3 ms·
> I wouldn't call them uppercase and lowercase numerals. That suggest a functionality of those numerals that isn't true. Well, the terms "uppercase" and "lower
by dghf 9y ago
> I wouldn't call them uppercase and lowercase numerals. That suggest a functionality of those numerals that isn't true.
Well, the terms "uppercase" and "lowercase" come from movable-type printing. The individual slugs bearing capital letters were kept in a separate case, positioned behind and above the case holding the small letters: hence literally the upper and lower cases.
So, for a font with both titling and old-style figures, if the titling figures were kept in the same case as the capital letters and the old-style figures in the same case as the small letters, then referring to them as uppercase and lowercase respectively would be technically correct.
But I don't know whether that's the practice.
- eddyg 9y agoDrawing of printer's "upper case" and "lower case" (although unfortunately it does not show titling and old-style figures in the different cases): http://imgur.com/gallery/fAvUg http://imgur.com/gallery/fAvUg
- dghf 9y agoThe Wikipedia article on old-style figures [0] gives the impression there was something of a religious war between their proponents and the proponents of titling figures when the latter were first introduced (with words like 'preposterous' being thrown about), so maybe it was rare or even unknown for fonts to contain both before the advent of digital typesetting. In the drawing you link to, are those small caps on the left side of the upper case? [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_figures https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Text_figures