Talk:Text figures

message: Interestingly, oldstyle numerals are called nautical numerals (cyfry nautyczne) in Polish. I am wondering if there is deeper reason behind it. Przepla 20:40, 26 Oct 2004 (UTC)
thread_title: Polish name

message: The French and Spanish names refer to the numbers as "elzevirians" which implies they are somehow related to the Elzevir family of Dutch printers.  However, the article doesn't touch the issue at all... is there really a connection?  -- Rune Welsh ταλκ 21:16, July 21, 2005 (UTC)
["Elzevir" link fixed by Florian Blaschke (talk) 12:33, 16 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  "elzevirian" 

message: "Some typographers disagree with these opinions, and maintain that a skilled typesetter can do an adequate, if not superior, job using text figures."  It's unclear to me what "these opinions" refers to--does it refer to the statement in the immediately preceding sentence that line figures work better in certain environments, or to the statements in the rest of the paragraph that text figures work better in certain environments?  The clause "...maintain that..." leads me to believe the latter, but I had to read this paragraph several times to understand. Mcswell (talk) 00:03, 7 February 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Unclear 

message: I have toned down the claims in the article that were suggesting that text figures practically disappeared in the 20th century, because they seem quite dubious to me.  In an unscientific test (i.e. looking at random books from my shelves), text figures and lining figures seem to be roughly equally represented throughout the 20th century; in particular, nearly every book I have from the 1960s and 1970s uses text figures, as do many of those from the 1990s.
The implication is that if text figures ever "nearly died out", that can only have been during the 1980s (a decade I can't immediately find any books from), which is very different from the extreme picture the article was painting.  It's likely that my collection is not representative (it has a heavy bias towards academic presses), but it still seems hard to justify the previous wording... — Haeleth Talk 14:40, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Your impression seems similar to mine: that text figures started disappearing in the 1970s, and that by the present-day, we've reached the point that lining figures are far and away the default, with text figures standing out as unusual whenever they are used. Regardless, whatever the case may be, we really need to find an outside authority, align this article with what it says, and cite it (per WP:CITE). Ruakh 16:54, 8 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Computer Modern Roman includes text figures somewhere in the OT-1 encoded version, so a LaTex switch somewhere in teh style file would be enough to use text figures in a LaTeX document. (Although this is probably inapropriate in most cases, since math is better in lining figures, even though text figures are better elsewhere). Anything non-mathematical I do I use text figures in for improved readability. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 150.101.102.188 (talk) 16:08, 10 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nearly died out in C20th? 

message: For reference, in LaTeX, these are produced with \oldstylenums{1234567890}. —Ben FrantzDale 18:19, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Cool! Sadly, that doesn't seem to work in MediaWiki's TEX implementation (<math> tags on Wikipedia). —RuakhTALK 19:15, 21 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  LaTeX 

message: In Tamla Motown's famous 45r.p.m. logo printed on their singles, the '5' drops well below the '4' and is not as high making it look as though '4' has an ascender and '5' has a decender. Is this a popular example of text figures or just to make the symbol look cool? It would be unusual, as far as I can tell from the text, for '4' to be an ascender. Wish wellingtons 10:38, 26 July 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Tamla Motown 45s 

message: The links lining figures and titling figures should not redirect to this article (text figures). That makes no sense, since they are different things. If those terms redirect to this article, the article should be renamed to something more general and rewritten to contain all types of figures (more than the small mentions they get now). If not, then lining figures needs its own article. Typehigh (talk) 01:06, 10 October 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: Is there enough information on Lining to warrant its own article, or should this article be modified to reflect both?--Vox Rationis (Talk | contribs) 21:21, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
replies: text:  Well, that is what I was wondering about. Personally I think the article should be rewritten to contain both figure types (and thus let the redirects in place). Typehigh (talk) 17:22, 13 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Lining or Titling figures 

message: : ... the types cut by the Didot family of punchcutters and type designers in France between the late 18th and early 19th centuries ...
That article seems to say that Firmin Didot (1764–1836) should get most of the blame. —Tamfang (talk) 18:21, 5 December 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Didot family 

message: I wonder if any proper tyopgraphers out there could add something to the article about modern use of and perspectives on text figures. Clearly, they are less commonly seen now than in many old books, no doubt in part to the rise of poor-quality computer typesetting, but are there major publishers, newspapers or academic journals that use them routinely and not just when seeking a certain look? Are there commonly expressed views amongst typographers on when they are appropriate and when not? For example, I've recently started using LaTeX and was pleased to have the opportunity to use text figures, but they didn't look right next to scientific units and I ended up scrapping them from my document completely rather than using them inconsistently. That was my view, but what do the professionals and knowledgeable amateurs think about text figures? Beorhtwulf (talk) 20:36, 27 February 2011 (UTC)
thread_title: Modern use

message: Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to  on Text figures. Please take a moment to review my edit. If necessary, add  after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add  to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
*Added archive https://web.archive.org/20110415004821/http://home.vr-web.de/was/x/FPL/ to http://home.vr-web.de/was/x/FPL/
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
Cheers.—cyberbot IITalk to my owner:Online 06:47, 9 January 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  External links modified 

message: Another important design axis for figures is proportional versus tabular widths. While a discussion of these options does not belong in this article (it should get its own), they should be mentioned. Currently, the only place where I could find an overview is on the Typeface page:
Numbers can be typeset in two main independent sets of ways: lining and non-lining figures, and proportional and tabular styles.
and
The horizontal spacing of digits can be proportional, with a character width tightly matching the width of the figure itself, or tabular, where all digits have the same width.
 92.70.15.154 (talk) 09:14, 26 October 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proportional and tabular figures 

message: Since "Lining Figures" redirects here, at least some people expect this page to discuss BOTH kinds of figures - ranging and text.
As the comment above points out, the other choice about figures is proportional or fixed width.
I propose we rename this article and make it complete with an examination of all four alternatives. ZoneAlarm5 (talk) 21:26, 29 May 2024 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rename and make complete