Inconsistent Sizing in 3-Digit Superscripted Footnote Numbers

[Abigail0616]

I'm a typesetter at an academic publisher—so I work with a lot of long documents with many footnotes.

Recently, we're encountering a strange error when using one of our frequently-used body typefaces, Ten Oldstyle: when we reach 3-numeral, superscripted footnote numbers, the third numeral is often larger than the first two numerals. But not always (see screenshots).

We've tried changing the numeral style from oldstyle to normal and back, and manually applying the superscript vs. using a character style, but nothing seems to help. I experimented with other typefaces, and others (e.g., Garamond Premier Pro, Baskerville) also have the same problem, but not all others have issues (random sample—Freight Display and Times were fine).

Appreciate any help that the community or Adobe can offer!

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[Anshul_Saini]

Hi @Abigail0616,

Thank you for reaching out about the sizing issue with your footnote numbers. It sounds like a frustrating challenge, especially when working with long documents where consistency is key.

This kind of problem with superscripted numerals can sometimes occur due to the way certain typefaces handle numeral styles and scaling, particularly with oldstyle figures. Here are a few suggestions to troubleshoot this issue further:

1. In InDesign, select the text and check the OpenType panel (Window > Type & Tables > Character> Hamburger menu>  OpenType) to see if any features, such as “Contextual Alternates” or “Stylistic Sets” might be affecting the numeral display.

2. Sometimes, overrides can cause unexpected behavior. Here is a short tutorial on how to clear overrides.(https://adobe.ly/3NO4lVf)

3. As a last resort, try copying the text into a new InDesign document. Sometimes, documents can have hidden formatting issues that can be resolved this way.

If these suggestions don’t resolve the issue, please share more details about your InDesign version and any additional settings you may be using. We are here to help!

Best,

Anshul Saini

[Abigail0616]

Thanks @Anshul_Saini ! Unfortunately those troubleshooting suggestions didn't help this time. The suggestion below re: the world-ready paragraph composer did help, but that messes up the other alphabets/languages in my text.

I'm running InDesign 19.0, the English Hebrew version

[jmlevy]

This is has been reported a few times. Switch from Adobe world-ready paragraph composer to Adobe paragraph composer (in the justification settings).

[Abigail0616]

Thanks, that does seem to fix the footnote numbering problem! 

However, in the type of books we're typesetting, the text frequently includes Greek/Hebrew/other foreign languages. When I change the paragraph composer, the words in other alphabets no longer align properly. Between the two bad options, we would probably opt for the strangely sized footnote numbers...

Any solutions besides changing the paragraph composer (do we know why that is causing this problem?)

[Rancher_2979]

I am having the exact same problem, and am also using Arabic, Hebrew, and Syriac (English Arabic version of InDesign). As soon as I use Adobe world-ready composer (paragraph or single line), the 2nd and 3rd digit of a footnote reference no longer uses Opentype Superscript but just the normal one set on the baseline. (Turning off word-ready composition is not an option as the Arabic and Syriac text will be destroyed.)

However, if I don't use Opentype Superscripts but just "normal" superscripts, the footnote reference is fine, but ugly. There does not seem to currently be away out of this.

[Abhishek Rao]

Hi @Rancher_2979,

I understand how challenging it can be to maintain consistent formatting, especially with multilingual documents. It sounds like you’re facing a similar issue with footnote references when using the Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer.

Given your need for maintaining correct formatting for Arabic and Syriac text, one potential solution is to manually adjust the footnote reference numbers. You can:

1. Instead of relying on OpenType superscript, create a dedicated character style for your footnote numbers. This way, you can apply the superscript formatting manually, ensuring it retains consistency across all numerals.
2. After applying the character style for the superscripts, you may need to slightly adjust the tracking (space between the characters) or scale of the third numeral to match the first two. You can achieve this by selecting the specific numeral and adjusting the settings in the Character panel.
3. If you have many footnotes, you can automate the application of character styles by using GREP styles. Set up a GREP style that targets the footnote numbers and applies the character style for superscript automatically.
4. If the above methods don’t yield satisfactory results, you might also try layering the text boxes. Create one text frame for the regular text and another for the superscript numbers, adjusting their position as needed.

While these methods require some manual intervention, they can provide a way to maintain the integrity of your multilingual text while addressing the sizing issue with the footnote references.

I hope this helps! If you have any further questions or need additional assistance, feel free to reach out.

Thanks, 

Abhishek Rao

[melissat29552897 · Accepted solution]

I have been having the same problem with Adobe Garamond Pro, Syriac fonts, and Adobe World-Ready Paragraph Composer. I found something that is working for me that you might try. In Preferences go to Advanced Type > Default Composer > check the box: Enable Legacy Text Shaping for Adobe World-Ready Composer. I still use Adobe Paragraph Composer as my default and only style paragraphs with Adobe World-Ready Composer as needed. So far so good. I hope it works for you too.

[Rancher_2979 · Accepted solution]

Thank you! This works! I did have to reset and then re-rest my footnote properties, but I can now have OpenType footnotes that work properly finally.

[Mike Witherell]

And you are changing the Adobe Paragraph Composer (or maybe single line composer) only in the footnote paragraph style?