Rotate text left or right?

[LaRetta]

Okay so do you rotate your text clockwise one quarter to rotate to vertical or do you rotate three times to three quarter position?

Do you like to cock your head to read sideways text to the left or to the right? Does it bother you if the text is the opposite direction?

Now don't you laugh ... I really want to know which way people prefer reading sideways text, such as longer labels on narrow columns. :laugh:

[Raybaudi]

For me, the second option is the most natural.

[LaRetta]

Thank you, Daniele! That's what I've always preferred also because it puts the beginning of the string closest to the label. Thank you for checking in! If anyone knows of design theories regarding it, I'd appreciate the link.

[Lee Smith]

Tip the left side up, unless you are making a pyramid lol

[LaRetta]

So Daniele prefers the first three examples and Lee prefers the second three?

[comment]

Wow, what a great question. At first I thought the answer was obvious, but a quick check of my book shelves reveals a clear cultural bias: the spine titles run top-to-bottom on books printed in the US, bottom-to-top on books printed in Europe. This agrees with:

http://en.wikipedia....the_dust-jacket

However, I suspect this is not about book spines - that are isolated from any surrounding context. When it comes to labels, I believe it's easy to demonstrate that the surrounding context is pretty important:

[Lee Smith]

I missed what you were asking. Since they are Column header, I would actually have the left side of the text down pointed right side to the right.

So I switched again

[LaRetta]

Thanks Lee, that makes sense you were considering the circumstance and, as Michael demonstrates, the position and weight make a big difference as well. Upon searching, I can find no rules or even recommendations, not even Apple Interface. I DO find examples where reports have been generated, one report going one direction and the next report going the other (in my columnar example) obviously created by two different folks in the same company who didn't have rules on it, LOL.

From Michael's example, the left side EXCLUSIVE is impossible for me to comprehend (seems I am NOT a right-tipper particularly if on the left). Both rotated texts on the right are more difficult but it seems I would rather be a right-tipper on the right and read down than be a left tipper on the right and read up (which is what I prefer when on the left). Whew! What ... which fits (I think) the left-to-right reading motion? nope, that theory doesn't hold.

But now I understand why I used to get so frustrated with my bookshelf, tipping my head left then right just to read the binding (it seems twisted to place a book upside down so I always refused) and I finally ended up laying all of them flat.

[Dr. Evil]

I've been a graphic designer long enough to form my own opinion without researching technicality or origin.

I ALWAYS design the read from bottom to top. (As in LaRetta example snapshot.png first line "Two PDFs.")

One of those parental favorites "because I said so"

Take it or leave it.

Cheers!

[comment]

For column headers, my personal preference is also to read bottom-to-top. You can also add FM's chart tool to this non-representative consensus.

I believe it can be explained by maintaining the "direction of flow", but it's not a very strong explanation. In any case, if you had to rotate the entire table (i.e. insert a landscape-oriented page into a portrait-oriented report) there's no doubt the page should be rotated counter-clockwise - and that would make the inserted page's text read bottom-to-top relatively to the rest of the report.

[Vaughan]

IMHO English text should be readable left-to-right. So the column headers on the graph above are good.

[adyf]

So Daniele prefers the first three examples and Lee prefers the second three?

First three for me too. I actually did the same thing on one of my layouts recently. I thought at the time that it would be handy if FM allowed you to rotate the field label diagonally such as MS Excel does which I think looks neater.

[Aussie John]

Bottom to top. I think it has to do with how it is read in a bound document. It is more comfortable to move the spine to away from the reader which makes bottom to top - left to right.

As for spine on a book IMHO is should be read right when the book is on a table and the face up.

[comment]

As for spine on a book IMHO is should be read right when the book is on a table and the face up.

That's fine - but it also means that on a shelf, the spine reads top-to-bottom.

See also:

http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2009/01/text-treatment-and-the-user-interface.php

http://www.journalofvision.org/content/10/2/21.full

[froodware]

I would prefer top to bottom, just like with books on a shelf. (last 3 examples) But I am left handed, and I have noticed that more of my visual preferences seem to be different from right hand people. (I tend to place the most used buttons on the left side for instance ;-)

Daniel

[Protour Travel]

At an angle is the way I would prefer to see/read it. I just haven't been able to figure out how (pre-v.12) without .png files.

Is there a way in v.12 to do this?

Other that that, I go with left on the bottom reading upwards.

[Aussie John]

That's fine - but it also means that on a shelf, the spine reads top-to-bottom.

Unfortunately the world is so imperfect :)