text: why do europeans put a line through their 7s? is it so difficult to tell it apart from a 1?  look: 1, 7, 1, 7... no problem! i am european and i wrote my 7 (with line) because that's how i learned it at school. that way it's easier to distinguish from 1, which was a pointy top.  now i live in the uk and my 7s still have their line, but my 1s are just a dash now:  one = | seven = 7 with dash  it's all a matter of teaching how to write. does zero take a dash or not? how to we write ampersand (&)? it's just different printing standards that probably date back centuries ago and that have carried out now...