Hidden OpenType Font Features
We're exploring hidden OpenType font features. This guide will help you learn to access OpenType features used to modify figures in numbers in any Groteskly Yours Studio typeface.
OpenType Font Features: Figures & Numerals
Knowing how to access OpenType font features is a must-know skill for any modern designer. Commercial typefaces aren’t just tools for branding and design; they are sophisticated toolkits that type designers work on for months, ensuring the perfect combination of functionality and flair.
Because we work with type every day and think OpenType features are one of the most unappreciated things, we decided to write a comprehensive guide to help you uncover the hidden capabilities of your fonts and teach you how to use OpenType font features in your daily workflow.
In this first part, we’ll focus on figures and numbers and try to answer these questions:
- What are OpenType features?
- Why are there multiple sets of figures in a font?
- How do you use these various OpenType figures?
- How to choose a typeface with good OpenType font features?
- And, finally, why are OpenType features important?
Lining Figures
Most people think of lining figures as default figures. They closely resemble capital letters in height, proportion, and stroke width and can be used for various scenarios, from data sets and prices to price tags and street signs.
Lining Figures are often the go-to choice for scenarios where clarity and uniformity are paramount. They are designed to align perfectly with the height of uppercase letters, ensuring a clean and consistent appearance across various applications. You don't require any additional OpenType features to use them, as they are more often the default figure set in any typeface.
↑ Lader Regular
Tabular Figures
As the name suggests, tabular figures are used primarily in tables, airport and train schedules, price lists, and other similar contexts. The main feature of tabular figures is that they all have the same width, making vertical alignment much more manageable. You've encountered these figures every time you looked at your boarding pass or train schedule. For those interested in financial markets or cryptocurrencies, most financial websites use tabular figures by default.
In most contemporary graphic design apps, you can easily enable tabular figures by selecting your text frame and changing the Figure settings in the OpenType font features tab. For web designers, add “font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;” in your CSS, and you’re good to go.
It’s common to include tabular versions of punctuation marks often used alongside figures, such as commas, periods, colons, and parentheses. For example, the Lader type family features tabular punctuation marks for more straightforward layouts.
↑ Resist Mono Regular
Oldstyle Figures
You’ve likely encountered oldstyle figures more often than you realize, but their natural feel usually means they go unnoticed. Oldstyle figures are used primarily in running text because they seem less obtrusive than the default figure set. The positioning of oldstyle figures is quite varied, with 0, 1, 6, and 8 resting on the baseline, and 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 extending below it. Some figures are much lower than the rest (notice the shorter 2, for instance). It's more common to see oldstyle figures in serif typefaces. However, it's not unusual to include them in sans serif fonts.
Interestingly, despite generally being used alongside lowercase letters, oldstyle figures are typically taller than the x-height.
Adobe apps let you quickly switch between default and oldstyle figure sets in the OpenType Features tab. If you want to use oldstyle figures on the web, add “font-variant-numeric: oldstyle-nums;” to your CSS. However, remember that you may not like all numbers on your website to be changed into oldstyle figures, so be mindful when implementing this.
↑ Oktah Round Book
Tabular Oldstyle Figures
While this OpenType feature may be a bit more obscure and less common, it’s relatively easy to design and handy if you use many tables in your layout. Since all tabular figures have the same width, your numerical data will never look messy.
Despite their old-fashioned appearance, each numeral is uniformly wide, ensuring that columns of numbers line up perfectly. This meticulous alignment is crucial for maintaining clarity and preventing misinterpretation in data-heavy documents.
↑ Resist Mono Regular
Numerators and Denominators
If this sounds like something from your high school algebra class, it’s because it is. Numerators are any fraction's upper (and leftmost) part, while the denominator is the base (bottom) number. While most fonts include several pre-built fractions with separate Unicode values, you can quickly write fractions in just a few clicks if you know how to operate this feature effectively.
Fractions (the height of the numerator plus the denominator) ideally have the same height as capital letters. Numerators are aligned to the cap height, with overshoots generally smaller than default figures. Denominators rest on the baseline with overshoots identical to those of the numerators.
