[latexrefman] Is a « slot » a « cassetin » ?

Vincent Belaïche vincent.belaiche at gmail.com
Sat Sep 4 19:33:21 CEST 2021


I am wondering how to translate « slot » with the meaning of « glyph
number within a font ».

I found that when the fonts were made of lead mobile stamps, the
French word « casse » was a wooden case subdivided in slots named «
cassetin », see

 https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cassetin
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casse_(typographie)

(Note that the French for case, is caisse, not casse, in French casse
is really a specific word to typography, although the two terms are
really alike).

So I think that I should translate « slot » by « cassetin ». BTW, «
lowcase » in French is « bas-de-casse » because the « casse » for
lowcase characters was below that for upcase (and the French for « low
» is « bas »). This tend to confirm that there is some matching
between concrete terms used in the old time of mecanical typography,
and abstract terms used in electronic typesetting.

Any comments?, or said otherwise : in English do you simply name «
slots » those « cassetins »?

  V.



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