So far, our look at the world of typography has been limited to text that travels along a straight, horizontal path. While this is of course the most common and readable style of writing, you don't have to be stuck with it in every design. Your text is free to go vertically, along a slope, over an arch, in a circle, or even upside-down. Take a look at these examples of text with baseline paths that go beyond basic straight lines.

Vertical Text This old-fashioned hotel sign is written vertically instead of left to right. Vertical text is useful for tight, narrow spaces, or to help the viewer's eye travel down the page. Diagonal Slope The Raiders of the Lost Ark movie poster gives the word "Raiders" an exciting feel as the word travels up and away from the viewer, almost as if it's inviting us to follow it into the adventures of Indiana Jones. Wavy Baseline You can see the wavy baseline under each line of text in this Fourth of July image. The typography here would be much more dull if it was just written in a straight line. Arch Arches are one of the most common ways to change up the baseline of text. This typographic design for a motorcycle shop in California uses several arches to compliment the oval frame of the layout. Circle Writing your text using a circle baseline brings cohesion and focus to your design, directing the viewer's eye all around the image.