Justification of Roman numerals

[alexfjelldal]

This topic was imported from the Typophile platform

Are roman numerals justified left, centre or right? Google and wikipedia couldn't help me out on this one:-/

thanks!

alex

[Miss Tiffany]

If you are talking about side-bearings aren't they relative to the shape of the figure?

[Knerkin]

Can someone explain to me the difference between justified left and flush left? Where did the terms
justified left
justified center
&
justified right
come from?
What do they mean.

Justification was always the process of causing a set line to be the width of the measure; originally in machine-set type, by space bands that expanded to fill the measure.

Suddenly, I'm seeing "justified" applied in a way that makes no sense at all.

And, this query really confuses me: Roman numerals are individual characters. How can they "justify" in any fashion at all?

Curt Akin

[guifa]

Left justified means that you justify all lines except for the last one which is ragged but left-aligned.
Center justified means that you justify all lines except for the last one which is ragged but center-aligned.
Right justify means that you justify all lines except for the last one which is right-aligned.

But, agreed, the question is confusing. I presume he means in a list if things should appear like:

I.____
II.___
III.__
IIII._
V.____
XVIII.
e
or
____I.
___II.
__III.
_IIII.
____V.
XVIII.
or
__I.__
_II.__
_III._
_IIII.
__V.__
XVIII.

(okay it's hard to center 2-3 characters in monowidth). Also, off topic, is it possible to show whitespace on «code» because, well, it's kind of important for codes.

«El futuro es una línea tan fina que apenas nos damos cuenta de pintarla nosotros mismos». (La Luz Oscura, por Javier Guerrero)

[Si_Daniels]

Or a clock face, where special rules apply. ;-)

[eliason]

[never mind]

[oprion]

Well, theoretically, lines with left or right rag still have to be fully justified to the pica measure with spacers and slugs in your composing stick.

So the term "justification"
could still be applicable[]
to a block like this.[][][]
Then again, this is just a
personal theory||[][][][][]

UPD:DAMN these proportionally spaced renderes! :)
_____________________________________________
Personal Art and Design Portal of Ivan Gulkov
www.ivangdesign.com

[Nick Shinn]

I think he means when they are in a column.
For instance, arabic numerals are set flush right, so that corresponding powers of ten line up vertically.
However, that principle doesn't apply to roman numerals, so having a pair of adjacent columns flush right-flush left may seem a bit ungainly, if there is no real need for it.

[Florian Hardwig]

Related:
Thirty Tables of Contents. A collection from Design Observer. There are two examples featuring Roman numerals: [1], [2].

[alexfjelldal]

>I think he means when they are in a column.

sorry for posting a confusing question.

I'm making a book with large chapter numbers. What i wanted to find out, was wether Roman numerals have a "default justification" like arabic numerals (flush right).

>Suddenly, I’m seeing “justified” applied in a way that makes no sense at all.

Knerkin, you're right:-)

thanks for your answers, everybody!

alex

.........................................................
Bison Design
Spön

[Knerkin]

guifa: thank you. In 36 years of professional typesetting, I can't remember ever requiring a last line set other than flush left much less needing a name for it. Appreciate your response.

Curt Akin