A document (noun) is a bounded physical representation of body of information designed with the capacity (and usually intent) to communicate. A document may manifest symbolic, diagrammatic or sensory-representational information. To document (verb) is to produce a document artifact by collecting and representing information. In prototypical usage, a document is understood as a paper artifact, containing information in the form of ink marks. Increasingly, documents are also understood as digital artifacts.

Colloquial usage is revealed by the connotations and denotations that appear in a Web search for document. From these usages, one can infer the following typical connotations:

• Writing that provides information (especially information of an official nature)
• Anything serving as a representation of a person's thinking by means of symbolic marks
• A written account of ownership or obligation
• To record in detail; "The parents documented every step of their child's development"
• A digital file in a particular format
• To support or supply with references; "Can you document your claims?"
• An artifact that meets a legal notion of document for purposes of discovery in litigation

The variety of usage reveals that the notion of document has rich social and cultural aspects besides the physical, functional and operational aspects.

Conceptualization in analytical philosophy

The notion of document admits both an empirical (in terms of a fuzzy set of real-world

Empirical characterization

In light of the polysemy of the core concept of document, it is useful to note a number of examples ranging from instances commonly understood as prototypical documents, to instances that are understood as documents only in specialized or rare situations.

• Prototypical Documents: Letters, memos, legal forms, Instruction manual
• Documents of Record: Newspapers and magazines
• Books: Text book, Novels, Recipe books, Encyclopedia, Comic books
• Canonical Documents: The Bible,Iliad and Odyssey,Vedas, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Quran, Code of Hammurabi,Tao Te Ching
• Transactional Documents: Cheque, Contracts, Prescription, Receipt, Form (document), Postage Stamp
• Functional Documents: PDF files, PostScript files, XML files, Email
• Non-Prototypical Documents: Post-it notes, Fortune cookie strips, Maps, Paintings, milk cartons, cereal boxes
• Non-Classical Digital Documents: Web Page, Weblog, Wiki
• Boundary Examples: The plaque on the Pioneer 11 spacecraft, designed by astronomer Carl Sagan, and using information assumed to be universal is an extreme example of a document that is intended to communicate with aliens. Conversely, the recorded and printed signals of the SETI project would constitute documents if they were discovered to contain alien communication.