FIRA SANS number 1 bigger than other numbers in Indesign and PDF but prints a bit smaller!

Forum|Forum|7 months ago
August 27, 2025
2 replies
904 views

I have formatted at 700 page document for a company book. Their in-house style is Fira Sans. I downloaded this typeface from Adobe. The number 1 is larger than the other numbers throughout the document when looking at the document at 100%. I thought this was the style but looking it up online it says the numbers should all be the same height and in fact when I increase the size to 300% hey presto all the number are the same size. BUT when printing the pages the number 1 looks sightly smaller than the other numbers and the number 2 is slightly bigger! What is going on?! First screen shot from Indesign at 100% and second at 300% and third close up photo of printed numbers. The numbers are all at 100% in Indesign on their vertical and horizontal.

rob day

Community Expert

Hi @Wilton PublishingServices , When you select all the numbers are they set as the same figure style in the Open Type menu?

W

Wilton PublishingServicesAuthor

Known Participant

yes that one but also I see Contextual Alternates is ticked but I understand this is to ensurethat it "improves the connection and overall appearance of text, especially in connected scripts or specific character sequences. By analyzing the characters surrounding a particular glyph, this feature selects the most harmonious alternative from the font's available glyph set, ensuring smoother and more natural-looking letterforms."

Could that be a problem though? I don't really understand glyphs to be honest. But I think numbers are classed as glyphs in wich case you would think this would make the numbers even!

Should I untick Contextual Alternates. I just want to be sure it won't completely change the layout of 700 pages in 9 point text! And if I do untick it how do I do it for all of that typeface or can I just untick it for the numbers?

rob day

Community Expert

yes that one but also I see Contextual Alternates is ticked

In your screenshot it doesn’t look like any text is selected?

A document’s texts or a selection could have a mix of figure styles—this selection has 3 different figure styles applied:

leo.r

Community Expert

Is it possible you have other versions of this font installed somewhere else on your machine (in other font folders)? Also, by saying "I downloaded this typeface from Adobe", do you mean that you activated it via Adobe Fonts?

leo.r

Community Expert

...and what are your InDesign and operating system versions?

W

Wilton PublishingServicesAuthor

Known Participant

I subscribe to Creative Cloud Pro so have the latest version and my MAC is macOS ventura Version 13.7.6 (22H625)

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