Fellow Shadow Watchers,
This is the third time I have sent this message to
the Sundial Mailing List It didn't appear on the two previous occasions.
Is this perhaps why there has been a marked reduction in SML traffic
recently? Is there a problem?
Tony Moss
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Original Message
Most of my early dials were made with Arabic
numerals, mainly because the artwork was usually prepared on a Mac using
standard fonts and the Arabic style was easier than Roman. Since then
I've become increasingly interested in the Roman style as my increasing
fluency with Adobe Illustrator allows all the necessary skewing and
tweaking needed to get a layout which looks right. Earlier computer
drawing packages would achieve the same effects but with MUCH less ease
and fluency. With numerals milled by hand the Roman style is the only
simple choice unless one has access to a deep-throat pantographic machine.
The orientation of Roman numerals on vertical dials is generally decided
by the fact that the dial is read from below. For horizontal dials
however it seemed natural to me that Roman numerals *looked* best when
read from the inside outwards i.e. when looking at the dial from its
southern side (northern hemisphere). XII, XI, X, IX and I, II. III,
and IIII read locate satifactorily in either direction but V, VI and VII
have 'V' elements which radiate outwards and benefit from the extra space
at the outer serif circle. Placed the other way with tops towards the
centre of the dial makes for a visually 'tight' situation - especially in
smaller dials with less space to spare.
I just wondered if anyone else would wish to share their thoughts on the
subject as it seems that the 'traditional' orientation is the reverse of
my personal preference.
Tony Moss
