Well. You learn something new every day.

[Ezookiel]

Trying to work out how ISO can stand for an organisation who's initials are actually IOS (International Organization for Standardization), a quick bit of Googling came up with the following.


ISO, founded in 1947, is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 100 countries ..... According to ISO, "ISO" is not an abbreviation. It is a word, derived from the Greek isos, meaning "equal", which is the root for the prefix "iso-" that occurs in a host of terms, such as "isometric" .... The name ISO is used around the world to denote the organization, thus avoiding the assortment of abbreviations that would result from the translation of "International Organization for Standardization" into the different national languages of members. (http://searchdatacenter.techtarget.com/definition/ISO)


So basically, because translating "International Organisation for Standardization" into the 100 different languages, would create up to 100 different initials, they use ISO - but they use it as a WORD not as initials.


So if the Organization that defines the ISO of a film use "ISO" as a word, rather than spell it out as letters ("I.S.O.") does that also mean that when we refer to the ISO of a film, we should use it as a word = "ISO" rather than as intials = "I.S.O."? Because most of the time when I've heard people speak of it in relation to film, they spell it out as individual letters. Which is correct?

[pjc]

Interesting.

Well if it's a word then should it not be represented in English as Iso, not ISO?

[Ezookiel]

That's what I would have thought pjc.

[ricktas]

which is why it really should be pronounced as : eye-so, not Eye-S-O

[KeeFy]

If you say it quickly enough it does become eye-so.

[Mick B]

When I see "ISO" I still think of "ASA" which is how film speed used to be expressed.

[Art Vandelay]

Arh so.