Editing Typeface (section)

=== Typesetting numbers ===
[[Image:Mediaevalziffern.svg|thumb|right|[[Hoefler Text]] uses non-lining or lower-case figures.]]
[[File:Proportional & tabular figures.png|thumb|Proportional (left-side) and tabular (right-side) numeric digits, drawn as lining figures.]]

Most typefaces, especially modern designs, include a complementary set of numeric digits.<ref name="HFJ Numbers">{{cite web |title = Numbers |url = http://www.typography.com/fonts/numbers/overview/ |publisher = Hoefler & Frere-Jones |access-date = 2015-10-06 }}</ref>

Numbers can be typeset in two main independent sets of ways: ''lining'' and ''[[non-lining figures]]'', and ''proportional'' and ''tabular'' styles.{{efn|There are a few other styles occasionally used, most notably small-cap figures set uniformly at the height of the small capitals, and 'short-ranging figures' slightly lower than cap height.}}

Most modern typefaces set numeric digits by default as lining figures, which are the height of upper-case letters. [[Non-lining figures]], styled to match lower-case letters, are often common in fonts intended for body text, as they are thought to be less disruptive to the style of running text. They are also called ''lower-case numbers'' or ''text figures'' for the same reason.

==== Tabular figures ====
{{main|Tabular figures}}
The horizontal spacing of digits can also be ''proportional'', with a character width tightly matching the width of the figure itself, or ''tabular'', where all digits have the same width. Proportional spacing places the digits closely together, reducing empty space in a document, and is thought to allow the numbers to blend into the text more effectively.<ref name="gotham">{{cite web |title = Gotham: Numerics |url = http://www.typography.com/fonts/gotham/features/gotham-numerics |publisher =[[Hoefler & Frere-Jones]] |access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref> As tabular spacing makes all numbers with the same number of digits the same width, it is used for typesetting documents such as price lists, stock listings and sums in mathematics textbooks, all of which require columns of numeric figures to line up on top of each other for easier comparison.<ref>{{cite web |last = Strizver |first = Elaine |title = Proportional vs. Tabular Figures |url = http://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-3/numbers/proportional-vs-tabular-figures |website = fonts.com |publisher = Monotype Imaging |access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref> Tabular spacing is also a common feature of simple printing devices such as [[cash register]]s and date-stamps.<ref>{{cite web |title = Revenue |url = http://www.typography.com/fonts/numbers/inside/revenue |publisher = Hoefler & Frere-Jones |access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref>

Characters of uniform width are a standard feature of so-called [[monospaced font]]s, used in programming and on typewriters. However, many fonts that are not monospaced use tabular figures. More complex font designs may include two or more combinations with one as the default and others as alternate characters.<ref>{{cite web |last=Butterick |first=Matthew |title = Alternate figures: consider the context |url = http://practicaltypography.com/alternate-figures.html |website = Butternick's Practical Typography }}</ref> Of the four possibilities, non-lining tabular figures are particularly rare since there is no common use for them.<ref>{{cite news |last=Saller |first=Carol |title = Old-Style Versus Lining Figures |url = http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/03/14/old-style-versus-lining-figures/ |newspaper=[[Chronicle of Higher Education]]|access-date = 2014-08-04 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Bergsland |first=David |title=Using numbers in the proper case |url=http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/bergsland/numbering_typography.html |publisher=Design & Publishing Center |access-date=4 August 2014 |archive-date=19 October 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071019050624/http://www.graphic-design.com/DTG/bergsland/numbering_typography.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Peters Figure Styles">{{cite web |last1=Peters |first1=Yves |title=OpenType at Work {{!}} Figure Styles |url=https://www.typenetwork.com/news/article/opentype-at-work-figure-styles-part-1 |website=Type Network |access-date=30 November 2019}}</ref>

Fonts intended for professional use in documents such as business reports may also make the bold-style tabular figures take up the same width as the regular (non-bold) numbers, so a bold-style total would appear just as wide as the same sum in regular style.<ref name="Hoefler Fonts for Complex Data">{{cite web |last=Hoefler |first=Jonathan |author-link = Jonathan Hoefler |title = Fonts for Complex Data |url = https://www.typography.com/blog/fonts-for-complex-data |publisher = Hoefler & Co. |access-date = 2018-07-29 }}</ref><ref name="gotham"/><ref>{{cite web |first=Christian |last=Schwartz |author-link = Christian Schwartz |title = Neue Haas Grotesk: Features |url = http://www.fontbureau.com/nhg/features/ |publisher=The Font Bureau, Inc. |access-date = 2013-12-23 }}</ref>