Footprint

n. imprint left by a foot, footmark; (Computers) surface area taken by a particular hardware device (external - peripheral or internal); size of memory space required for a program

Footprints are the impressions or images left behind by a person walking. Hoofprints and pawprints are those left by animals with hooves or paws rather than feet, while "shoeprints" is the specific term for prints made by shoes. They may either be indentations in the ground or something placed onto the surface that was stuck to the bottom of the foot. A "trackway" is set of footprints in soft earth left by a life-form; animal tracks are the footprints, hoofprints, or pawprints of an animal.
See more at Wikipedia.org...

Noun
1. a mark of a foot or shoe on a surface; "the police made casts of the footprints in the soft earth outside the window"
(synonym) footmark, step
(hypernym) mark, print
(hyponym) footprint evidence
2. a trace suggesting that something was once present or felt or otherwise important; "the footprints of an earlier civilization"
(hypernym) trace, vestige, tincture, shadow
3. the area taken up by some object; "the computer had a desktop footprint of 10 by 16 inches"
(hypernym) area, expanse, surface area

In satellite communications , that portion of the Earth's surface over which a satellite antenna delivers a specified amount of signal power under specified conditions. (188 ) Note: The limiting case of footprint area is somewhat less than one-half the Earth's surface, and depends on the altitude of the satellite.

1. <jargon, hardware> The floor or desk area taken up by a piece of hardware.
2. The amount of disk or RAM taken up by a program or file.
3. (IBM) The audit trail left by a crashed program (often "footprints").
See also toeprint.
[Jargon File]
(1995-04-25)