For what it's worth...
Architects and engineers, who must generate and communicate clear graphic
(and text) information (in the form of drawings), have long ago adopted the
convention that any text which ran vertically would read 'as if you were
reading it from the right side of the sheet', that is to say, running bottom
to top.
It becomes second nature rather quickly (in my field) to read this way
without tilting one's head, but any time I encounter a book spine which
reads down, I find myself contorting like a circus freak!
Since only the spines face out(for the most part), I orient all books so the
spines read one way (my case, bottom-to-top).
I would think the publishing world would have, by now, established a
convention.
Jeff
PS Since architects/engineers often sit across from clients, and orient the
drawings to them, most of us can read/write and draw upside down too. But
text running top-to-bottom makes our head ache!
-----Original Message-----
From: William S. Peterson [mailto:wsp@wam.umd.edu]
Sent: Thursday, September 28, 2000 2:54 PM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Re: Orientation of titles on spines
Titles reading from the bottom of the spine were very common in British
books of the middle decades of the twentieth century.
Hugh Williamson, in METHODS OF BOOK DESIGN, 2nd ed. (1966), pp. 335-36:
"The arrangement of lettering on the spine of books periodically stirs up
argument among publishers and designers. All agree that lettering should
read across the spine if possible, because the usual position of a book is
upright on a shelf, so that lettering which reads across the spine is
horizontal. The argument concerns lettering that has to read along the
spine, because the legend is too wide or the spine too narrow for any
other arrangement. No agreement has yet been achieved, and bookshelves
present the curious spectacle of spine lettering running in three
directions, upwards, downwards, and across.
"Those who favour the upwards style maintain that the head is more easily
turned to the left for vertical reading than to the right, and that a
whole row of upwards titles on a shelf can be read in the natural
direction, from left to right. Most of the other arguments for this style
arise from strong personal preferences or from the custom of leading
publishers.
"The advantages of the downwards style are less abstruse. If the lettering
travels down the spine, the title can be read when the book is lying flat
and with the front of the book uppermost."
In the third edition of Williamson's book (1983) this passage is slightly
revised, and the implication now is that the argument has been largely
settled in favor of the "downwards style."
William S. Peterson
Department of English
University of Maryland
http://www.wam.umd.edu/~wsp/wsp-sites.htm
wsp@wam.umd.edu