What’s on the Figures & Small Caps poster
A 6-row table: Variant · Use it for.
OpenType variants, selected rather than typed.
- Lining figures — Setting beside capitals, and tables
- Old-style figures — Numbers inside running text
- Tabular figures — Columns that have to align
- Proportional figures — Running text, evenly spaced
- Small caps — Acronyms and abbreviations in text
- Faux small caps — Nothing; the strokes come out too pale
Scaling capitals down is not small caps: the strokes thin, and the letters look pale beside the text around them.
Questions about the Figures & Small Caps poster
- What’s on the Figures & Small Caps poster?
- A 6-row table: Variant · Use it for. OpenType variants, selected rather than typed. Lining figures — Setting beside capitals, and tables; Old-style figures — Numbers inside running text; Tabular figures — Columns that have to align; Proportional figures — Running text, evenly spaced; Small caps — Acronyms and abbreviations in text; Faux small caps — Nothing; the strokes come out too pale. Scaling capitals down is not small caps: the strokes thin, and the letters look pale beside the text around them.
- Who is the Figures & Small Caps poster for?
- Figures & Small Caps belongs to the Art & Design section rather than to a school year, because design is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning typography can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Figures & Small Caps poster?
- Use it when numbers in text look shouty or a column of figures will not line up. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Figures & Small Caps belongs on the wall where that design work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Figures & Small Caps?
- The Baseline Grid, Dashes & Quotes and Justified & Ragged sit alongside Figures & Small Caps in the Art & Design section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.The Baseline GridDashes & QuotesJustified & Ragged
- Is the Figures & Small Caps poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Figures & Small Caps downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Art & Design section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Figures & Small Caps poster print at?
- Figures & Small Caps is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Figures & Small Caps loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Figures & Small Caps on the same wall.
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