afrac feature & Unicode Vulgar Fractions

[Alice196498]

One thing I’ve found to be generally uſeful, eſpecially when dealing with meaſurements, are fractions. In higher quality printing, as well as traditional printing, ſtacked fractions (alſo called “ nut fractions ”) are uſed. I ſhould like to propoſe that theſe be added to the typeface with the afrac OpenType feature. One free and uſeful way of doing this can be found in Nutſo by TiroTypeworks, from which I ſhould recommend uſing the Nutſo2 implementation, as it allows arbitrary ſtacked fractions up to 10 digits in either the numerator or denominator. It would be poſſible to expand this number of digits from 10 to ſomething elſe, ſuch as 30, but that may be a bit overkill.

I’d alſo like to ſee the Unicode vulgar fractions be completed and the frac feature expanded ſimilarly to allow for arbitrary lengths or a reaſonable cutoff equal to the afrac ſuggeſtion above, but perhaps that would be more fitting in a ſeparate iſſue ? Currently, Elſtob has only ½, ¼, and ¾, and the frac feature only creates theſe.

[psb1558]

I'm sorry I entirely missed this when it was first posted. Junicode has a good implementation of frac, and I will copy that for Elstob.

I don't know about afrc. Nutso is an interesting proof of concept font, and Open Source so anyone can use it--but it may be a better fit for Junicode than for Elstob.

[Alice196498]

I’ll have to look at the frac feature in Junicode, as I’m not as familiar with the recent work on that one, but it is a great typeface.

The afrac feature is an alternative to the frac feature, which is generally recommended to be uſed for implementing ſtacked fractions, but could be potentially uſed for ſome other ſtyle of fraction implementation—although, I’ve never ſeen this. Nutſo is indeed an intereſting proof of concept. I’ve ſeen other implementations of ſtacked fractions in a few typefaces, ſuch as Surveyor Text and Diſplay, but they’re a little more limited in nature, which is why I recommended Nutſo’s approach. Alternative methods could be written, and ſome do exiſt, I’m ſure, but that’s more work to do, and I didn’t want to ſuggeſt ſomething that would be horribly troubleſome for you.

One of the reaſons I was ſuggeſting it for Elſtob is becauſe it fits the traditional ſtyle of the typeface. In traditional printing, I’ve only ever ſeen ſtacked fractions, eſpecially throughout the types of the 17th and 18th centuries, whereupon Elſtob is baſed.