Tabular figures

[RuixiZhang42]

Currently Fira Math uses lining but proportional figures, as illustrated in the following example.

% Compile with XeLaTeX or LuaLaTeX
\documentclass{article}
% Fira Sans and Fira Math
\usepackage[sfdefault,lining,tabular]{FiraSans}
\usepackage[mathrm=sym]{unicode-math}
\setmathfont{Fira Math}
% newtx
%\usepackage{newtxtext}
%\usepackage{newtxmath}

\newcommand*{\measurewidth}[1]{{%
  $#1$: \setbox0=\hbox{$#1$}\the\wd0\relax}}

\begin{document}
Math: $2018$.\par
Text: 2018.\par
\measurewidth{0}\par
\measurewidth{1}\par
\measurewidth{2}\par
\measurewidth{3}\par
\measurewidth{4}\par
\measurewidth{5}\par
\measurewidth{6}\par
\measurewidth{7}\par
\measurewidth{8}\par
\measurewidth{9}
\end{document}

Although proportional figures are appropriate in text, tabular figures are more suitable for price lists, stock listings and sums in mathematics textbooks, etc. Try the newtxtext and newtxmath packages for a comparison. In general, proportional figures lead to misalignment within tables.

Note that the lining and tabular options of FiraSans causes text figures to be taken from Fira Mono, which is not desired.

I was wondering if, by default, math figures can be made “mono-spaced” by adjusting their bounding boxes; that is, using Fira Sans figures but with fixed glyph width.

[stone-zeng]

I don't think that using mono-spaced (or tabular) numbers in math mode is a good choice. But I can still add this feature, as well as the old style and tabular old style numbers.

By the way, FiraSans already has tabular numbers, and it looks like FiraMono (e.g. 1 has a serif), but not Fira Mono.

[sunnyssk]

As far as I notice, in MS Word, other math fonts like Latin Modern Math, Libertinus Math and Cambria Math all use monospaced numbers by default (in and out of math mode), and for LM Math the width is of exactly 1 \ensp, which makes them easy to be aligned in column. I do not know the details of the mapping, or whether it has something to do with the serif font style, but it seems not a bad idea to have monospaced numbers in math font by default?

[hvoss49]

Yes, monospaced numbers should always be the default, in text and in math Am Do., 2. Aug. 2018 um 17:00 Uhr schrieb sunnyssk <notifications@github.com

…

: As far as I notice, in MS Word, other math fonts like Latin Modern Math, Libertinus Math and Cambria Math all use monospaced numbers by default (in and out of math mode), and for LM Math the width is of exactly 1 \ensp, which makes them easy to be aligned in column. I do not know the details of the mapping, or whether it has something to do with the serif font style, but it seems not a bad idea to have monospaced numbers in math font by default? — You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#10 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AMS0PzUB6c796Jr-BPq3Qd3JP2pt4Iiqks5uMxQNgaJpZM4VrYo4> .

[stone-zeng]

Have checked several fonts. I will make the numbers to be mono-spaced by default then.

[RuixiZhang42]

Thank you for all the positive comments!

To clarify my original post, I was suggesting adjusting the bounding width (not the font). Right now, text tabular figures (old style and lining) are Fira Mono, while text proportional figures (old style and lining) are Fira Sans. IMHO, making mono-spaced math figures by changing figures to Fira Mono look-alike is a bad idea (e.g., the serif 1 in a sans font). The glyphs should stay the same except for their widths.

[stone-zeng]

Still I need to point out that, the tabular numbers in Fira Sans do look like that in Fira Mono, but they are actually not exactly identical (you may check the paths and points' position). Whether 1 has serif or not and whether 4 is closed or open, are both determined by the original design of Fira Sans.

You may try the following code, and I never use Fira Mono here:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setsansfont{FiraSans-Regular.otf}

\begin{document}
\sffamily

\verb|default   | 0123456789 \par
\verb|lnum      | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=Lining} 0123456789} \par
\verb|onum      | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=OldStyle} 0123456789} \par
\verb|pnum      | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=Proportional} 0123456789} \par
\verb|tnum      | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=Monospaced} 0123456789} \par
\verb|lnum+pnum | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=Lining,Numbers=Proportional} 0123456789} \par
\verb|onum+pnum | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=OldStyle,Numbers=Proportional} 0123456789} \par
\verb|lnum+tnum | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=Lining,Numbers=Monospaced} 0123456789} \par
\verb|onum+tnum | {\addfontfeature{Numbers=OldStyle,Numbers=Monospaced} 0123456789}

\end{document}

Anyway, I can add both serif/sans serif 1 and closed/open 4 as different stylistic sets.

[stone-zeng]

I hope this is what you want:

The code can be found in test/font-test.tex.

[RuixiZhang42]

This is more than perfect! I noticed the extra effort made to guarantee that bold figures share the same width with the regular ones.

Is the decimal point . (or , in some other countries) in regular and bold weights of the same width too?

[stone-zeng]

In Fira Math, period and . comma , have the same width (240/1000 em), but not the same as digits (560/1000 em). They do not have bold version (I mean in fira-math-regular).

In XITS Math and Latin Modern Math, the width of . and , is exactly one half of the digits, but I think it's more likely to be a design, rather than a convention or a standard.

[RuixiZhang42]

Thank you for the detailed explanation. I absolutely agree that it’s a matter of design. It doesn’t matter if . and , are of the same width with the digits, as long as they are consistent. You may want to make bold . and bold , to be 240/1000 em wide (in future releases like FiraMath-Bold).

[bwiernik]

I did not check the widths, but it would also be nice if mid space (U+2005) [or thin space (U+2009)] and narrow no-break space (U+202F) were also the same width and . and , to ensure consistency if the SI-standard space is used as a digit-group separator rather than . or ,.