Antiquated Terms

Anti­quated terms still used today, despite the lack of meaning:

foundry, refer­ring to a com­pany that dis­trib­utes fonts. Fonts were once dis­trib­uted as steel molds for hot-metal type­cast­ing machines, hence these busi­nesses actu­ally needed metal foundries. Now I’m cer­tain that, as with most busi­nesses, the only employ­ees who aren’t sta­tioned before com­puter screens are janitors.

mechan­i­cal, and camera-ready. A printer will still ask you for “a mechan­i­cal” or “camera-ready art.” But they no longer do any­thing mechan­i­cal with it, other than lay it on a scan­ner. Once, your doc­u­ment would be placed under a pho­to­stat cam­era to be recorded on the film that would then expose a litho print­ing plate. Most plates are still made from pho­to­graphic film, but the film is exposed not with a cam­era but a computer-controlled laser beam.

Leave a comment

Leave a Comment

January 11, 2005 January 11, 2005 archives by Scott [permanent link]