Skip to main content
F
freighterdog
New Participant
November 7, 2011
Question

Font Offering Appealing Numeric Fractions

  • November 7, 2011
  • 2 replies
  • 12818 views

I'll be taking a job that requires insertion into text of a considerable number of fractions.

What font pallet offers fractional notation down through 1/16,1/32,1/64 etc? Fractions should have a superscript numerator over a subscript denomenator, separated by a backslash, instead of a horizontal M-dash.

I'll be working largely in MS Word 2004 (Mac) and Acrobat 9 Pro.

    This topic has been closed for replies.

    2 replies

    T
    Thomas Phinney
    Inspiring
    November 7, 2011

    What Michael said. Sadly Word 2004 does not support automatic usage of such fonts (even Word 2011 doesn't support it properly). But you can still set them manually.

    Scroll down this page to the "Diagonal Fractions" entry for more info on the glyphs:

    http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/info/glyphs.html

    Unfortunately Adobe doesn't support a search for just those fonts. But MyFonts does:

    http://new.myfonts.com/search/ot_exact%3Afrac/fonts/

    (Just one clarification: it's a fraction bar, not a backslash. The backslash points the opposite direction!)

    F
    freighterdogAuthor
    New Participant
    November 7, 2011

    It looks like the fonts lack the necessary characters. I searched after downloading PopChar. It it isn't there, it isn't there.

    So I will have to spend an hour and use the MS Word Auto Correct feature to do what I want. With auto correct I'll have construct a small collection of fractions and insert them into a "dictionary". Autocorrect will then see as I type 1/2, and change it to 1(superscript) / 2(subscript).

    It seems stupid in this era of modern computers. Fortunately I will only need fractions as low as the 1/64th range, and even there, only the odd numbered ones. 2/64, for instance, isn't needed since it is expressed as 1/8.

    The Adobe link was informative. And I'll send an angry letter to Mr. Bill Gates about the weakness of MS Word. Perhaps he will send me money — divided into fractions, of course.

    Thanks Michael and Thomas

    T
    Thomas Phinney
    Inspiring
    November 8, 2011

    Note that Word's autocorrect function will sub pre-built real fractions for the 1/2, 1/4 and 3/4 that are standard in Windows fonts (and most all fonts these days). If you use Word's superscript and subscript capabilities to build fractions, note that you will get something a bit different than "real" fractions. Positioning will be an issue (though it can be adjusted), but also the scaled-down numbers will be more thin and spindly than "real" designed fraction numerators and denominators would be. Not much to be done about that if you don't have the "real thing," unfortunately.

    If you have ever downloaded a compatibility pack to allow you to interoperate with newer versions of Word, you may have some fonts that do have real numerators and denominators. All the so-called "ClearType fonts" have 'em (Calibri, Consolas, Constantia, Candara, Corbel, Cambria). Also Palatino Linotype if you have that. These were bundled with Windows Vista and Office 2007 and later, but also came with the compatibility pack.

    Good luck!

    Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
    Michael_Müller-Hillebrand
    Brainiac
    November 7, 2011

    freighterdog,

    Many modern fonts have the appropriate glyphs in the Unicode range. There also is a special fraction slash that is not as stepp as the standard slash, on my Mac (German OS) this is available using Alt+i. The following examples may look a bit ugly, depending on the font your browser selects:

    ¹²³⁴⁵⁶⁷⁸⁹⁰⁄₀₁₂₃₄₅₆₇₈₉₀

    ¹⁄₁₆   ¹⁄₃₂  ¹⁄₆₄

    I use PopChar to find glyphs in my fonts. What I want to say is: You may already have an appropriate font available.

    - Michael

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
    Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices