These specialized glyphs are cast or drawn smaller than the standard body size and positioned so their baseline sits lower than the surrounding text. They are primarily used for chemical formulas and mathematical denominators. Unlike standard small type, true inferior figures are drawn with heavier stroke weights to match the visual color of the full-size characters.
Heard on the job
Make sure the chemical formula uses a true inferior for the two in water, not just a scaled-down numeral.
Also heard as
- subscript