Typophile

Numbers that extend beyond bounds?

MrPumpernickel

Hey.

Yeah, I guess the subjet line is worded a bit weird. What I’m looking for is if there is a term for the type design feature where certain numbers, most commonly 3,4,5,6,7,8 and 9, extends below the baseline or above the mean line whereas 0, 1 and 2 stays the same size as lowercase letters? Such as in the examples in the attachment.

If anyone could recommend some (or a whole slew) of fonts with that design feature, either serif or sans serif fonts, I’d be most happy. Thanks!

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BEH

I think you’re looking for Oldstyle numerals. Most professional fonts should have them, especially serif fonts (if you have Adobe software, you’ll probably have at least a Garamond Premier/Adobe Garamond, Myriad, Arno, Caslon, Chaparral, Constantia, Consolas, Georgia (cool, didn’t know that one!), Jenson, Minion...). Those are just from a quick scroll-through. Personally I’m quite fond of Garamond, Jenson, Arno, and Myriad.

A more experienced type-nerd could give you more specialized recommendations.

Stephen Coles

Bethany is right. Most text fonts contain oldstyle and lining figures. So I would first look for the typeface that is right for your project. More about figurestyles.

MrPumpernickel

Awesome link that, many thanks, both of you!

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