The specialized typesetting task of arranging text, numbers, and rules into a grid of columns and rows. In the hot metal era, this required complex justification and the precise insertion of vertical and horizontal brass rules. In digital layout, it involves configuring cell margins, tab stops, and stroke weights to make dense financial or scientific data readable.
Heard on the job
I have three pages of financial tablework to finish before I can send this annual report to proof.
Also heard as
- tabular matter