Do you have a wristwatch with Roman numerals marking
the hours? Have you wondered about the
variety of font styles available for
a dial designer to use for the markings?
Actually, with our word processing and graphics programs today, it’s
easy to select a font style for Roman numerals to use on dials since they can be created using letters (e.g. “I,”
“V,” “X”).
One of the typical conventions that you’ll find on
dials with Roman numerals is the use of “IIII” instead of “IV” to mark the
fourth hour. Although there are
wonderful speculations in the horology community about why this is done, the
most sensible one seems to be for reasons of optical symmetry. All numerals on a dial’s face are
in balance with each other except for four and eight if they are expressed as “IV”
and “VIII.” “VIII” becomes the heavy
weight to the lighter weight “IV.” To restore a pleasing, facial
balance, “IIII” becomes the solution.
Since I use Microsoft WORD 2010, I’ve selected eleven
other fonts along with Times New Roman to
demonstrate a small selection of possible Roman numeral dial “eye candy.” As you can see, some are much more visually digestible than
others!
Times
New Roman:
I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.
Ar
Blanca: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.
Ar
Cena: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.
Blackadder
ITC: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX,
X, XI, XII.
Book
Antiqua:
I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX,
X, XI, XII.
Castellar: I,
II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.
French
Script: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX,
X, XI, XII.
Informal
Roman: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX,
X, XI, XII.
Lucida
Calligraphy: I,
II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.
Niagara
Engraved: I,
II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.
Veranda: I,
II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII.
Vladimir
Script: I, II, III, IIII, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX,
X, XI, XII.
If you are really a font aficionado, check out Da Font which
has over 23,600 of them!
Do you have a favorite Roman numeral font or a photo
of a wristwatch face with Roman numerals you’d like to share? If so, send it along as a comment.
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