Inter 4.0 not rendering tabulated numbers in Google Sheets

[interactyugal]

Hey there,

rsms/inter#728 (comment)

I've run into an issue with Inter 4.0 being used in Google Sheets via Google Fonts -
https://github-production-user-asset-6210df.s3.amazonaws.com/166996779/356088172-9aae79b5-d3a1-4e37-9ae8-6f882430efbf.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAVCODYLSA53PQK4ZA%2F20240808%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240808T051157Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Signature=054164461dc829521bd474f89b936c6437e0d4623f18159bf35a2cbdbb5782ea&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&actor_id=166996779&key_id=0&repo_id=101033179

For some reason, it's not showing tabulated numbers properly in Google Sheets -
https://github-production-user-asset-6210df.s3.amazonaws.com/166996779/356088271-b753d75e-93b1-44b8-8067-fe453ab0e058.png?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=AKIAVCODYLSA53PQK4ZA%2F20240808%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20240808T051232Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Signature=d75dfc3c9f0283e34e41171b494ade5e7be9e83be63622669dceced25dc2912d&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&actor_id=166996779&key_id=0&repo_id=101033179

How to reproduce -

Open a Google Sheets file -
Set the font to Inter - Inter 4.0
Enter some tabulated numbers.
Check out the weird rendering.
What I expected -

Tabulated numbers should look right - it was working right, until Google Sheets was using Inter 3.19
Would love it if you could take a look and see what's up!

Thanks a ton!

[m4rc1e]

Thanks for reporting. It seems that the default figures in Inter 4 are proportional, not tabular. @davelab6 Do we always want tabular figures to be the default?

[kenmcd]

Inter 3 also had proportional figures.
So there is no change in Inter 4.

Here is the Inter-Regular v3.019 web font from 2024-08-01.
(I was watching the update of Inter for the Affinity forum).
UcC73FwrK3iLTeHuS_fvQtMwCp50KnMa1ZL7.(v3.019).zip
Inter from 2024-08-07 is now v4.001.
UcC73FwrK3iLTeHuS_nVMrMxCp50SjIa1ZL7W0I5nvwU.(v4.001).zip
Inter 4 also has proportional figures.

There was a change of UPM from
2816 in v3.019 to
2048 in v4.001.
Wonder if that had an effect.
Should not have an effect.
(I cannot see the docs above to see what is happening).

[interactyugal]

Hey,

I've attached screenshots comparing the number rendering in the Inter and Arial fonts -

Inter

Arial

These images illustrate the differences in how numbers are displayed between the two fonts.

Please review and let me know if further action is needed.

[kenmcd]

Inter default figures are Proportional Lining (and always have been).
So the screenshot looks correct.

Arial default figures are Tabular Lining.
So the screenshot looks correct.
But, Arial has bug where the default tabular 1 has kerning applied to it when there is more than one 1 next to each other.
MicrosoftDocs/typography-issues#1097
Just checked Arial v7.01 from Win11 and the bug is still there.
Normally tabular figures need to have kerning turned Off to look correct.
If you look closely at your Arial example screenshot you can see a few places where this is happening.

As a work-around you can use other fonts which do have tabular figures as the default figures.

• Roboto
• Source Sans 3
• IBM Plex Sans
• Recursive
• etc.

[interactyugal]

So do you see this to be resolved for both Arial and Inter either at font level or app level in the near feature?

If no, then I would have to switch to Arial.

[kenmcd]

So do you see this to be resolved for both Arial and Inter either at font level or app level in the near feature?

No.

The Inter developer likes the default figures as they are as proportional and is not going to change them to tabular. Inter does have tabular figures available in the OpenType features. The problem is Google Docs, or actually Google Fonts, does not support these OpenType features.

Regarding Arial... I have no idea when, or if, they will fix this.
Glaciers seem to move faster.
Some things seem to get fixed fairly quickly (like the Aptos crazy PostScript Names), but other stuff just seems to sit there.
So I would not bet on it happening any time soon (already been 8+ months).

Roboto is your best bet right now.

[interactyugal]

For some legacy reasons, I have decided to switch to Arial.

Fingers crossed - hope Arial fixes the tabular numbering with 1.

Thanks for now!