Using OpenType oldstyle number 'mediaeval-numbers'

[Kaj E. Ozolins]

Subject: Using OpenType oldstyle number 'mediaeval-numbers'


Hi Everyone,

does anyone know how-to use oldstyle figures ('mediaeval numbers') coming with
OpenType-Fonts like Adobe Myriad Pro in Word more efficently?

At the moment there seems to be no other option than to paste the appropriate
number via Charmap or save a mediaeval number in an autotext or to automaticall
replace via auto-correction-function (e.g. '#1' with mediaeval 1) or so.

What's needed (but is not not available as a function), for example, would be a
paragraph-style that shows all numbers as mediaeval-numbers instead of regular
numbers -- or anything similar.

Any idea is very much appreciated, thanks in advance,

Kaj

 

[Jezebel]

My copy of Myriad Pro (from Adobe Font Folio) doesn't have mediaeval numbers
in it -- it's a rather elegant sans serif. Perhaps there's something else
going on?

 

[Kaj E. Ozolins]

Jezebel, no -- in other programs, like Adobe InDesign, we have special styles
defined, formatting numbers as oldstyle figures. Word doesn't seem to support
that special OpenType-function.

Try to open your (OpenType) Myriad in the basic Windows Charmap, look in
Unicode-view! anywhere around chars U-F643 to U-F64C... there they should be:
your mediaeval numbers (and according currency-chars).

Kaj



Mail von Jezebel am 05.08.2005 11:04:

 

[Jezebel]

Mystery. Using Windows character map to look at MyriadPro-Regular.otf,
U-F643 to D-F64C do indeed contain digits, but in ordinary Myriad Pro (ie
same as U0030-U0039), not in any medieval face.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Kaj,

The medieval number set is in the 'private use area'
of the Minion/Myriad Open Type (.OTF) fonts [included
with the download of Adobe Acrobat Reader v7 but not
automatically installed] as it's one of those character
sets proposed but not yet (as I recall) adopted as a
Unicode subset.

As you mentioned in graphics apps such as InDesign
setting a particular graphics style to include a particular
set of glyphs is more readily available.
In Word you can insert the individual characters by
typing its Unicode value then Alt+X (i.e. F641+AltX) with
text set as Myriad or Minion would give you a Medieval '9'
but Word doesn't do a 'lookup' of alternates to what the
font has set as the standard Latin area '9' character.

If it was a specific Language area of the font you could
do it by the style definition and you can do it by setting
up autocorrect entries as you mentioned to replace each standard digit with
the Medieval digit from a specific font, but then it applies
to any '9' (for example) you'd type in.

You could do it through a macro or Edit=>Replace as well,
but the only 'easy'? method that comes to mind would be
if you used a font that had the Medieval numbers look
(top of characters all line up then 'drop from the top')
and applied that or copy and paste as text-graphics into Word.

I didn't have time to experiment with it, but as Word can
attach a CSS style sheet it might be possible to approach
through that method, but I think it's the 'Private Use' area
that's going to get in the way of making this simple for Word.

==============
Jezebel, no -- in other programs, like Adobe InDesign, we have special styles
defined, formatting numbers as oldstyle figures. Word doesn't seem to support
that special OpenType-function.

Try to open your (OpenType) Myriad in the basic Windows Charmap, look in
Unicode-view! anywhere around chars U-F643 to U-F64C... there they should be:
your mediaeval numbers (and according currency-chars).

Kaj >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx