Nozzle offset

When printing, which nozzle offset is closer to the bed? Positive numbers or negative?

My first printer was fine as is but the second one started to grind the nozzle into the platform on the first test print.  So, I went to set the offset and made the number smaller to pull it away from the platform.  Went pretty easily; only took me an extra  2 minutes of work.

the top of the z-axis is your zero. so positive numbers will move it further down, negative numbers will move it back towards 0.