Monospaced Figures
Regular, or lining, figures are not proportionally spaced as letters are; they are monospaced. That is, every regular number takes up the same amount of space: the number one occupies as much space as the number seven. This is necessary because we often need to make columns of numbers and the numbers need to align in the columns.
If the numbers were not monospaced, we would have great difficulty aligning them in columns.
But when you use regular, lining figures in body text, the monospacing creates awkward letter spacing and usually requires kerning. Look carefully at the letter spacing in the numbers below:
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