Re: [css3-writing-modes] Character's intrinsic orientation

Koji Ishii scripsit:

> That is the whole point of EAW; I don't assume people would write Greek
> documents in vertical text flow. 

In specialized contexts such as the spines of books, horizontal
scripts are often written in vertical text flow.  This is not just
script-dependent but language-dependent: English-language book spines
generally have leftward text progression and are top-to-bottom, whereas
German-language spines are rightward bottom-to-top, and Hebrew-language
spines are rightward top-to-bottom.

This has the effect that English and Hebrew books lying on their back
covers have the spine in normal orientation, whereas German books
must lie on their front covers.  In both cases rotated characters are
normally but not invariably used; in addition, some book spines have
normal horizontal orientation.  I don't know what is done for Greek books.

Additionally, tables and charts often have side legends in vertical
text flow.

-- 
Real FORTRAN programmers can program FORTRAN    John Cowan
in any language.  --Ed Post                     cowan@ccil.org

Received on Wednesday, 23 March 2011 19:01:20 UTC