Hello type community!
First time poster here, although I've been a reader of the forums over the years. Thank you to the moderators/creators for making this site and keeping it going!
Question: do you make specialized numbers for small caps or just use regular cap height ones? I typically do but I'm not sure if it's something that customers actually want or just one of those things I think they want. Right now I have lining figures, old-style figures, small figures (superior/inferior for fractions and math) so there are plenty of options but nothing that perfectly aligns with the sc height.
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Comments
1. Omit figures from the <smcp> feature
2. Provide small-cap-lining figures in <c2sc> (both tab and proportional)
3. Where the font’s lining figures are 3/4 height, also provide cap height lining figures in the <case> feature. (If the default figures are oldstyle, <case> figures should still be lining, because that’s the OpenType spec, since an all cap setting with oldstyle figures is wack.)
If your default figures are lining, so should your <smcp> figures be (see 1 above).
The reason is that small caps are generally combined with U&lc setting, and it would be strange to have figures in your small caps text differ from those in the main U&lc text which surrounds it—small caps are different in size from caps, not in kind. Also, small cap lining figures are quite small-looking, due to their narrowness, so are too slight when mixed into U&lc (compare with OSF 1, 2 and 0 in running U&lc text).
A typical (though not common) use of All Small Caps with same height lining figures would be a table or chart, in which tab setting might occur. This was an example presented to me at Typedrawers when I questioned the necessity of making tabular All Small Caps figures. (Sorry, can’t find the page.)
Here is one of the more elaborate numeral treatments I’ve put in a typeface, Goodchild.
Therefore, for old style typefaces, with their many broad letter forms, roman numerals are of course most appropriate in an all cap setting!
The best scenario for mixing numerals with all caps is, in my experience, in a condensed or semi-condensed type style.
This example from the 1860s in the state of New York.
I also typically include tabular lining and proportional lining. It's funny to see the number category so immense for only 10 glyphs, and I've never known whether it's worth it or not.
Thanks everyone for your input!!