Creator Price Lists: Give Numbers the Right Kind of Spacing

A creator’s price list can use the same font, size and colour throughout and still look strangely unsettled. One amount seems narrower than the next. A row full of ones occupies a different visual space from a row full of eights. The temptation is to add spaces until the column looks tidy.

Before adjusting each line, check the kind of numerals the font is displaying. Tabular figures give digits equal widths. They offer a useful starting point for numerical columns, while leaving other decisions—alignment, decimal places, labels and the available space—to the designer.

This is a small production detail with a clear editorial purpose: make the comparison the reader needs easier to inspect. It deserves a separate check from choosing an attractive headline font or making a promotional card feel on-brand.

Digit width and digit shape are separate choices

Adobe’s OpenType reference for InDesign, updated on 2 June 2026, distinguishes four figure styles. Tabular lining figures combine uniform widths with full-height numerals. Proportional lining figures retain full-height numerals but vary their widths. Oldstyle figures vary in height, and can also be either proportional or tabular.

The practical distinction is between two questions. Do the digit positions occupy equal widths? And what shapes and heights suit the surrounding text? Choosing equal widths does not require making every paragraph look like a spreadsheet, nor does choosing oldstyle figures necessarily mean giving up equal-width digits.

For a fictional illustrator’s downloadable rate card, tabular lining figures would be a reasonable option to test in the amount column. The surrounding introduction could keep a different figure style if that better fits its typography. The aim is a deliberate local choice, rather than an automatic change to every number in the document.

Use a sample that can reveal the difference

Make a duplicate of the layout and compare amounts such as £11.11, £18.88 and £88.88. These are illustrative typesetting samples, not suggested prices. Keeping their structure identical helps isolate digit spacing from differences in the number of characters.

Inspect the sample before and after selecting the font’s supported tabular feature. Look at the positions of the digits and the overall column. Keep the typeface, size, weight and text container unchanged during this first comparison, so you know which decision produced the visible difference.

Then add awkward but plausible entries: a shorter amount, a longer amount, a zero and an amount with a thousands separator. Equal-width digits cannot make strings of different lengths equally long. The next task is to decide where those different strings should sit.

Avoid treating a neat sample as the final result. It is a diagnostic exercise. The actual rate card needs its own longer labels, line breaks and explanatory text restored before approval.

Give the column an alignment rule

For the fictional card, suppose all amounts are shown in pounds with two decimal places. A right-aligned amount column is one layout to evaluate. Because each amount has the same ending structure, that arrangement can be checked for consistent decimal positions. The designer still needs to inspect currency symbols and separators in the chosen font.

If the card mixes whole numbers, decimal amounts, percentages and ranges, start by questioning that mixture. Which items really belong in one comparison? Decide whether to separate them, explain them more clearly or use an alignment method suited to their structure.

Do not add decimal places merely to create a tidy shape where they would imply inappropriate precision. Equally, do not hide relevant detail solely because one value looks too long. The meaning of the figures should lead the formatting decision.

The relationship between a value and its label remains essential. MaryChuks.com’s guide to keeping ebook values connected to their headings addresses that complementary concern. An elegant number column does not explain whether a displayed fee applies to one illustration, a bundle or an additional revision.

Check support in the actual font

Adobe notes that OpenType feature availability varies by font. InDesign shows unsupported features in brackets in its menu. A feature name in an application is therefore not evidence that the selected font provides the corresponding numerals.

Record the font and figure style used in the rate-card template. Ask a collaborator receiving the editable file to check that choice before making changes. If the intended feature is unavailable, compare a suitable alternative font or revise the layout rather than compensating through repeated manual spaces.

For a one-off promotional image, review the final exported artwork at its intended display size. For a reusable template, also change the sample amounts. A layout that works only for the first three entries has not yet answered the ongoing production need.

Make the same distinction on the web

The W3C CSS Fonts Level 3 Recommendation, dated 20 September 2018, defines numerical styling through font-variant-numeric. A web designer can request tabular spacing with font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums;. Figure form and spacing can be combined—for example, lining-nums tabular-nums—when the font supports those features.

Ask the designer to apply the rule to the relevant amounts, then inspect the rendered page. The font choice and the column layout need to work together. A declaration in a stylesheet is only one part of that review.

The specification also explains that unsupported font features are ignored; the browser does not switch to another font just to obtain that feature. Check the intended web font and the page’s fallback appearance. Keep a clear, usable arrangement even when the preferred typographic refinement is absent.

Try the price list at a narrow phone width, with longer labels and with the largest expected amount. Check whether an amount wraps away from its label or pushes neighbouring information out of view. These are proposed review cases for the page, not guarantees provided by tabular numerals.

Approve the comparison, then save the rule

A useful handover note would say which font and numeral style the amounts use, how the column is aligned, and how units and decimal places are handled. Include one intentionally awkward sample so the next person can judge an update against more than an idealised row.

AI can help produce a list of test values or draft that handover note from your decisions. Review its output against the actual design. Asking it simply to “make the prices professional” leaves the important choices unspecified.

Before releasing the card or page, read it as a customer: which amount belongs to which offer, what does it include, and can the entries be compared without guessing? Tabular figures are useful when they serve those questions. The finished design succeeds through the clarity of the comparison as a whole.

Sources

Primary references: Adobe, OpenType font attributes in InDesign (updated 2 June 2026); W3C, CSS Fonts Module Level 3 (Recommendation, 20 September 2018). Checked on 8 November 2026. The rate card, sample prices and review procedure are illustrative editorial examples.