From: fantasai (fantasai.lists@inkedblade.net)
Date: Mon May 17 2004 - 12:09:52 CDT
Andrew C. West wrote:
> I don't think there's any way round the head-tilting business when mixing
> vertical and horizontal scripts. Note that I'm talking about embedding single
> words or short phrases in text with a different orientation. Of course for
> long passages of both vertical and horizontal text, each script should be
> laid out in separate vertical and horizontal blocks.
That technique doesn't work too well for laying out long works of text
where both script types are part of the main flow. You either get really
strange passage widths (e.g. extrememly narrow horizontal bits, squeezed
to fit between the last line of vertical and the edge of the page), or
you have to leave large blanks (wastes space and breaks up the flow of
text).
http://fantasai.inkedblade.net/style/discuss/directions/scans/genji3.jpg
One doesn't really have to tilt one's head sideways to read the English;
it's possible to process the text vertically. I can read the passage at
a comfortable speaking speed by this method, and I imagine the Japanese
do the same.
~fantasai
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