Typophile

Clarendon with text/oldstyle figures

john_svatek

I've been looking for a Clarendon-style font that has text/oldstyle figures. The closest I've been able to come is Caslon (which has no ball terminals, is too elegant), a slab serif like Joanna (not really close at all), and New Caledonia (not *too* bad) but I'd like a real one. (ps

PMN Caecilia comes semi-close, except for how it's more of a mono-width font than a "true" egyptian like Clarendon. Aside from that, I think you're out of luck. Most of the Egyptian revivals appear to be based on woodcut types (and so are digitized without too many extras), with the exception of Clarendon, and all of the versions / knockoffs of Clarendon I was able to find have lining figures.

Maybe you could borrow old-style figures from a similarly weighted serif typeface like Cheltenham?

(Farao doesn't answer your question, as it has contemporary figures, but it sure is cute, so I thought I'd throw it in anyway. I love Storm!)

Forrest,

Thanks for the Farao tip--it has some interesting quirks. Unfortunately, I don't know of any Cheltenhams (I have ITC and Bitstream) that have OSF. Even New Century Schoolbook Fractions (logically) has no OSF. New Caledonia comes closest (It has teardrop terminals instead of ball terminals and an arabic 1.) I guess I'll just have to use Century in a historically appropriate manner. SIgh, . . .

So after ten years since the original post, I am wondering if there is a version of Clarendon (or a design similar to it) with Oldstyle figures now? I love Clarendon so much, but I simply can not do the lining numbers, it hurts in a paragraph. Please help and tell me there is a recent design I am missing on.

Thank you in advance!

Aside from the already-posted Clarendon Text, my favorite choice for this would be Sentinel, by Hoefler & Co.

Oh yes! I love it! Thank you! So excited!

Oh yes! I love it! Thank you! So excited!

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