a flourish to write it on hundreds of inventory tags. Scandinavian countries prefer a numeral zero with a dot in the middle, although low-resolution displays can confuse this with a numeral eight, and it takes longer to assuredly make a dot with a ballpoint pen than making a tick. Other variations The "Crossed Seven" is commonly used throughout Europe, but is sporadically used in the United States, and it is not permitted to be written on some inventory tags that are optically read by computers. There are two forms of the numeral one used in France, as seen on Citroën cowls: numeral one with a long initial stroke and an underserif; and numeral one with a long initial stroke that starts below the underserif and is concave upward. Central Europe uses a 'one' that has two half-serifs so it looks somewhat like a 'Z'. The region further uses a numeral four that looks like a lightning bolt, and in some areas of Eastern Europe, as seen on Romanian tanks, there is a numeral four that does not have a closed loop, but has a Greek cross form of strokes. Usually the numeral two is not slashed, whereas the letter Z is, because the handwritten form could be confused with the numeral two. See also Regional handwriting variation#Arabic numerals References External links Alternate figures Numerals Typography