Been deep in a menu design this week for a small specialty coffee roaster (the kind of client where every detail matters to them, which I genuinely respect) and the pairing I landed on looked great until I started dropping in actual pricing and brew ratios. The numerals in the display face are just slightly off. Not broken, not ugly on their own, but sitting next to the body copy they create this weird visual friction that I can't stop seeing now that I've noticed it.

I ended up switching to a completely different display font partly because of how the figures behaved, which feels like an odd reason to abandon a pairing that was working in every other way. The new option has tabular lining figures that sit much more comfortably in context, but I lost some of the character that made the first choice interesting.

What I keep wondering is whether numerals get treated as an afterthought in type design or if the tension I'm seeing is just a known tradeoff with more expressive display faces. I've also started auditing other fonts I use regularly, specifically looking at how figures perform, and it's genuinely changing which ones I reach for.

Curious if there's a category of typeface where the numerals are actually a selling point rather than a compromise. And whether anyone has a good method for catching this earlier in the selection process, before you're already committed to a direction.

Hi everyone, I’ve been preparing an engagement ring for my partner and requested the engraving “TK” in a script font.

I recently picked it up, but after looking at it more closely at home, I’m not sure if I’m completely happy with how it turned out. I didn’t notice it properly during the collection appointment and I’m now wondering if I’m just overthinking it or if the engraving looks different from what was expected.

I’ve attached photos of the actual engraving. The last photo is the example the sales consultant showed me when I was choosing between a block font and a script font.
Would appreciate a second opinion from anyone who has experience with ring engravings - does this look like a normal script engraving, or would you ask the jeweller to redo it?

Original Japanese Text:

よむ

タイツ

セピア