I know the historical reasons for calling type foundries that way even in the digital era, but is there another term we could use instead? When you try to explain what you do, it is hard for some people to understand it. If you mention a word like ‘foundry’ it gets even more confusing for them. Would it help to use a new term more up-to-date?
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fontery – fonters – font makers – ?
"Font company" may make more sense to people, but "font" has the same non-digital root as "foundry" (and "company" seems technically wrong for the many one-person shops in the industry).
This is also an issue with those of us who create sheet music. Historically, during what we would term the golden age of music publishing, people actually used metal punches and gravers to "engrave" music into a metal plate that would be used to print the music. Real engraving is no longer done, of course, since it is no longer economical. However, when someone seriously calls themselves a "music engraver" today, even though they are just "engraving" music using a computer, it connotes the seriousness in which they see their work, going above and beyond what the computer can do for them, bringing their own expertise to make their work a work of art instead of just a computer generated piece of music. You can tell the difference between someone who creates sheet music and someone who is a modern music engraver. I have great respect for that.
*For the interested, I thought this demonstration of a working linotype typesetting machine was incredible: https://youtu.be/HEsAXZg-S04
Would you care to explain that? It sounds somewhat condescending.
(BTW in writing that post I was actually specifically thinking of somebody who opposes the term "foundry" but teaches his students to make fonts that look like they were madE with a tool that's eVen more oBsolete than the burin.)
But should I upgrade, in my bio, from mere type designer to type founder—or would that be too goth steampunk?
In any case I'm not suggesting type designers should compete with Culligan.
(This is a modified text; the original was nonsense)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microbrewery
If you look at the the etymology for font as used in typesetting in the link https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/font#English, you get Etymology 2 from middle French with the "to melt" meaning. But of course, don't mix up with brew.
I’m also rather fond of “leading”, which some practical folk have tried to replace with “line spacing”. Borrrrr-ing.
After all, if we’re going to continue to use designs like Bembo, Garamond and Jenson (fons et origo), why not preserve vocabulary of similar vintage?