Crossword clues for castoff
castoff
Wiktionary
a. discarded, rejected n. something that has been rejected or discarded; a reject
Wikipedia
In book publishing, casting off is the process of estimating the number of signatures required to typeset a manuscript. An accurate castoff (or cast off) is important because the page length of a book affects many variables, including the cost of producing the book, the cover price, how many books can fit in a carton, and the width of the spine.
Casting off generally begins by counting the words or characters in the manuscript, usually using a word processor or text editor. This word count is then divided by an estimate of the number of words or characters per full page of a model book, i.e., a previously published book with approximately the same trim size and type specifications to be applied to the manuscript.
The editor must then account for anything else that will add pages to the finished book, such as half-title and title pages, the copyright page, part-title pages, chapter openers, photographs, illustrations, charts, tables, or lines of poetry. In addition, the editor must anticipate any elements that will be added later in proofs, such as a preface or index.
Once the editor has estimated the pages required to typeset the book, it must be rounded to the nearest multiple of sixteen (a signature) or eight (a half-signature) by adding blank pages or killing (editing so as to remove) pages. Editors tend to round up rather than down, because if the book requires more pages than anticipated, it will cost more to produce, but fewer pages and therefore lower production costs are less problematic.
While some software exists to help editors in accurately casting off manuscripts, even an experienced editor often can't foresee the many variables that will affect a book's length, some of which may not arise until the book is well into production.
Usage examples of "castoff".
A player comes on under the shadow, made up in the castoff mail of a court buck, a wellset man with a bass voice.
The castoff glow of the sun, still hidden below the horizon, tinted the edges with a golden pink that gradually deepened to violet.
As he watched, they roughly competed for castoff hunks of raw boar fat and bones.
She had trailed along after him countless times, dressed in his castoffs, without anyone seeming to notice.
Since I was dressed in castoffs from the two privileged wives, and rarely given a moment of time by my husband, they looked on me with pity.
Sighing, Stef dropped his robe among the other castoffs on the floor and plowed into a musty closet, looking for something clean.
Now they wore the most outlandish collection of castoffs and borrowed finery he had seen.
They splashed through a foul pool and out onto a narrow street covered witfi decaying garbage, castoffs, and odd hunks of refuse, as softly yielding and treacherous as the floor of a rain forest.
Most of their ilk had to make do with, at best, castoffs and obsolete units of the Confederacy Navy.
They have to put up with the sort of castoffs who are almost ready to fall in love with lady physicists, embryologists, and embalmers.
The tunic must have given me a castoff glory, the shimmer of a fallen angel.
The handsome vampire managed to wear my castoff clothes and make them look like some kind of fashion statement.
The old groom sidled away warily, like a huge, hairy crab clad in an assortment of rags and castoffs.
His tangled hair was white, and his clothing was mismatched, appearing to consist mostly of castoffs he had found beside this trail or that.
But he sounded troubled, and his eyes seemed drawn to the orange shag rug that didn't fit with the room and was probably somebody's castoff.