Design tip bits

When printing was still being done using letterpresses there were two types of numerals available Tabular and Old style. Tabular The characters have the same width (occupying the same space). Tabular numerals are typically used to set material in which columns of characters must align vertically with one another. Old style numerals Numerals that do not align with one another as the tabular numerals do, but instead mainly occupy the x-height, with some numerals extending above the top of the x-height and some below the baseline. Old style was used for text and Tabular was used for price lists and forms etc. Along came DTP and we only had digital versions of fonts. Most of these typefaces only used tabular characters. This did not result in great looking design, the numbers were far too big and prominent on the page. Take a look at the following examples. You must admit that the second line looks a lot better. When InDesign was introduced, especially Open Type, classical typesetting c...