# [NTG-context] oldstyle figures

Eckhart Guthöhrlein eckhart.guthoehrlein at uni-bielefeld.de
Tue Apr 19 09:56:57 CEST 2005

On Mon, 18 Apr 2005 at 16:30:04-0600, Idris Samawi Hamid wrote:
> >So, how to tell \digits to use oldstyle
> >figures, and/or how to make them the math mode default?
>
> Since it switches to math mode, one has to reencode the math fonts, i guess.
> In the meantime:
>
>  \def\OSdigits#1{\digits{\os#1}}
>
>  \OSdigits{1234}

Unfortunately not. It works in text mode, but produces a bunch of errors
in math mode. \digits doesn't seem to like \os in its argument. This
definition works here for now:

\def\OSdigits#1{\ifmmode{\os\digits{#1}}\else\digits{\os#1}\fi}

> should do everything you need: since u're not mixing text in \digits do you
> really need a global math font reencoding?

In principle yes. For example, $f(x)=3x+7$ should come out with oldstyle
figures, if these are used by default, shouldn't it?
Btw, striving for good typography, in which cases should oldstyle
figures *not* be used?

Best regards,
--
Eckhart