The paper calls the attention of Javanists, and Indonesianists at large, to theoretical as well as practical issues connected with conventions for the Romanisation of Old Javanese, Old Malay, Old Sundanese and other Indonesian languages which were traditionally written in Indic scripts, and underscores the difference between transliteration, on the one hand, and transcription or orthography (‘spelling’) on the other. In doing so, it replies to the points of criticism raised by Dick van der Meij in his review (2012) of From Laṅkā Eastwards, edited by Acri, Creese & Griffiths (2011).