they’re called lowercase numbers and they’re designed to look good in paragraph text. for example if you’re reading this comment, mentioning the year 1997 suddenly puts four full height characters as if I typed one word in all caps, while in lowercase numbers it would look more like if I typed the word iggy (1 is x height while 9 and 7 have descenders like g and y).
they’re not designed to be used in math or for longer number sequences. for that you have the full height (uppercase) numbers that most typeface should still have.
0123456789 in lowercase have the same heights as oizgjpbyfq - just as random as that word’s letter heights are. which is not random at all, you’re just not supposed to use it like that.
idk what you mean by universal; this is a typographical choice. the only reason you see more uppercase numbers everywhere is because of typewriters and by extension computers. I don’t think people make a point of lining numbers up with cap height in handwriting.
But we are speaking about a Computer Font right now, idk what that has to do with handwriting and who cares about handwriting in 2024. With universal i mean that any kind of number should look god, no matter if its a Telefon Number, a Price or a Street Number.
we’re not speaking about a computer font, we’re speaking about typography in general. the reason I mentioned them is because the ubiquity was forced by restrictions. we used to type non-english letters without diacritics before different languages got support online. now we don’t have those restrictions either. what you said is not universal; there are different kinds for different uses. just like uppercase and lowercase letters.
they’re called lowercase numbers and they’re designed to look good in paragraph text. for example if you’re reading this comment, mentioning the year 1997 suddenly puts four full height characters as if I typed one word in all caps, while in lowercase numbers it would look more like if I typed the word iggy (1 is x height while 9 and 7 have descenders like g and y).
they’re not designed to be used in math or for longer number sequences. for that you have the full height (uppercase) numbers that most typeface should still have.
0123456789 in lowercase have the same heights as oizgjpbyfq - just as random as that word’s letter heights are. which is not random at all, you’re just not supposed to use it like that.
Oh that makes sense, thanks for the information. Still would not want to use something thats not universal.
idk what you mean by universal; this is a typographical choice. the only reason you see more uppercase numbers everywhere is because of typewriters and by extension computers. I don’t think people make a point of lining numbers up with cap height in handwriting.
But we are speaking about a Computer Font right now, idk what that has to do with handwriting and who cares about handwriting in 2024. With universal i mean that any kind of number should look god, no matter if its a Telefon Number, a Price or a Street Number.
we’re not speaking about a computer font, we’re speaking about typography in general. the reason I mentioned them is because the ubiquity was forced by restrictions. we used to type non-english letters without diacritics before different languages got support online. now we don’t have those restrictions either. what you said is not universal; there are different kinds for different uses. just like uppercase and lowercase letters.