Anatomy of a 7

December 20, 2011 10:43 AM

TypefaceAnatomyFilter: What's the little horizontal line through the middle of 7s and Zs (to distinguish them from 1s and 2s when written by hand) called?

It has to have a name, right? Here's an example with the number 7.

posted by radioaction to Grab Bag (42 answers total)

The character itself is called a "crossed seven" or a "barred seven" - I couldn't quickly find a specific name designated for the line, but I would assume you could call it a bar or a cross depending on which term you used.

On most typography forums it seems to be referred to as a cross-bar or a bar.
posted by Mobilisinmobili at 10:50 AM on December 20, 2011

I always thought of it as the European 7, as opposite to the American 7. I grew up in Italy, and that is how I write the 7. The Z is a different matter, since in cursive the z does not resemble the number 2.
posted by francesca too at 10:51 AM on December 20, 2011

Wikipedia seems to indicate that this is common in Europe and I know when I lived in Romania, this was how you write a seven. This is a funny folktale about why that might be true.
posted by jessamyn at 10:56 AM on December 20, 2011

The Z is a different matter, since in cursive the z does not resemble the number 2.

Depends on how you write a cursive Z.
posted by scody at 10:59 AM on December 20, 2011

I've always heard the little mark (not the numeral or letter itself) called a "crossbar".
posted by Thorzdad at 11:12 AM on December 20, 2011

I'm pretty sure I picked up this style of writing 7s and Zs when I took algebra in middle school (in New England).
posted by radioaction at 11:13 AM on December 20, 2011

As far as I know it's called a crossbar (or cross-bar, I guess).

It's definitely a European thing, primarily. I'm from Italy and that's how we write our 7s and our Zs (cursive and not). Now I live in New England and I very, very rarely see anyone use crossbars.
posted by lydhre at 11:27 AM on December 20, 2011

I started doing it when I was in high school (midwestern US) because I was a pretentious little snot.
posted by matildaben at 11:31 AM on December 20, 2011

I've seen "bar-7" used in reference to the typographic character so I just call it a bar. Another New Englander, I picked it up as a child after reading a spy novel or something where it was used a plot point to expose a baddie who was deep undercover ... but whose typographic practices revealed The Truth about his foreign origin.
posted by cairnish at 11:38 AM on December 20, 2011

It seems to be something Europeans do but definitely not something that Americans don't do. I (an American) always do it because my handwriting is bad and I teach math. Maybe I should start using it on my 5's to differentiate them from S's. I just call it a 'cross', as in "dot your i's and cross your t's". Now the 1 I've seen some Europeans write, (closer to a conjunction symbol than what I recognize as a 1), is something I never see in the States.
posted by monkeymadness at 11:38 AM on December 20, 2011

I started doing it on both 7's and z's when I had to re-teach myself handwriting. My handwriting was so atrocious that I couldn't read it, and found the little crossbar made things easier.
posted by Mister Fabulous at 11:40 AM on December 20, 2011

I stopped crossing my 7s once college admin employees in the US made a point of asking me what those symbols were.

yay for bored clerical workers messing with intimidated foreign youth, i guess.
posted by tigrrrlily at 11:42 AM on December 20, 2011

Sounds like [cross]bar is the common term for it! Thanks!

I'm finding folks' stories about whether or not they write or have seen others write 7/Zs this way to be interesting, though, so keep commenting!
posted by radioaction at 11:48 AM on December 20, 2011

Hmm, that's interesting! I cross my 7s and Zs, but my parents are European-born or British-system educated, and I know they do it too. It does seem to be relatively uncommon in the US-educated unless they saw someone else do it. I also use that strange hooked 1 too, but mostly under stress, like when I'm filling out my tax returns and somehow feel like my 1s and 7s are unclear (so I probably end up just confusing whoever reads it. Oops.)

I think the most interesting English typographical thing I've seen is in my grandfather, who accents his vowels in various ways when he writes in English (short o vs. long o, etc.) I wonder if he learned that/was taught that to keep confusing English pronunciation straight in his own mind?
posted by vetala at 11:58 AM on December 20, 2011

I learned to do it when I lived in Sweden as a teenager, and I wasn't going to stop doing something so incredibly useful (especially with my rotten handwriting). I think it's been years since anyone asked me what it was.

Someone needs to invent a clearer indicator to differentiate between a 1 and the lowercase letter l. In my handwriting, they are the same, and my attempts to make a fancy 1 look like an un-barred 7 or possibly some kind of rune.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:03 PM on December 20, 2011

Someone needs to invent a clearer indicator to differentiate between a 1 and the lowercase letter l. In my handwriting, they are the same, and my attempts to make a fancy 1 look like an un-barred 7 or possibly some kind of rune.

