Observing the Conventions

Aconsiderable variety of typographic and local-usage differences have to do with the way people in different parts of the world use and express numbers, dates, quantities, symbols, and punctuation. The following short list shows some of the important conventions and format differences that you should be aware of:

Dates. May 12, 1959, would be written as 5/12/59 in the U.K., 12/5/59 in Denmark, and 1959-05-12 in Sweden.

Calendars. Most countries use the familiar Gregorian calendar. Israel uses the Gregorian and Hebrew calendars, while Arab countries use the Gregorian and Islamic calendars. In Japan, years can be counted by the Gregorian calendar or by the Japanese imperial era. Conversion options are included in localized software.

Time. A time denoted as 8:32 p.m. in the U.S. would be 20:32 in Canada, 20,32,00 in Sw itzerland, 20.32 Uhr in Germany, and KI 20.32 in Norway.

Numbers and Number Symbols. The U.S. uses a decimal point and separates thousands with a comma. Other countries use a decimal comma and a period, apostrophe, or blank space for the thousands separator. Thus 3,912.45 can become 3.912,45 or 3 912,45. Words used to express numerical quantities can have different meanings, too: A billion refers to a 1 followed by nine zeros in the U.S., while in Latin America and Europe, it refers to a 1 followed by 12 zeros. Therefore, a BBC announcer says "one-thousand-million dollars" where an American would say "one billion dollars." In Japan, software should support kanji, katakana, and Marusuuji (i.e., numbers in a circle), as well as the usual Arabic numerals.

Counting Currency. U.S. currency written as $2,456.78 is 2.456,78 DM in Germany and 2.456$78Esc. in Portugal. Also, don't forget the special characters needed for currency, such as the British pound symbol and the Japanese yen symbol.

Measurem ent Scales. Outside the U.S.--even just over the Canadian border--most countries use the metric system. Distances are expressed in kilometers instead of miles and in centimeters instead of inches.

Temperature. As with other metric-system units, references to temperature in most of the world are expressed in degrees Celsius, not Fahrenheit.

Paper Sizes. U.S. paper standards are letter, legal, and ledger. Almost everywhere else, the standards are A3, A4, and A5. Japanese paper sizes are JIS-B4 and JIS-B5.

Address Format. Americans generally place the house number before the street name. Most Latin Americans and Europeans write the street name first.

Punctuation. In Greek, interrogation is expressed not by our American English question mark but by what looks like our semicolon (;). Other punctuation marks include inverted ! and inverted ? in Spanish and left pointing double chevrons and right pointing double chevrons for quotation marks in Greek and French.

Colors. Americans automat ically associate red with "stop" and green with "go"; the Chinese do not.

Translation of Icons. Images do not always translate the way you expect. Apple's Trashcan icon, for example, looked like a postal box to British Macintosh users. Religious icons and hand gestures should be avoided, as they may have culturally insensitive meanings in a number of countries. If you use book icons, be sure they open in the proper direction for the target market.