The size of small figures isn’t strictly regulated because it may vary greatly depending on the typeface's style and visual characteristics. Most typefaces in our library have small statistics at 50% of the default figure size, which seems a viable solution for most usages. Numerators and Denominators can be accessed from the OpenType font features tab.
↑ Lader Regular
Superiors and Inferiors
These little numbers look like numerators and denominators, but they have a different function, and their placement is also slightly different. Inferiors (subscript figures) and superiors (superscript figures) are used for chemical and mathematical formulas, among other things. Inferiors are placed somewhat lower than the baseline, and the superiors are positioned higher than capital letters.
With just a few clicks, you can avoid writing “two to the power of four” (or even 2^4) and easily type 2⁴. The best part is that most commercially available fonts from the Groteskly Yours Studio font library include these figures, so there’s no reason for you not to use them. As for the size of these figures, they are often just copies of fraction figures with an adjusted height.
When designing small figures, it’s important to adjust their weight proportionally. Simply resizing existing figures would result in super-skinny, tiny figures that aren’t very readable. The OpenType Features tab lets Designers access the Superior and Inferior figure sets.
↑ Arlen Narrow Light
Circled Figures
Working in a type design studio, you begin to adore designing symbols that bear no significance on the project but are seen as nice additions. Circular figures are just such characters. While the overall look of the typeface still binds you, there’s a degree of freedom in how you want these numerals to look.
Both black-and-white circled figures have dedicated Unicodes. However, some designers find having them in separate stylistic sets easier. This way, you can quickly turn them on and off in Figma and other apps without looking for them in the Glyphs panel. At Groteskly Yours Studio, we add circular figures as separate glyphs with unicodes or stylistic alternates to default figures, accessed through OpenType features.
↑ Resist Mono Regular
Finally, if you're wondering how to choose a typeface with extended OpenType font features, look no further. All fonts in the Groteskly Yours font library have various numbers and figures. Explore our font collection and specimens to see each font's character set.
OpenType Font Features: Figures & Numerals
Knowing how to access OpenType font features is a must-know skill for any modern designer. Commercial typefaces aren’t just tools for branding and design; they are sophisticated toolkits that type designers work on for months, ensuring the perfect combination of functionality and flair.
Because we work with type every day and think OpenType features are one of the most unappreciated things, we decided to write a comprehensive guide to help you uncover the hidden capabilities of your fonts and teach you how to use OpenType font features in your daily workflow.
In this first part, we’ll focus on figures and numbers and try to answer these questions:
- What are OpenType features?
- Why are there multiple sets of figures in a font?
- How do you use these various OpenType figures?
- How to choose a typeface with good OpenType font features?
- And, finally, why are OpenType features important?
Lining Figures
Most people think of lining figures as default figures. They closely resemble capital letters in height, proportion, and stroke width and can be used for various scenarios, from data sets and prices to price tags and street signs.
Lining Figures are often the go-to choice for scenarios where clarity and uniformity are paramount. They are designed to align perfectly with the height of uppercase letters, ensuring a clean and consistent appearance across various applications. You don't require any additional OpenType features to use them, as they are more often the default figure set in any typeface.
↑ Lader Regular
Tabular Figures
As the name suggests, tabular figures are used primarily in tables, airport and train schedules, price lists, and other similar contexts. The main feature of tabular figures is that they all have the same width, making vertical alignment much more manageable. You've encountered these figures every time you looked at your boarding pass or train schedule. For those interested in financial markets or cryptocurrencies, most financial websites use tabular figures by default.
In most contemporary graphic design apps, you can easily enable tabular figures by selecting your text frame and changing the Figure settings in the OpenType font features tab. For web designers, add “font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;” in your CSS, and you’re good to go.
It’s common to include tabular versions of punctuation marks often used alongside figures, such as commas, periods, colons, and parentheses. For example, the Lader type family features tabular punctuation marks for more straightforward layouts.
