The phrase "single representation" means having only one way of showing or expressing something, without any variations or different versions. Full definition
In his early works of the 1960s and «70s, Nice focused on single representations while his more recent works have been enlarged to several subjects, which are often perplexing juxtapositions that inform his specimen - like approach. (allanstoneprojects.com)
Converging on a single representation for HTML5 - based portable documents lets us have tools and services that work across content from multiple sources — as we have had in the paper replica era with PDF. (goodereader.com)