Human capacity to make mistakes is unlimited, as Murphy formulates in the eponymous law. Bill Hill sent me this picture from California. The figure 3 appears six times. Why are the bottom figures upside down while all the others are the proper way round? Does the person who put the figures on that sign know something we type designers don’t know?
As it seems this is quite symptomatic for “gasoline people”. I’v taken this picture last summer in Austria. See the number 8 :-)
I think the bottom 3s used to be 8s, and since they used up all their 3s for the other prices they got creative for the premium price.
Obviously, people who put the numbers on those signs are not university graduates. It’s just surprising that with odds of 50:50, more often than not they get it wrong. Or on the money, as in my example.
While we readers and writers of typography blogs immediately recognized the error, there is unlikely to be any error in reading the sign. Everybody can easily see the premium gas is $3.339 per gallon. Despite the frequency of vertically flipped 3s and 8s, I have yet to see a gross error such as a figure flipped horizontally.
The 3s on the bottom are clearly flipped vertically and are not modified 8s. To my eye, the 3s oriented correctly look like they are symmetric; however, if you were to flip them vertically (e.g. in Photoshop; I did) they’d obviously be upside down, and they’d look exactly like the 3s on the bottom. So a casual observer might think at first glance that the 3s actually are symmetric.
Many people probably think the figure 3 really is symmetric about a horizontal axis. Such figures probably are, at least the way we learn them in American schools. (I’m from California too.)
At normal reading distances, such as the vantage point of the photograph, the asymmetry is apparent. From the viewpoint of someone handling the actual figures, an unnaturally close reading distance, it might not be apparent.
There might also be a mechanical explanation. The upper two prices could have been installed while the person was standing up. The bottommost price could have required the installer to bend over, which might have affected the motion he used in pulling letters out of the box (or whatever they were stored in) resulting in the figures being installed incorrectly.
But even if the gas station owner realized the error, or it was pointed out to him, he probably doesn’t care. After all, this is of concern only to type geeks, and gas prices are going to change again next week anyway.
As i state under the “about” heading, i am sick with Typomania, so i see things that other people do not. Your analysis is spot on as far as the rest of mankind is concerned.
The real odd thing about those figures is that they are not 3’s, as they would be facing the other way around (i assume the back side of each plate is pure white so they can be rotated but not flipped). They are obviously not hacked 8’s either. Therefore the person might actually know something we don’t about the magical number of 333.. :)
When a number appears as many times as its value you are supposed to be set them upside down.
333
4444
55555
666666
and so on, surprised you didn’t know that erik.
And I didn’t know that, and I don’t believe it, but it’s great idea.
Always amazing what happens when there is a conversation about something that most people never notice. Makes me wonder what I am missing in other domains. And thanks Erik for publishing this shot, I thought of you when I took it…
Look what we have here..
http://twitpic.com/1a96f6
Spotted this on the way to college today.
“I wonder how many will notice if I turn these numbers upside down…”
I think those 3’s are flipped because they were applied directly on the that orange surface while all the other numbers were applied on a transparent plastic film, with the sticking part faced to us. They decided to glue the all numbers on a transparent film so to be easier to replace the numbers. The person who did this probably ran out of film, se he/she had to choose the vertically symmetric numbers to be applied directly on the orange surface, resulting on the flipping. I think the person who did it improvised well :D