Chinese Union Version - Typography of The Chinese Union Version

Typography of The Chinese Union Version

Text in the Chinese Union Version is typeset generally vertically from right to left, with some captions for illustrations typeset horizontally from left to right. The typography is unusual, with many archaisms and some ad-hoc typographic devices.

The CUV employs old-style punctuation, setting most punctuation marks as if they were ruby. It uses the standard proper name mark only for personal names, but an ad-hoc punctuation mark that can be described as a “double proper name mark” is used for geographical names; both of these are typeset on the right-hand side, instead of the currently-standard left. The book title mark is not used, and book titles are not marked in the CUV in any way. Chapter and section headings are typeset in sans serif type.

Verse numbers are typeset on the right-hand side of the first word of each verse as ruby. They are also repeated in the margins.

New paragraphs start after chapter and section headings. Within each section, however, paragraph breaks are indicated by the traditional Chinese pilcrow, a thin, sans-serif circle about the size of a Chinese character.

In the Shen Edition of the CUV, a full-width space is added before each word “God” so that the paging between the Shen and Shangti editions are identical; this extra space is interpreted as the traditional honorific marker.

Comments and notes are typeset as warichu. Additionally, an ad-hoc punctuation mark that looks like a dashed underline is used to mark editorially-inserted words; like the two varieties of the proper name mark, this mark is also typeset on the right-hand side.

Typesetting the proper name mark on the right would have caused clashes with verse numbers and most punctuation marks. However, when clashes occur, the proper name and similar punctuation marks that cause the clash are partially truncated to avoid omitting any punctuation marks.