It seems to me that it is simple logic that all table figures in a family align with each other across weights and styles (because they should all be able to occur and align within the same table), but when I check some well known typefaces (for example Charter) they do not have the same advance width across weights or styles.
What is the right thing to do?
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Comments
For reference, in Dover Text I did exactly that and, with a bit of massaging, it worked out well (page 15).
My Talapanna Font is like that.
Isn’t type design about doing what can’t be done? Squeeze or stretch, it’s all about making it work one way or the other.
If things get too dark, provide alts on a greater common width; ideally of a convenient proportion: like you could go 25% greater, and the user could squeeze it to 80% if they value the tabularity more than they mind the ugliness.
throwback time: when i was young i did my army duties. not everyone in my unit was of the same size (far from), but somehow we still did have more or less the same appearance because of our uniform. type design :-)