Well, the way a lot of Europeans write their 1s, they do look suspiciously like un-barred 7s. If you have a big swooshy lead-in stroke on your 1, the cross bar on the 7 is actually necessary in order to make the two distinct. If — like most Americans — you don't do the swooshy 1, then the cross bar on the 7 is just decoration. But some of us like decoration.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:18 PM on December 20, 2011

I cross my 7's all the time. I don't actually know where I picked it up, but it makes my numbers a hell of a lot more legible.
posted by empath at 12:28 PM on December 20, 2011

I think the most interesting English typographical thing I've seen is in my grandfather, who accents his vowels in various ways when he writes in English (short o vs. long o, etc.) I wonder if he learned that/was taught that to keep confusing English pronunciation straight in his own mind?

This is still the house style at the New Yorker.
posted by empath at 12:30 PM on December 20, 2011

I put crossbars on my z's when doing math, so they don't get confused with twos. I don't put them on sevens, because I don't write European-style ones. But I don't use them in other contexts.
posted by BrashTech at 12:32 PM on December 20, 2011

I started crossing when I worked on a trading desk and the difference between a 7 and 1 was considered VERY important by my boss. Now I get berated by my eight year old for doing it wrong.
posted by shothotbot at 12:37 PM on December 20, 2011

I picked up crossed Z's in my early 20s for legibility. I have a Z in my email address and my cursive-style Z was constantly mistaken for a 3 when I would jot it down for folks. I think the change became permanent around the time the movie 300 came out, and it took me ages to realize it wasn't called ZOO.
posted by milk white peacock at 12:44 PM on December 20, 2011

I started doing it the 8th grade in solidarity with my best friend who had an assignment for English class marked down for crossing a 7, because "we write in English and that's not English, it's European." We gleefully pointed out that England is actually in Europe and that "European" is not a language. Sadly, it became A Thing but the teacher eventually gave up.

After all this time, I still do it because I like the way it looks. An uncrossed 7 looks so naked to me.
posted by Eumachia L F at 12:48 PM on December 20, 2011

[...] and my cursive-style Z was constantly mistaken for a 3 [...]

My cursive z is often mistaken for a cursive y.

I also cross my 7s and Zs (printed Zs) and I'm fairly sure I picked up in algebra class. Much like how I write my "math" xs as a backwards c and a forwards c meeting in the middle.

I've never thought of it as a European thing, and it is not uncommon in this part of western Canada. At least not in my social circles.
posted by selenized at 12:51 PM on December 20, 2011

Though I will add in the writting of a 9 so it looks like a g. I've noticed that people who come from, or have parents who came from, poland tend to do this and I have no idea why.
posted by selenized at 12:56 PM on December 20, 2011

I started crossing my 7s and Zs as a teenager because a guy I had a crush on wrote them that way. Now he is bald and works for the government. I'm not suggesting any causal relationship though.
posted by Koko at 1:04 PM on December 20, 2011

Yeah, my high school algebra teacher (in Oregon, USA) taught us to cross our Zs and 7s to not be mistaken for 2s and 1s, respectively.

I'm now 32, and I still do it.
posted by cheeken at 1:14 PM on December 20, 2011

I'm American, but started crossing my 7s after living in London for a year during high school. As others have said, I've stuck with it because it's so darn useful.
posted by MsMolly at 1:18 PM on December 20, 2011

I always cross my 7s and little "z"s as well, to keep them from being mistaken for 2s and big Z's respectively in math stuff. The 7 just looks naked without a cross. I'm American, and it was something my dad always did - his mom was from Italy?
posted by permiechickie at 1:27 PM on December 20, 2011

I'm from Kansas and I cross both my 7's and Zs. (I occasionally have seen a little drop down line from the top of the seven as well, but decided that was an unelegant overkill.) I also write my 2s from the bottom to the top so the top gets curvier. I made all these decisions when I was in high school, consciously, to make my handwriting cooler/easier to read. My parents do not do these things, and are also from the US.
posted by vegartanipla at 1:49 PM on December 20, 2011

Sometime in middle school I heard that it was the European way, and thought it was cool and different. Thirty some years later, I still write my 7's and Z's with a bar. (East Coast, US)
posted by maxg94 at 1:58 PM on December 20, 2011

I cross my 7s and Zs, and write my 9s so they look like g. I also usually have a a little tic on my 1s to differentiate it from lowercase Ls. For what it's worth, I also write my 8s as two circles instead of a vertical infinity symbol, and don't add a loop to my 2s.

