Is there any general rule about the side of the chainring on which manufacturers stamp their logo and/or the number of teeth? On the large ring, obviously, it's typically on the outside--that is, facing right as you sit on the bike--so it's easy to read. Without thinking much about it, I'd sort of assumed that the same orientation applied to the inner ring of a double as well, even thought that means that it might sometimes be obscured by the bigger ring.
But the other day I was switching the rings on my Stronglight 93 from a 45-40 half-step setup to a 48-42, using a new 48-tooth ring that just arrived from xxcycle in France (good quality, apparently, and reasonably priced, though not a cosmetic match for the original.) Last year I had installed the 45-40 rings with both stampings facing right, but when I went to reinstall the 42, which was original to the bike--and therefore presumably installed as the manufacturer intended-- I noticed that the ghost marks on the ring from the crank spider clearly showed that it had been installed the other way, with the stamping facing left. More obviously, the chainring bolt holes are countersunk on the stamped side to acccomodate the heads of the chainring nuts.
So I guess I had it wrong. That may explain why I had some trouble with the chain sometimes coming to rest between the rings and spinning helplessly when downshifting--the original orientation places the "edges" of the teeth a little closer together, perhaps making that less likely to happen.
Live and learn. Any other observations on this?