In typography, text figures also known as old-style, hanging, non-lining or medieval figures or numerals, are descended from Hindu-Arabic numerals. The ascending and descending forms of text figures help differentiate each numeral, and seem to make them more legible than lining figures and integrating them with lower case text.

For the past two hundred years lining numerals (figures of consistent height with no ascending or descending forms, also called ranging figures) have been the standard, but a revival of text figures beginning in the mid-late 1990's is steadily gaining prominence.

In text figures, the shape and positioning of the numerals varies as in lower case letters. 0, 1, and 2 are x-height, having neither ascenders nor descenders; 6 and 8 have ascenders, and 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 are descending forms. This scheme is by far the most common, but there are others. The types cut by the Didot family of punchcutters and typographers in late eighteenth to early nineteenth century France typically had an ascending 3 to prevent confusion with the cursive letter z, a form preserved in some later French typefaces. A few other typefaces used different arrangements.

High-quality typesetting prefers text figures in body text: they integrate better with lower case letters and small capitals, and their greater variety of shape facilitates reading. They help accomplish consistent typographic colour in blocks of text, unlike runs of lining figures which can distract the eye. Lining figures are called for in all-capitals settings (hence the name titling figures), and may work better in tables and spreadsheets.

Although many traditional fonts included a complete set of each kind of numbers, most digital fonts today (except those used by professional printers) include only one or the other. Lining figures remain more common. The few common digital fonts with default text figures include Georgia ^*, Hoefler Text and, among the Windows Vista typefaces, Candara, Constantia and Corbel.

Text figures are known in German as Mediävalziffern (“medieval numerals”), in French as chiffres elzéviriens and in Spanish as números elzevirianos, and in Polish as cyfry nautyczne (“nautical numerals”).

History

As the name medieval numerals implies, text figures have been in use since the Middle Ages, when Arabic numerals reached twelfth century Europe, where they supplanted Roman numerals.

Lining figures came out of the new middle-class phenomenon of shopkeepers’ hand-lettered signage. They were introduced to European typography in 1788, when Richard Austin cut a new font for type founder John Bell, which included three-quarter height lining figures. They were further developed by nineteenth century type designers, and largely displaced text figures, especially in newspaper and advertising fonts.

The use of text figures suffered further setbacks in the twentieth century, amid attempts to do away with typographic case altogether, and they almost disappeared with the advent of phototypesetting. Fine book faces for mechanical typesetting still used text numerals well into the twentieth century, and with digital typography text figures are making a strong comeback.

References

• Robert Bringhurst. The Elements of Typographic Style, pages 46 to 48. Vancouver: Hartley & Marks, 1992. ISBN 0-88179-132-6.

External links

• Multilingual Typographic Dictionary - typographic lexicon in English, French, German, Italian and Spanish.

Typography

Mediävalziffer | Uithangende cijfers | Cyfry nautyczne | 不齐线数字 | Gemena siffror | chiffres elzéviriens