I'm American, grew up in Tennessee. I'm left handed with issues of writing letters oddly anyway (get b and p mixed up constantly, writing or typing them), and writing the numbers that way keeps things straight for me. I switched to this style in part because of algebra, and not being able to tell my Zs from 2s, and 1s from Ls, etc. I was exposed to it by seeing my German neighbor write them that way. It was as if a whole new world of writing opened up. Yes, perhaps pretentious at the time, but kept at it because I could finally read my writing correctly. Have maintained it for the same reason.

(Really like this question, too!)
posted by southpaw at 3:20 PM on December 20, 2011

My high school German teacher made us write our 7s with crossbars through the middle, our 1s with the little dash at the top, and our 9s to look like demeted gs. I stuck with the 7s but gave up the rest (and somehow picked up the slash through the z, mostly because it looks pretty, I guess), and once had a customer at work ask if I was European, "cuz your numbers are weird."
posted by jabes at 4:33 PM on December 20, 2011

I'm from New England as well, CT. It's not pretentious but definitely European. My grandparents were from working-class Cologne and they always cross 7's and z's and ticked 1's and 9's, and taught my father, and my siblings and I to do the same, but no umlaut. I now work in construction in the mid-Atlantic and use notation in shorthand and numbers daily for layout and NO one has any idea what those are. It just confuses everyone, but I can read it MUCH faster no matter how sloppy. I've never heard a general term used to describe that writing custom though.
posted by ericlee6000 at 5:21 PM on December 20, 2011

I started crossing 7's and Z's when I got a job as a receptionist- I took a lot of phone messages and it was important that the recipient be able to read my writing. That was 20+ years ago, and now I can't imagine not crossing 7's & Z's. Oh, and I do 2-circled 8's too.
posted by dogmom at 5:44 PM on December 20, 2011

I learned to bar my 7s, Zs, put slashes through my zeroes, and hook my 1s because of amateur radio. Correspond with enough people around the world about things like callsigns (piles of numbers and letters) and you quickly learn the value of distinguishing a 1 from lowercase L. The hook on the 1 bothers me slightly, though, because it's adding a serif to a non-serif script; I have the same twitch when people draw serifs on their capital I. </nerd>
posted by introp at 8:18 PM on December 20, 2011

Sort of tangentially related, in Japan nobody crosses their 7 but everyone writes it with a little "hook" at the left end of the top stroke. This has been a problem at times because it can actually make it difficult occasionally to distinguish it from a ワ or ク in handwriting when people get a little overzealous with that extra stroke.

Of course, the American 7 looks a lot like a handwritten フ so there's just no winning.
posted by DoctorFedora at 8:19 PM on December 20, 2011

(since this seems to have turned into a thread about handwritten 7s)
posted by DoctorFedora at 10:04 PM on December 20, 2011

I (English) started crossing my 7's when I saw my mum (also English taught) cross her's. Initially I did it to avoid mixing them up with 1. Mainly because I struggle keeping the text upright, and it does have a tendency to slope a little.
I began crossing my Z's, at Uni when studying set theory. Which was to discriminate between the variable Z, and Z as the set of Integers. Sometimes my blackboard bold, was not clear enough, and the lack of the crossed help me.

Finally as maths teacher, I always cross 7's and Z's on the board. It just helps them to stand out, particularly when your audience are up to 12 feet away from your writing.
posted by 92_elements at 2:56 AM on December 21, 2011

When I lived in Amsterdam, my address was #11. When my American friends wrote me (via snailmail), their letters were always getting delivered to #77 on the same street. The woman who lived at #77 was very snitty about it. That's when I learned about the barred seven and I've written my sevens with a bar ever since.
posted by Transl3y at 10:43 AM on December 21, 2011

Woops. I meant I lived at #77 and letters were delivered to #11. It's been a long time.
posted by Transl3y at 10:45 AM on December 21, 2011

I picked up the crossed 7's and z's from a math teacher I had back in the day. Almost finished my PhD and I still use them!
posted by number9dream at 6:55 PM on December 21, 2011

monkeymadness: " Maybe I should start using it on my 5's to differentiate them from S's."

In addition to barring my Zs and 7s, I occasionally add the serifs to my Ss so they don't look like 5s...
posted by FlyingMonkey at 11:28 AM on December 25, 2011