Arabic numerals Libya to Morocco. Arabs, on the other hand, call the base-10 system (not just these digits) "Hindu numerals", referring to their origin in India. This is not to be confused with what the Arabs call the "Hindi numerals", namely the Eastern Arabic numerals ( - - - - - - - - - ) used in the Middle East, or any of the numerals currently used in Indian languages (e.g. Devanagari: ). The European acceptance of the numerals was accelerated by the invention of the printing press, and they became widely known during the 15th century. Early evidence of their
Japanese numerals , ). The Arabic numerals are more often used in horizontal writing, and the Chinese numerals are more common in vertical writing. Most numbers have two readings, one derived from Chinese used for cardinal numbers (On reading) and a native Japanese reading used somewhat less formally for numbers up to 10. In some cases (listed below) the Japanese reading is generally preferred for all uses. <nowiki>*</nowiki> The special reading 〇 "maru" (which means "round" or "circle") is also found. It may be optionally used when reading individual digits of a number one after another, instead of as a full number.