3 ms·

Fun fact: classical Chinese were written top-to-down, right-to-left order. I wonder what UI design would be like for that.

by est 5y ago

euske 5y ago
Modern Japanese are still written that way. There are several apps/editors that support that writing mode because it's one of the requirements in the publishing industry in Japan. More precisely, newspapers, most books (except technical/scientific ones) and magazines are written in the vertical form. Comics too. Business documents are typically all horizontal. Also they have a uber-complex w3c standard (draft) to support this system: https://w3c.github.io/jlreq/#vertical_writing_mode_and_horizontal_writing_mode https://w3c.github.io/jlreq/#vertical_writing_mode_and_horiz...
- lifthrasiir 5y ago
  One thing I wonder is that I saw several vertical Japanese writings in the web (TtB inline, RTL block) but virtually no vertical UIs. I believe there is not much technical difference between two. I'm not a native Japanese speaker so my experience might be not representative though.
- Gunax 5y ago
  I just find it fascinating that a language can be fluid in the direction of reading.
strogonoff 5y ago
> Fun fact: classical Chinese were written top-to-down, right-to-left order. Why past tense? Traditional Chinese is still written this way in Taiwan and I think to a degree Hong Kong. I purchased a copy of Three-Body Problem typeset this way while staying in Taiwan three or so years ago. Relatedly, the TB-RL[0] system leads to some fun confusing cases for beginner learners, where in the city you may see signs for cafes or restaurants with text apparently written horizontally, but backwards. In fact, it’s just like the vertical signs on sides of buildings in the US, but in this case the sign uses TB-RL: each letter is on a new line, and lines go right to left. [0] Top-to-bottom, right-to-left.

3 ms·

Fun fact: classical Chinese were written top-to-down, right-to-left order. I wonder what UI design would be like for that.

by est 5y ago

Fun fact: classical Chinese were written top-to-down, right-to-left order. I wonder what UI design would be like for that.

euske 5y ago
Modern Japanese are still written that way. There are several apps/editors that support that writing mode because it's one of the requirements in the publishing industry in Japan. More precisely, newspapers, most books (except technical/scientific ones) and magazines are written in the vertical form. Comics too. Business documents are typically all horizontal. Also they have a uber-complex w3c standard (draft) to support this system: https://w3c.github.io/jlreq/#vertical_writing_mode_and_horizontal_writing_mode https://w3c.github.io/jlreq/#vertical_writing_mode_and_horiz...
- lifthrasiir 5y ago
  One thing I wonder is that I saw several vertical Japanese writings in the web (TtB inline, RTL block) but virtually no vertical UIs. I believe there is not much technical difference between two. I'm not a native Japanese speaker so my experience might be not representative though.
- Gunax 5y ago
  I just find it fascinating that a language can be fluid in the direction of reading.
strogonoff 5y ago
> Fun fact: classical Chinese were written top-to-down, right-to-left order. Why past tense? Traditional Chinese is still written this way in Taiwan and I think to a degree Hong Kong. I purchased a copy of Three-Body Problem typeset this way while staying in Taiwan three or so years ago. Relatedly, the TB-RL[0] system leads to some fun confusing cases for beginner learners, where in the city you may see signs for cafes or restaurants with text apparently written horizontally, but backwards. In fact, it’s just like the vertical signs on sides of buildings in the US, but in this case the sign uses TB-RL: each letter is on a new line, and lines go right to left. [0] Top-to-bottom, right-to-left.