Tony Stephens / Simian Design

I’m working on a project that requires some vertical text.  But I was unsure as to the “correct” way for the vertical text to be set, 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise.  Luckily, I didn’t have to do a lot of research, as it’s been done for me. Robust Vertical Text Layout outlines the basic rules for vertical text for me.

In a purely physical layout scheme, each of these text layout properties would be given as an absolute: The inline progression of this run of English is top to bottom, its glyph orientation is 90 degrees clockwise, its block progression is from right to left.

But absolutes don’t hold much water.

For scripts in a non-native orientation, the natural inline text flow depends on the direction of line stacking: the text is most comfortably laid out as if the whole text block were merely rotated from the horizontal. For example, English text in vertical lines that stack from left to right will face with the glyphs’ tops towards the left and the text direction running from bottom to top. The same text, by the same logic, would in a right-to-left line stacking context face right and flow within each line from top to bottom.

Basically it boils down to this from what I can determine: Have the bottom of the text point in the direction of the block progression.