Quote:
Originally Posted by pdurrant
Many thanks again - knowing that 故事集 is, so to speak, a common phrase helps a lot. I will indeed go for 開龍故事集.
Two final questions
* does it make any difference in meaning whether the symbols are written horizontally or vertically.
* If vertically, it should be top to bottom, shouldn't it?
開
龍
故
事
集
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It depends on whim mostly these days. I actually recently did an informal survey on the streets here in Taiwan to discern preferences for reading Chinese (vertically or horizontally).
Most responses said it depends on the medium, since different media have different conventions (websites, for example, are almost always horizontal, while paper fiction novels are generally vertical).
Preference results for "general literature" were something like 75% preferring vertical over horizontal in Taiwan. I don't think the same preference is extended to ebooks because the advantages of vertical typesetting are lost on a single-screen ebook reader. I will need to do a more elaborate survey to really know for sure, but that's my general impression.
For a cover, it really doesn't especially matter one way or the other. If you want it to appear old or formal, you would want to use an old-style typeface and print vertically. Horizontal works fine, and a lot of modern books have horizontally printed covers. If printing on the spine, then vertical for sure.
And yes, vertical typesetting in Chinese is done top-to-bottom.
Hope that's helpful.