Why do some CDs print the title on the spine in the wrong direction?

Which direction is '"""right"""'?
Is there no use for bucking the system?
Why aren't you downloading music and saving the world by limiting the use of plastic. it's kinda a nice feeling realizing that the next generation will never have this question.

I hope this doesn't keep you up at night, Mark.{

Who cares?

I just see it, notice it looks different, and then move on.

I hope you do too.

I don't know why a few CD titles run up the spine when the vast majority run down, but I have more than once contemplated starting a similar thread! The issue doesn't keep me up at night; however I did briefly consider storing the "wrong-way" CDs upside down so the spines would read more uniformly.

With books, I've noticed the same titles-down standard operates, but not internationally; books published in France (and perhaps other parts of Continental Europe?) usually have their titles running up the spine.

But with CDs, I suspect it's randomness as much as regional variation. For instance there are bands with long tenures at a single label who have just one title running up (on my shelves, e.g.: XTC, only English Settlement; Kitchens of Distinction, only Love is Hell).

I would like to see more threads about CD spine design, myself. A heretofore unexplored area -- cousin of the far more prominent album cover, and even more important for retrieval purposes.

The spine for Echo & the Bunnymen's Evergreen actually spells the their name incorrectly. S'true!

books from germany feature wacky wrong way spine printing too

I think the CD version of 'Real Life' by Magazine is called 'REAL LIVE' on the spine as well. It's the right way up though.

These drive me nuts too, but I just turn them upside down.

My Depeche 'Speak and Spell' and all of my early Cocteau Twins do this. not sure why.

CD spines are printed to read down so that when the CD is laid flat with the front side up, the spine will read right side up. Or to put it another way, when CDs are stacked flat or stored in a slotted tower, the covers will be face up.

In publishing, the rationale I've heard for printing spines to read up is that it makes them easier to scan on a shelf, because when they are in alphabetical order left to right, and you cock your head to read them, they will appear in order, top to bottom.

What I hate is when used CD bins are filed in the wrong direction.

I think I have some mild OCD b/c it does bother me.

I always check if it's possible to reverse the back piece of paper in the CD case. Sometimes this can solve the problem (although your back cover is upside down, which I consider still less of a problem than an uprunning spine). This is a form of OCD I've been able to live with very reasonably.

I understand this. I hate having to cock my head one way and then another - most distressing betimes.

Well, this happened to my band two albums in a row. The reason is basically designers not taking the time to do what they're told properly. I can't see why anyone would do it that way deliberately.

i think it's usually an overlooked printing error, as with some chi-lites cd i have that always unnerves me, as each component part of the cd packaging has some obvious similar defect

the french system for book spines is hard to get used to; i find myself cocking my head in uncomfortable ways or contorting myself to read the spines

My Evergreen and Real Life's are normal. Different issues?

Anyway, when I was aboot 15 I cut out the spine part of my first Social D album, reversed it, and taped it back in, it bothered me so fucking much. Arg!

I wrote an email to complain to the NME once about this with one of their free CDs, and it got printed. Peter Robinson replied that they did it just to piss me off.

Taking sides: remedying the problem by the aforementioned upside-down method vs. showing the reverse spine to the right of the front cover instead.

I had the spine from "All Hail West Texas" specified so that the letters'd read like this:

A
L
L

H
A
I
L

just 'cause it seemed to complement the title. Paul Lukas was greatly aggrieved by this since it messed up a long run of consistently-spined CDs, but refused to advise me on how to proceed: make all my CDs adhere to the vertical strategy from here on, thereby preserving consistency-on-the-shelf, or leave the one to be an anomaly? I went with the latter but when I see a whole collection of 'em "All Hail" really does disrupt the visual flow.

So, um, no, Mark, you're not the only one who spend loadsa time thinking about this kinda thing :)

I'm still debating buying The Party's over by Talk Talk because the re-releases of their first four albums each have a letter of the band name at the top and bottom, thus meaning that all four together will read summat like

T A L K

{titles and such in here}

T A L K

Only mine says Alk Alk because I don't have the debut.

Alk Alk sounds like an animal noise if you say it aloud.

a seal to be precise

i have a few "series" like this, like i have one-half of frank sinatra's head, for example

Also, John, you realsie of course that now you've revealed this (i.e. that you considered it and went ahead anyway) your fans with OCD will think you hate them.

I must admit I used to have to line-up the CD in the case so it was straight. This was alright when I had 50 CDs, but now I have like a thousand or whatever I'm very much over it.

Between this and change being handed to me the wrong way in checkout lanes it's a wonder I don't go mad.

like with the NME example, I usually assumed this stuff was the work of a designer and/or band deliberately trying to piss you off.

on a side note: the spines on those Nayked Raygun reissues all line up to make a nice, nifty big picture, too.

If I ever want to explain ILM to someone, I shall show them this thread.

wait until it gets to 700 posts

oh, yep, Nick, I do that still. Friends don't believe me, but I challenge them to pull an CD at random from my 700+ collection... everytime, it's straight.

wow, i just said that.

Oh my. I feel a slight urge to go in there and line them up now, but that would be INSANE.

the thing is that I reall like the All Hail spine best of them all - what I'd prefer to do is re-do all of them and change the spines so they JUST had the title of the album & cat. # in the fashion of the All Hail sleeve, so that the group of them would stand out from others on the shelf but would be in & of themselves a uniform group

everybody is OTM, this thread indicates a great & wonderful communal sickness

Your last sentence is so so so wrong on so many levels.

I do really like the idea of having the
s
p
i
n
e
s

r
e
a
d
i
n
g

d
o
w
n
,

though.

ugh, no, I have a whole series of CDs of various sorts of commercial production music that do that and they make my brain bleed.

they're french.

i like how the last kristin hersh album (the grotto) has the track listing on the spine.

What I notice with my Mountain Goats CDs is that Coroner's Gambit and All Hail have their spines lined up to form a slight v-shaped indentation.

sloppy graphic designers. when you're laying out the artwork, it's easy to mess up if you don't take 2 seconds to make sure it's right.

i'd like to see the cd spine that could accomodate that fiona apple album title running down in that fashion; the world's first meter-long cd?

DOES ANYONE UP IN THIS BITCH LIKE BORIS?

And what about those funny named pieces of paper from Japanese cds? (Gygax?)

I'd thought the 'spine reading down' thing would be more common, but the only two releases I own that do so are the first Laika albums.
maybe I should get All Hail West Texas?

The colours of my CD spines sitting next to each other have become so familliar, and because they're all on shelves next to each other, it's like wallpaper. I tend to gloss over certain sections, because the colours look the same as they ever have, and I've no reason to look closely.

This last summer I was moving, and my CDs got a little disjointed. Say, 25% of the collection was out of sorts, but there was still an overall coherence(i sort alphabetically, then release date). Rather than put the odd CD back in its spot, I became overcome with madness, and mixed everything around at random, just for a new look. It worked! I spent the summer listening to things that I hadn't picked out in years, like an archaic shuffle mode. I fixed it all upon moving again in August, though; I was too much of a pain to find things that I wanted to hear.