examples of Latin text and numerals in Japanese text layout

I scoured the office here and dug up a few examples of Latin text and
numeral variations in Japanese publications.

Example 1. Report on Nikkei stock average
Nikkei Keizai Shinbun, 2 June 2010, Afternoon Edition, p.1
http://people.mozilla.org/~jdaggett/images/ex1-nikkei20100602-aft-p1-nikkei-heikin.png

This article is interesting because it shows some of the variations in
inline horizontal display of numerals.  The text in the red box notes
that the yen/euro rate is 90 yen / euro.  "90" is drawn inline using
half-width glyphs. Within the same box the yen/dollar rate is noted as
111 yen / dollar.  The "111" value is displayed vertically.  Contrast
with the headline (orange box) where "100" is drawn horizontally using
third-width glyphs.  The Euro, written as yu-ro in Japanese, is shown
both using full-width glyphs and in a ligated form within the "1 yuro
= 111 yen" string.  I'm not positive but I believe this is the
vertical form of this ligature, the horizontal ligature form is
different.

Also note how 0.65% is displayed (green box), the nakaguro character
is used instead of a decimal point.  The 5 in "65" is drawn with a
half-width glyph, distinct from the full-width glyph (blue box).

Example 2. Article on Cellphones in India
Nikkei Keizai Shinbun, 2 June 2010, Afternoon Edition, p.1
http://people.mozilla.org/~jdaggett/images/ex2-nikkei20100602-aft-p1-indokeitai.png

Note how the main title appears horizontally while the subtitle is
shown vertically.  The date "May 19" (red box) uses a full-width 5 and
half-width glyphs for 1 and 9.  The date "11/2009" (orange box) is
rendered vertically with full-width glyphs.  The Japanese cellphone
company NTT Docomo (green box) is displayed vertically.

Example 3. Article on airplane iPad rental
Nikkei Keizai Shinbun, 2 June 2010, Afternoon Edition, p.3
http://people.mozilla.org/~jdaggett/images/ex3-nikkei20100602-aft-p3-ipad-rental.png

Note how "iPad" is rendered ever so slightly differently, the vertical
version uses a font whose glyphs are slightly wider than square.  The
horizontal version uses a font with square glyphs.  The string "770
yen" also appears both horizontally and vertically.  The vertical
version of "770 yen" uses full-width glyphs while the horizontal
version uses half-width glyphs.

Example 4. Article on Bike Day in U.S.
Nikkei Keizai Shinbun, 2 June 2010, Afternoon Edition, p.3
http://people.mozilla.org/~jdaggett/images/ex4-nikkei20100602-aft-p9-jitensha.png

This shows text laid out horizontally.  Note how numbers are displayed in the 
red box, single digits are shown with full-width numerals, longer numbers using 
half-width glyphs.

Example 5. Article on iPad plans
MacFan, July 2010, p.30
http://people.mozilla.org/~jdaggett/images/ex5-macfan201007-p30-softbank-ipad.png

The string "iPhone" (red box) is rendered vertically while
"i.softbank" (green box) is rendered at 90 degrees.  Many
computer-related magazines primarily use horizontal text but this
magazine uses primarily vertical text layout.  Several of my Japanese
collegues noted "mizurai" or "hard to read", all the costs and sizes
(e.g. 100MB) are hard to read in this format.

Example 6. Article on CSS3 Web Fonts (yay!)
WebDesigning, April 2010, p66
http://people.mozilla.org/~jdaggett/images/ex6-webdesigning201004-p66-webfonts.png

Since it uses many long Latin strings, this magazine primarily uses
horizontal text layouts.  Things like "Fonts Module Level 3" (yay!)
get hard to read in vertical text layout.

Example 7. Article on Steve Jobs and the iPad
AERA, 7 June 2010, p.26
http://people.mozilla.org/~jdaggett/images/ex7-aera20100607-p26-ipad.png

I scanned this in because it shows how vertical and horizontal text
layout are often combined.  The main body of the article is vertical,
the captions and sidenotes horizontal.

John Daggett
Mozilla Japan

Received on Friday, 4 June 2010 05:53:48 UTC