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Real-world impact of the tabular "1" foot (#557/#579) — asking for a timeline on cv15 / v4.2 #905

Description

@Faizuddin-q

What's happening

When font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums is turned on, Inter's "1" gets a small foot/serif at the bottom instead of a plain vertical stroke. In a normal paragraph this is barely noticeable, but in a live-updating numeric dashboard (prices, margins, balances) it stands out a lot — the "1" almost looks underlined, and it's easy to misread at a glance next to a column of other digits.

I saw this is already tracked in #557 (original report) and #579 (request for a way to turn the foot off), and that the fix is merged in commit a264bbe, planned for v4.2 as character variant cv15. I'm opening this to add a real-world example and ask about timing, since v4.1 has been out since November 2024 with no v4.2 yet.

Minimal reproduction (copy-paste into any HTML file)

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
  <head>
    <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.googleapis.com" />
    <link rel="preconnect" href="https://fonts.gstatic.com" crossorigin />
    <link
      href="https://fonts.googleapis.com/css2?family=Inter:wght@400&display=swap"
      rel="stylesheet"
    />
    <style>
      body {
        font-family: Inter, sans-serif;
        font-size: 24px;
      }
      .tabular {
        font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;
      }
    </style>
  </head>
  <body>
    <p>Proportional (default): 1,234.56</p>
    <p class="tabular">Tabular (tnum): 1,234.56</p>
  </body>
</html>

Open this in a browser — compare the "1" in the first line (plain stroke) vs. the second line (footed/underlined look).

Why it matters to us

We use Inter with tabular-nums across a live trading dashboard where numbers update in real time (margins, P&L, deposits). Screenshot attached below shows the effect in a real UI, not just an isolated character.

Related issues already reported by others

Question

  • Is there an estimated timeline for v4.2 / the cv15 release?
  • Would the maintainers consider shipping cv15 as a point release or webfont build ahead of a full v4.2, given it's already merged?

References

Activity

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