Lowercase Hashtag?

Rodrigo Saiani
Rodrigo Saiani Posts: 78
in Technique and Theory
Do you think it's worthwhile to include one in your typeface?
What's your take on this?
Just wondering.
Thanks!
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Comments

  • Michael Jarboe
    Michael Jarboe Posts: 265
    I've recently included one in an in-progress typeface along with many other oldstyle figure, currency, and math symbols. And yes, I'd say it's worth it as these additional glyphs harmonize much better set amongst lowercase and oldstyle figures.
  • Chris Lozos
    Chris Lozos Posts: 1,458
    I make a set including poundsign to fit small caps but the user may  decide to use them with lower case.
  • Max Phillips
    Max Phillips Posts: 474
    If the face has oldstyle figures, I include hashtags, percents, perthousands, and currency symbols to match.  But these don't match lc x-height; they match whatever x-height the oldstyle figures have.
  • James Puckett
    James Puckett Posts: 1,998
    But these don't match lc x-height; they match whatever x-height the oldstyle figures have.

    Do they really need to? How often does someone use # to refer to weight in running text? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen # used with numbers in text. I don’t think I’ve even seen it used to represent weight since I was a young child. But I see it used with letters to refer to twitter hash tags all the time.

  • Jack Jennings
    Jack Jennings Posts: 151
    edited February 2016
    Surely it's not a stretch of the imagination to imagine someone writing #1234 to mean e.g. stock number 1234 or some such?
  • Mark Simonson
    Mark Simonson Posts: 1,739
    Not to mention rankings (e.g., #1, #2, #3). I rarely see it used for pounds anymore.
  • Miles Newlyn
    Miles Newlyn Posts: 252
    edited February 2016
    deleted
  • Max Phillips
    Max Phillips Posts: 474
    But these don't match lc x-height; they match whatever x-height the oldstyle figures have.

    Do they really need to? How often does someone use # to refer to weight in running text? I’m not sure I’ve ever seen # used with numbers in text. I don’t think I’ve even seen it used to represent weight since I was a young child. But I see it used with letters to refer to twitter hash tags all the time.

    Well, I use # to refer to the basis weight of paper stocks all the time when I'm talking to printers. And as Jack and Mark say, I want people to be able to use an octothorpe as a number sign as well.  But no, like a lot of things type designers do, I guess it's not strictly necessary. Not much trouble, though.

    BTW, I realize I shouldn't have said "match".  I wanted to say that the os # and currency symbols needed to harmonize w/ the x-height of the os figs; to my eye, that usually means being a bit larger than their x-height.

  • Nick Shinn
    Nick Shinn Posts: 2,216
    edited February 2016
    I don’t see the logic in “old-style-figure” x-height symbols.

    Why is it considered harmonization?—only 30% of old style figures are “x-height”, and having a cap/ascender-height hashtag in front of a few figures is rather like a mixed-case word where the initial letter is capitalized, which is an attractive arrangement with the suggestion of unique importance that such capitalization confers on proper nouns—surely an appropriate signification for a number. As a pseudo-capital glyph, the hashtag similarly serves to distinguish Twitter expressions, especially in series.

    My preferred alternate treatment for the hashtag is as a superior glyph, and I also like that style for the /$ symbol. In fact I’ve made it the default in several of my less conventional typefaces.

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