Some of my friends call me a curmudgeon. (These are my friends! I can’t image what my casual acquaintances call me…) What does it mean to be a curmudgeon? It means that stuff bugs me!
How did ‘portrait’ and ‘landscape’ become synonyms for ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’?
Have you ever seen ‘Moon and Half Dome’ by Ansel Adams? (If you can’t already visualize this iconic photo, shame on you! Just kidding – Google it.)
Okay, now that you’ve Googled it… Would you agree that this is a ‘landscape’ photo? It’s one of the most famous landscape photos in history. Did you notice the orientation of it? It’s vertical!
Portrait and Landscape describe genres of art. Horizontal and vertical describe the orientation of the image (so does ‘square’).
I realize that I’ve lost this battle – my print drivers all say ‘portrait’ and ‘landscape’ when laying out the page…
It still bugs me. I’m just saying…