Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

I found it surprisingly easy to read the mirrored examples in the article. I think it may be more comfortable -- after a while, at least -- to read the mirrored letters; because we don't read letter-by-letter anyway and the "word image" is intact (just mirrored).

Here's the example image (with mirrored letters): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boustrophedon#/media/File:Bous...

And here's a non-mirrored version:

  THIS EXAMPLE OF BOUSTROPHEDON TEXT WAS
  AIDEPIKIW EHT ROF YLLACIFICEPS NETTIRW
  ARTICLE  ON  THIS OX TURNING METHOD OF
  TNEICNA  NI TXET HTIW LLAW A GNIREVOC
  GREECE AND ELSEWHERE


You raise a good point in that we don't read letter-by-letter anyway. So, this variant, which leverages recognition of whole words at a time, would have the line tracking advantage of Boustrophedon without the problem of duplicating letters for forward and reverse directions:

  THIS EXAMPLE OF BOUSTROPHEDON TEXT WAS
  WIKIPEDIA THE FOR SPECIFICALLY WRITTEN
  ARTICLE  ON  THIS OX TURNING METHOD OF
  ANCIENT  IN TEXT WITH WALL A COVERING
  GREECE AND ELSEWHERE


While we don't read letter by letter, this does still require some left-right scanning for longer words. In texts (or languages - German?) with many long words, this would be an issue.

The initial method seems to do the best job of not triggering the part of my brain that wants to read normally - which is a benefit, as I can then use a specific reading method for boustrophedon text, rather than fighting against my initial reactions.


Problem here is that if you enter mid-page it's not necessarily obvious which direction to read.


But you can figure it out trivially easily based on which way the letters are flipped.




Consider applying for YC's Summer 2026 batch! Applications are open till May 4

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: