GML (Generalized Markup Language)

GML (Generalized Markup Language) is an IBM document-formatting language that describes a document in terms of its organization structure and content parts and their relationship. GML markup or tag s describe such parts as chapters, important sections and less important sections (by specifying heading levels), paragraphs, lists, tables, and so forth. GML frees document creators from specific document formatting concerns such as font specification, line spacing, and page layout required by IBM's printer formatting language, SCRIPT.

GML Starter Set is the name of IBM's set of GML tags. GML Starter Set input is processed by the Document Composition Facility (DCF) which formats printer-ready output. A later and more capable set of GML tags is provided by IBM's BookMaster product.

GML preceded and was an inspiration for the industry-developed Standard Generalized Markup Language ( SGML ), today's strategic set of rules for creating any structured document description language. This Web page is marked up with Hypertext Markup Language ( HTML ) tags and is an example of a document that makes use of GML concepts. The Extensible Markup Language ( XML ) also has roots in GML.