[casey]

I am looking for something better than anecdotal evidence as to what works or doesn't on vertical signage. We have to put type on a very vertical architectural sign. Our gut says the type should go bottom to top. We've had a signage company say that that is the way they do it. But then we see that book spines in North America always to top to bottom and in Europe they go bottom to top. The client has also had questions about actually stacking letters top to bottom (God help us all!). Does anyone know of a source of concrete information or rules on these issues?

[sub]

English is read left to right, top to bottom.
So, it stands to reason that vertical type should also be read from top to bottom.

[casey]

You'll notice that a lot of vertical signs are actually bottom to top, so who know why that is? I need cold hard facts...

[sub]

afaik, there isn't a right or wrong way.
The cold hard fact is that the logical way to display vertical text is top to bottom.
Which is probably why most books follow this rule.