Comments on: Numerals are Visualizations, too http://www.forthgo.com/blog/2009/08/09/numerals-are-visualizations/ Code and Recreations of Xan Gregg Sat, 17 Jul 2010 15:38:11 -0700 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: xan http://www.forthgo.com/blog/2009/08/09/numerals-are-visualizations/comment-page-1/#comment-6411 xan Wed, 26 Aug 2009 23:33:21 +0000 http://www.forthgo.com/blog/?p=339#comment-6411 Thanks for the background, Bill. I checked to see if Unicode has separate inline figures and tabular figures but no luck. There is a "fullwidth" version of the ASCII characters, but they're too wide for any use I can think of. Thanks for the background, Bill. I checked to see if Unicode has separate inline figures and tabular figures but no luck. There is a “fullwidth” version of the ASCII characters, but they’re too wide for any use I can think of.

]]> By: Bill Ricker http://www.forthgo.com/blog/2009/08/09/numerals-are-visualizations/comment-page-1/#comment-6410 Bill Ricker Wed, 26 Aug 2009 19:23:38 +0000 http://www.forthgo.com/blog/?p=339#comment-6410 Ugh, they should have caught that in typesetting or proof and switched font. Saving money, by not employing professional layout/type design staff and proofreaders, results in embarrassments such as this. In the old days, many text (body) fonts have (or had) two or more sets of numerals, one set for inline text with thin 1 and thick 0, often with hanging 7,9 and short 1, and another equal width, equal height for tabular matter. A shop would buy one or both styles in metal in each size needed, as their use dictated. Professional tools and fonts have usually had access to both all along. Typesetting pros have known to set tables in monospace numerals (or 'figs', short for figures) all along. Cheap common computer fonts originally had equal width digits only for exactly the reason you give, in combination with most pedestrian tools make it hard to get the alt figs even if they're in the font. Iirc, Helvetica (aka Arial since Mac) and Times Roman had monospace figs as the primary figs to make linotype setting of tabular matter easier, and it carried over to the 1984 classic Mac. Ugh, they should have caught that in typesetting or proof and switched font. Saving money, by not employing professional layout/type design staff and proofreaders, results in embarrassments such as this.

In the old days, many text (body) fonts have (or had) two or more sets of numerals, one set for inline text with thin 1 and thick 0, often with hanging 7,9 and short 1, and another equal width, equal height for tabular matter. A shop would buy one or both styles in metal in each size needed, as their use dictated.

Professional tools and fonts have usually had access to both all along.
Typesetting pros have known to set tables in monospace numerals (or ‘figs’, short for figures) all along.

Cheap common computer fonts originally had equal width digits only for exactly the reason you give, in combination with most pedestrian tools make it hard to get the alt figs even if they’re in the font. Iirc, Helvetica (aka Arial since Mac) and Times Roman had monospace figs as the primary figs to make linotype setting of tabular matter easier, and it carried over to the 1984 classic Mac.

]]> By: Lee Creighton http://www.forthgo.com/blog/2009/08/09/numerals-are-visualizations/comment-page-1/#comment-6402 Lee Creighton Mon, 10 Aug 2009 14:16:30 +0000 http://www.forthgo.com/blog/?p=339#comment-6402 Clever trick for finding fonts in PDFs. I knew they were text-viewable, but I hadn't thought to use that info to find fonts. I've always used it to find errors, which are notoriously hard to debug. Clever trick for finding fonts in PDFs. I knew they were text-viewable, but I hadn’t thought to use that info to find fonts. I’ve always used it to find errors, which are notoriously hard to debug.

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