Regular (proportional) digits draw "1" narrower than "8". That's fine mid-sentence, but in a column of prices or timestamps that keeps updating, the shifting digit widths make the column wobble and can nudge neighboring text as values change in real time.
`font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums`, where the font supports it, draws every digit at the same width — like a monospace font, but only for the numerals; letters and Hangul stay proportional. It's a lighter compromise than switching the whole line to a monospace font.
This only works if the font actually ships alternate glyphs for the `tnum` tag. The demo measures the ten digits' rendered widths on a canvas with `tabular-nums` applied and reports on the spot whether all ten actually came out equal (the feature works in this font) or not (no measurable effect).
When to use
Use for numbers in real-time dashboard metrics, stock tickers, timers, and tabular data columns. Regular sentence-level numbers read more naturally with the default (proportional).