Typophile

The space between the 1 and 9 in most fonts is terrible. Why??!?!

ericpitcock

I’m sure this has been brought up before, so sorry.

It seems some people don’t think the combination of a 1 and a 9 ever comes into play. This lack of attention to detail is pretty sad. Here are some random examples. Trust me, there are MANY more.

Avant Garde (avantgarde.gif). The Adobe OpenType version vs Berthold. Adobe loses, big time.

American Typewriter (amtype.gif). Once again, Adobe OpenType loses to Berthold.

Bembo (bembo.gif). One more time. Adobe loses.

Aachen (aachen.gif). HEY! Adobe gets it right. This time Bitstream screws the pooch.

Why is this even an issue?

Before you defend Adobe, don’t. I’m just stating that their version has this problem, not saying that they suck.

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avantgarde.gif6.71 KB
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bembo.gif6.29 KB
aachen.gif6.94 KB
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Chris Lozos

My guess is that you are seeing the tabular figures which are monospaced. Many foundries will push the 1 to the right to try to compensate but then it looks weird at the beginning of as line. Proportional figures solves the problem.

ChrisL

paul d hunt

i’m guessing that this has to do with most fonts coming standard with tabular figures. With OpenType fonts, you can have several sets of figures, proportional figures in addition to tabular figures. However, with your standard Postscript/TrueType font, the decision has to be made about which style of numerals will be most useful. Apparently in many cases this means tabular figures.

Chris Lozos

OK Paul, stop reading my mind :-)

ChrisL

Norbert Florendo

John D. Berry wrote a basic primer on traditional and the ever expanding variants of numeral design and spacing:
dot-font: Numbers Don’t Lie

I sez: “Call’em figgers, call’em numbas, if it don’t look right it probably ain’t”

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