Oldstyle currencies?

Jasper de Waard · December 2016

I know that a lot of typedesigners include down-sized currency symbols to work with the oldstyle numerals, but it always looks a bit odd to me. I feel like it makes sense from a typedesigner's perspective, but it's maybe too unusual for people to actually use it. Do you include them? Do you have examples where it does work?

FS Brabo is one of my favourites, but this £ isn't really working for me. It just seems awkwardly small:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/pq/0twemc97ndwn.png

Christian Thalmann · December 2016

Cap-sized currencies definitely look weird around x-high OSFs, though. I used to draw x-high currencies for OSFs, but that looked weird as well. These days, I make them at small-cap height.

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/nu/m6w5szu36plr.png

Jasper de Waard · December 2016

Interesting compromise, but it still looks weirdly small to me. Could you show an example at cap height? To me, these look fine:

Christian Thalmann · December 2016

It doesn't work so well with a lower x-height, especially when the number after the currency is really small:

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/5019405/uploads/editor/69/087uzpgkzcgb.png

I agree my current solution looks rather tiny. I might have to adopt something like (x-height + ascender)/2.

Jasper de Waard · December 2016

I think the tall version looks good, since the 6 and 8 have (I expect) roughly the same height. but others might disagree. In any case, there's little use for making a formula like that. Just do as your eyes tell you!

attar · December 2016

I like how it is in Source Serif Pro, that works with both lining and oldstyle figures so you don't need to change currencies.

Nick Shinn · December 2016

I include them in <c2sc>.
The only characters I put in <smcp> are lower case letters.

I’m quite partial to the fully extended, “thorny” sterling, cf Baskerville—how British is that?!—; here in Oneleigh I designed separate Sterling and figures for each of <case>, default (incl. <smcp>), and <c2sc> (All Small Caps):

Nick Shinn · December 2016

And don’t forget the Superior option.

Jasper de Waard · December 2016

@Nick Shinn Those are nice examples! But, can I deduce from this that you don't differ the currencies between oldstyle and lining?

Christian Thalmann · December 2016

Hmmm, I'm beginning to warm up for that cap-sized £ among the OSF. I might ban my tiny version to C2SC, then, as Nick does.

BTW, that flamboyant supertall £ is quite a sight!

I don't think I could pull it off in my current fonts, though.

Oh, and Nick, I've always wondered — how do you pronounce Oneleigh? I tend toward [ˈwʌnˌleɪ] in my head...

Lucas de Groot · December 2016

BTW, that flamboyant supertall £ is quite a sight!

I love the second one, big, also for all caps and small caps. Rotate your screen, it's a J from the italic font, as practiced in hot metal, it saves time and explains the below baseline position.

Nick Shinn · December 2016

I have no idea how Oneleigh is supposed to be pronounced, I found the name (of an ancient house) in a short story written by the Irish author Lord Dunsany in the early 20th century.