four-color glossies

four-color glossies n.  1. Literature created by
   {marketroid}s 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 finding 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.