character recognition of image files containing typewritten or printed text
  • optical memory

    storage media that can be read by means of optical scanning and overwritten using laser technology
  • opus

    a Latin term for a literary or musical work
  • opuscule

    a short or minor literary or musical work
  • orality

    the quality of being communicated verbally
  • Orient

    the part of the world seen from Europe in the direction of the rising sun
  • Oriental studies

    a field of study devoted to the languages and intellectual and material culture of the Orient
  • original

    the first version, the primary text, the basis for a copy or edited version
  • original cover

    the cover of a brochure which is to be commissioned for printing by a publishing house
  • original edition

    the first, complete published form of a work that has been approved by the author for publication
  • originator

    in the fields of science, literature, art and music one whose creativity requires the creation of new technology
  • ornament (typographical)

    a template that is often repeated and frequently abstract, often used in job printing as a spacer
  • ornamental engraving

    graphic representation of ornaments as a reference tool for craftspeople, architects, etc.
  • orphan

    in typography, lines of a paragraph, which are left dangling at the end of a page and which are considered to be a serious professional error
  • orthodoxy

    the insistence on conformity with an original religious doctrine or, in a figurative sense, political theory
  • ostraca

    pieces of broken pottery that were used as a writing surface for the purposes of notices or short messages and for casting votes
  • ostracism

    a court procedure in ancient Athens which had the authority to banish citizens from the city-state; voting involved the casting of ostraca ballots
  • ostracism

    an ancient form of written judicial sentencing that provided for the removal of unpopular or overly-powerful individuals from a city with sentences written in shards of pottery