Red Book
n. 1. Informal name for one of the three standard
references on PostScript ("PostScript Language Reference
Manual", Adobe Systems (Addison-Wesley, 1985; QA76.73.P67P67; ISBN
0-201-10174-2, or the 1990 second edition ISBN 0-201-18127-4); the
others are known as the Green Book, the Blue Book, and
the White Book (sense 2). 2. Informal name for one of the 3
standard references on Smalltalk ("Smalltalk-80: The
Interactive Programming Environment" by Adele Goldberg
(Addison-Wesley, 1984; QA76.8.S635G638; ISBN 0-201-11372-4); this
too is associated with blue and green books). 3. Any of the
1984 standards issued by the CCITT eighth plenary assembly. These
include, among other things, the X.400 email spec and the Group
1 through 4 fax standards. 4. The new version of the Green Book (sense 4) --- IEEE 1003.1-1990, a.k.a ISO 9945-1 --- is
(because of the color and the fact that it is printed on A4 paper)
known in the U.S.A. as "the Ugly Red Book That Won't Fit On The
Shelf" and in Europe as "the Ugly Red Book That's A Sensible
Size". 5. The NSA "Trusted Network Interpretation" companion
to the Orange Book. See also book titles.