↑ Resist Mono Regular
Oldstyle Figures
You’ve likely encountered oldstyle figures more often than you realize, but their natural feel usually means they go unnoticed. Oldstyle figures are used primarily in running text because they seem less obtrusive than the default figure set. The positioning of oldstyle figures is quite varied, with 0, 1, 6, and 8 resting on the baseline, and 3, 4, 5, 7, and 9 extending below it. Some figures are much lower than the rest (notice the shorter 2, for instance). It's more common to see oldstyle figures in serif typefaces. However, it's not unusual to include them in sans serif fonts.
Interestingly, despite generally being used alongside lowercase letters, oldstyle figures are typically taller than the x-height.
Adobe apps let you quickly switch between default and oldstyle figure sets in the OpenType Features tab. If you want to use oldstyle figures on the web, add “font-variant-numeric: oldstyle-nums;” to your CSS. However, remember that you may not like all numbers on your website to be changed into oldstyle figures, so be mindful when implementing this.
↑ Oktah Round Book
Tabular Oldstyle Figures
While this OpenType feature may be a bit more obscure and less common, it’s relatively easy to design and handy if you use many tables in your layout. Since all tabular figures have the same width, your numerical data will never look messy.
Despite their old-fashioned appearance, each numeral is uniformly wide, ensuring that columns of numbers line up perfectly. This meticulous alignment is crucial for maintaining clarity and preventing misinterpretation in data-heavy documents.
↑ Resist Mono Regular
Numerators and Denominators
If this sounds like something from your high school algebra class, it’s because it is. Numerators are any fraction's upper (and leftmost) part, while the denominator is the base (bottom) number. While most fonts include several pre-built fractions with separate Unicode values, you can quickly write fractions in just a few clicks if you know how to operate this feature effectively.
Fractions (the height of the numerator plus the denominator) ideally have the same height as capital letters. Numerators are aligned to the cap height, with overshoots generally smaller than default figures. Denominators rest on the baseline with overshoots identical to those of the numerators.
The size of small figures isn’t strictly regulated because it may vary greatly depending on the typeface's style and visual characteristics. Most typefaces in our library have small statistics at 50% of the default figure size, which seems a viable solution for most usages. Numerators and Denominators can be accessed from the OpenType font features tab.
↑ Lader Regular
Superiors and Inferiors
These little numbers look like numerators and denominators, but they have a different function, and their placement is also slightly different. Inferiors (subscript figures) and superiors (superscript figures) are used for chemical and mathematical formulas, among other things. Inferiors are placed somewhat lower than the baseline, and the superiors are positioned higher than capital letters.
With just a few clicks, you can avoid writing “two to the power of four” (or even 2^4) and easily type 2⁴. The best part is that most commercially available fonts from the Groteskly Yours Studio font library include these figures, so there’s no reason for you not to use them. As for the size of these figures, they are often just copies of fraction figures with an adjusted height.
When designing small figures, it’s important to adjust their weight proportionally. Simply resizing existing figures would result in super-skinny, tiny figures that aren’t very readable. The OpenType Features tab lets Designers access the Superior and Inferior figure sets.
↑ Arlen Narrow Light
Circled Figures
Working in a type design studio, you begin to adore designing symbols that bear no significance on the project but are seen as nice additions. Circular figures are just such characters. While the overall look of the typeface still binds you, there’s a degree of freedom in how you want these numerals to look.
Both black-and-white circled figures have dedicated Unicodes. However, some designers find having them in separate stylistic sets easier. This way, you can quickly turn them on and off in Figma and other apps without looking for them in the Glyphs panel. At Groteskly Yours Studio, we add circular figures as separate glyphs with unicodes or stylistic alternates to default figures, accessed through OpenType features.
↑ Resist Mono Regular
Finally, if you're wondering how to choose a typeface with extended OpenType font features, look no further. All fonts in the Groteskly Yours font library have various numbers and figures. Explore our font collection and specimens to see each font's character set.