from
The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (8 July 2008)
four-colour glossies
1. Literature created by {marketroids} that allegedly contains
technical specs but which is in fact as superficial as
possible without being totally {content-free}. "Forget the
four-colour 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-colour-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.