Editing SignWriting (section)

=== Orientation ===

All SignWriting shows the perspective of the signer. For some hand shapes the orientation is unambiguous, but the  color of the glyph always indicates hand orientation: Black indicates the back of the hand, white the palm. A hollow outline (white) glyph indicates that the palm faces the signer, and a filled (black) glyph indicates that the palm faces away from the signer. Split shading (half black, half white) indicates side views, with the order of the colors showing which side view is meant. Although in reality the wrist may turn to intermediate positions, only the four orientations are represented in SignWriting, as they are enough to represent signed languages.

If an unbroken glyph is used, then the hand is placed in the vertical (wall or face) plane in front of the signer, as occurs when finger spelling. A band erased across the glyph through the knuckles shows that the hand lies in the horizontal plane, parallel to the floor. (If one of the basic hand-shape glyphs is used, such as the simple square or circle, this band breaks it in two; however, if there are lines for fingers extended from the base, then they become detached from the base, but the base itself remains intact.)

The diagram to the left shows a BA-hand (flat hand) in six orientations. For the three vertical orientations on the left side, the hand is held in front of the signer, fingers pointing upward. All three glyphs can be rotated, like the hands of a clock, to show the fingers pointing at an angle, to the side, or downward. For the three horizontal orientations on the right side of the diagram, the hand is held outward, with the fingers pointing away from the signer, and presumably toward the viewer. They can also be rotated to show the fingers pointing to the side or toward the signer. Although an indefinite number of orientations can be represented this way, in practice only eight are used for each plane—that is, only multiples of 45° are found.