shupai / hungpai ?

[SirDude]

I just read way too much information about writing styles, and got myself confused, is shupai / vertical writing only used for traditional writing? And hengpai used for both traditional and simple?

I tend to see more art-work or other items you would hang on a wall written in shupai, so if I wanted to write out the golden rule to hang on my wall I should do it in shupai? (something that is important so it should be in traditional writing, correct?)

Xiexie!

[anonymoose]

Vertical writing is old-fashioned. As a result, it tends to be in traditional characters. For artistic purposes, Chinese is still written vertically sometimes, and likewise for artistic purposes, traditional characters are often used (on the mainland).

There are no rules, so you can write whichever way you like, in whichever style of characters you like. For your info, though, there are often slogans on walls in schools in mainland China, which tend to be in simplified characters, horizontally from left to right.

[Hofmann]

Both directions are used for both character sets. Vertical tends to be used more with Traditional Chinese. As you may know, Chinese was almost always written vertically until the last century. Some people (like me) don't write horizontally unless it is necessary. It is not an artistic affair, but a Chinese one.

[zhxlier]

Just be consistent. If you do calligraphy by a brush and the content is in classical Chinese, then do vertical writing in traditional characters. If you are writing something with pen or a marker and the content is in vernacular Chinese, just do horizontal writing in simplified characters. (I'm not exactly sure what the golden rule is.)

By the way, pai in shupai or hengpai refer to 排印 - typesetting. As you are referring to writing you should use 横写 or 竖写.

[Lugubert]

For maximal inconsistency, look at a Chinese newspaper. The aim seems to be to use as many fonts and as many writing directions as possible on every page.

[anonymoose]

For maximal inconsistency, look at a Chinese newspaper. The aim seems to be to use as many fonts and as many writing directions as possible on every page.

I can't speak for HK/Macao/Taiwan, but most mainland newspapers, as far as I can tell, seem to be pretty regular going left to right. I have a copy of Shanghai Morning Post in front of me, which apart from a small number of adverts, is pretty exclusively in one font, in one direction. Most other papers in Shanghai seem to be the same, and if memory serves me right, so are they in other cities also.

[Lu]

Taiwanese newspapers can be pretty bad in this respect.