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I am writing a scientific article and I need to describe the two hatched areas in the Figure below. How do you call these? Upward hatching and downward hatching? Or what?

E.g.

The upward hatching corresponds to newly captured individuals, the downward hatching to the recaptured ones.

two regions with 45 degree diagonal lines in different directions

Laurel
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Tomas
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    If that was text you would say / 'forward slash' and \ 'backward slash', so perhaps 'forward sloping hatching' and 'backward sloping hatching'. But "the area over/under the curve" would be clearer. Alternatively you could hatch just the area under the curve and refer to them as 'hatched' and 'unhatched'. It might be more pleasing on the eye too. – Weather Vane Nov 09 '23 at 13:52
  • @WeatherVane Thanks. I think I like the "upward/downward hatching" better than all these other options. Do you think it is correct? – Tomas Nov 09 '23 at 13:57
  • It's not a description that I remember seeing used. – Weather Vane Nov 09 '23 at 13:58
  • 'Hatching with positive gradient' etc. – Edwin Ashworth Nov 09 '23 at 14:10
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    Another option would be to use cross-hatching for the lower area and refer to them as 'hatched' and 'cross-hatched'. – Weather Vane Nov 09 '23 at 14:17
  • I suspect "upward" and "downward" hatching is less immediately obvious as to the intended meaning (you might expect both to be vertical) than "forward sloping" and "backward sloping", but even that may be cultural. – Henry Nov 09 '23 at 14:19
  • You could describe it as "bottom-left to top-right" or "SW-NE". And the converse. But the best solution would be to use a key to explain the meaning visually. – Stuart F Nov 09 '23 at 14:35
  • The program Illustrator says diagonal line pattern: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ5g7w3oVgc – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 15:40
  • I don't much like that term individual. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 15:54
  • If you use different types of shading (e.g. hatching and stippling) you could simply refer to these names. The overall result might be easier to look at, too. – DjinTonic Nov 09 '23 at 20:29
  • Left-leaning vs right-leaning would work. – TimR Nov 10 '23 at 12:24
  • Your description is just fine for an l-t-r language such as English. – Tinfoil Hat Nov 11 '23 at 03:08
  • hatching is an art term, not a graphics term. These are called diagonal lines. – Lambie Nov 13 '23 at 18:07
  • In the end, I did not refer to the hatching at all. Reading all the answers, I still consider "upward hatching" and "downward hatching" the best solution. – Tomas Dec 08 '23 at 11:26
  • Well, hatching is not the right word. That is a word used in the art world and not one used in the design/printing/graphics world. – Lambie Dec 09 '23 at 18:26
  • @WeatherVane Please, sane practical solutions are not appreciated. – TimR Dec 09 '23 at 20:17

4 Answers4

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Your problem is that you don't have a key/legend for the graphic, which would eliminate the need for your entire sentence.

If it's not possible to add a key, you should take the time, space, and words to explain it clearly. Spell it out, as in this passage about art:

Right-handed artists will tend to create hatching lines from the bottom left to the top right, while left-handed artists will hatch from the top left to the bottom right.

This is universally clear, even to people whose native language is written right to left, where terms like "upwards" or "left" might be especially confusing. In fact, I would say that native speakers are liable to confuse terms like those if they haven't seen them applied to describe this type of pattern before.

For your simple graphic, you could also refer to the top and bottom regions, though this obviously does not describe the hatching.

Laurel
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  • Why are you talking about the right handed and left handed? The word diagonal left and diagonal right is not confusing. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 16:03
  • This answer is the frame challenge that I would give, too. Even if you do know what to call the hatching, use a legend. Otherwise, someone reading the chart has to read the whole paper to find out where it is mentioned and what it means. – Conrado Nov 09 '23 at 17:51
  • You still need to name them. All the ones I see on the internet, also have descriptions even if only one or two words. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 21:21
  • @Lambie The bolded phrases in the quote are my suggestions. I'm assuming it's self explanatory that the first one refers to the pattern in the top region of OP's diagram. – Laurel Nov 09 '23 at 21:25
  • Never mind. It's impossible really. We don't even know if that is the actual design of the thing. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 21:28
  • In design forms, the word hatching is not used. That is used in art. In illustrations, they use diagonal lines. – Lambie Nov 10 '23 at 17:38
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One region is marked by south-west–north-east hatching and the other is marked by north-west–south-east hatching. This assumes that north corresponds to the top of the page (which is conventional).


