# All Slavic languages: Titles on the spines of books



## Lev Yakupov

Hello there!

Today is a my turn to put a question here 

Not far ago, I read this article in which state's that in western europe all books bindings printed from top to bottom, while in russia in other way. Example:





(img from http://www.artlebedev.ru/)

So I've a question: In which way title's are usually printed in your countries


----------



## Jana337

An intriguing topic, Lev! 

We use the bottom-top system, like in Russia. But I don't think it is a Slavic peculiarity. I did some googling: Wiki has an article and one of the external links took me - would you believe? - to an old thread in our forum. 

Jana


----------



## Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

Interesting. I glanced at my bookshelf and virtually all the books have titles on spines running bottom-to-top, save a few which are printed in horizontal lines running from top to bottom*), and exactly ONE which has a top-to-bottom orientation - which is also the only English book there, an abridged version of Hailey's "Airport" for intermediate English learners that I won in an English language contest in high school. 

*) Like so (the books are all facing to the right):




Forgive the cell phone photo crappage.

Anyway, to sort-of-exhume the old thread, I don't quite get the notion that some titles are "upside down" - they're perpendicular, as are the ones you deem "right". Which way is easier to read is just a matter of what you're used to. For me, it's the English titles that are "upside down".


----------



## Tchesko

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li! said:
			
		

> Anyway, to sort-of-exhume the old thread, I don't quite get the notion that some titles are "upside down" - they're perpendicular, as are the ones you deem "right". Which way is easier to read is just a matter of what you're used to. For me, it's the English titles that are "upside down".


 
Exactly!

Btw, you might find the following easier to read without breaking your neck so much...
 

Roman


----------



## skye

I know I've seen both on my book shelves, but I didn't go and check. Will do it later.


----------



## clapec

That's very interesting!

Italy: from top to bottom


----------



## Lev Yakupov

Good day,

Many thanks to everybody for your responses, that's very intresting!

I'm just find out some exceptions of our book-binding-customs on my book shelf  Look at this, one english title written from bottom-to-top and some russian titles, which has another direction.


----------



## MindStorm

hmm, that ASM book looks familiar to me.. Лев, блин, у тебя лежит академия в оригинале, а ты молчишь! Подлец! =))


----------



## Tobycek

On my bookshelf, it's easy to distinguish. All the American or English books have top-to-bottom writing, but all the ones from Europe (Western, Central or Eastern) have bottom-to-top writing.
Wiki says:
*In the United States and England, titles are written top-to-bottom; when placed face-up, the title is correctly oriented left-to-right.*
*In many European countries, the general convention is to write titles bottom-to-top on the spine. (But spines of books in Dutch are almost always written top-to-bottom; in Spain every publisher has his own preference.) This is unusual, in that no writing system goes bottom-to-top, and requires that the book be placed face-down for the title on the spine to be right-side up. However, it results in multivolume works being shelved (correctly) left-to-right.*

I guess these are just publishing conventions going back a long way in history - a bit like driving on the right (wrong?) side of the road!  
T.


----------



## natasha2000

I have never thought about that.. Now that you've mentioned, I looked the library I have in my office.... 

From the bottom to the top - Spanish and French books
From the top to the bottom - English, American, Italian and Serbian books...

How strange... I really never paid attention to this detail...


----------