NB: Hyphens are used within each direction, and en-dashes are used between directions.

  • Wow, thanks for the play with the hyphens, are you answering my other question? :-D That's really nice! Although it won't help me in this one question, as it is too complicated, i am giving +1 :) – Tomas Dec 10 '23 at 14:25
  • @Tomas It's a bit wordy, but as one of the comments suggested you could just use abbreviations, i.e. SW–NE vs NW–SE. – Elements In Space Dec 10 '23 at 14:28
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Upward and downward do not differentiate between the two hatch pattern shown. Both patterns can be seen as going upward -- one slanting left and one slanting right from the bottom of the hatch line to the top.

It's usually not necessary to describe a graphical identifier; it can become too cumbersome and prone to confusion. That's why charts have legends that tie a graphical device to a text explanation. If this hatch //// represents newly captured individuals, the legend would show that, and then in the text you just refer to the description, not the graphical identifier.

As mentioned in a comment, you can also refer to areas of the chart by calling them the area above and below the data line.

There are many reference works about informational graphics; some Internet searching will give you some basic guidelines and things to avoid.

user8356
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The expert here is Illustrator, the drawing program.

Creating a Seamless Diagonal Pattern in Illustrator Seamless means the pattern is continuous without any break or obstacle (also called a repeating pattern or tileable pattern). Many beginners struggle to create seamless diagonal or other such patterns that cannot be created manually. But once you know how to do it, this approach can be very useful in your design or illustration work

aka diagonal line pattern

How To: Create a Seamless Diagonal Line Pattern in Illustrator

By Brant Wilson Published March 17, 2023

You basically have to go and use the program to change the pattern or rotate it to get the pattern in the direction you want. Diagonal left or diagonal right.

Adobe Illustrator from the site above

Oracle also use the term left and right:

Section - 2 : Diagonal Left and Diagonal Right Shading patterns

enter image description here

Oracle usage

enter image description here

enter image description here

One text says: The 12.6.0 output reversed that, so that the diagonal left [line] pattern was printed as diagonal right. This was an Oracle fix for the diagonal left and right came out correctly.

Lambie
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    Which is which? I would assume you have "diagonal left" in your image but it's honestly confusing, especially when "left diagonal pattern" could refer to the one that would be located on the hypothetical left side. – Laurel Nov 09 '23 at 16:03
  • @Laurel I am not going to argue with Illustrator and Oracle. Sorry. For me, it's very clear. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 16:05
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    I can't find the phrases "diagonal left" or "diagonal right" in the Adobe documentation you link to. So which is that? – Barmar Nov 09 '23 at 17:05
  • @Barmar You use the rotation instruction. And Oracles says it so it's good enough for me. If you go and look at the Oracle text you will see it. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 17:54
  • The OP is asking how to describe it in text, not how to create it. – Barmar Nov 09 '23 at 17:56
  • right (or left) diagonal line pattern. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 17:57
  • Many people will consider "left" to be the one that slants left when going from top to bottom. Many others will see "left" as the one going left from bottom to top. For something that half the people could misinterpret, I don't think "this one is clearly left, Oracle says so" is a good answer. – user8356 Nov 09 '23 at 19:40
  • @user8356 I really don't care what many people think. If they have both, they can figure it out. And I care what Oracle says. Sorry. It is not an answer. It is part of an answer. Not everything is already written or said. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 19:53
  • In Western culture we read from left to right. – Lambie Nov 09 '23 at 20:55