Is there a way to use baskervald font and old style numbers for whole document?

Question

Is there a way to use baskervald for text and old style numbers by default?

I want to avoid customizing each number set. Also I want to have text with proper typography. I have a complete text of 138 pages in baskerville. When I try to apply old style numbers it changes numbers properly but pages goes up to 142 because of change in typography. What am I doing wrong/missing? Can't get it running without changing text font or size ...

I was trying to use this template as reference: Utilizing oldstyle figures without resorting to \oldstylenums , but with no success. And again with another example: How to make "old-style" the default for numerals?. With baskerville it all runs wrong.

I can't find where's the error in my big doc, perhaps order of package call...

My mwe looks something like this

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}

\usepackage{kpfonts,baskervald}
\usepackage[sc,osf]{mathpazo}   % Palatino with pazo math fonts
%\usepackage{cfr-lm} % same result (delivers 140 pages)

\begin{document}
\textit{title}
\cleardoublepage
%content
%\input{138pages}
9876543210

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
\end{document} 

Summing up

• Why isn't baskerville compatible with old style numbers?
• How can I make a clone work properly? Is more than a .sty file required?

---

I assume these links could be relevant but can't figure how/why to put them to use:

• Which LaTeX fonts have old style numbers?
• Old style number, bold small caps, and Palatino

---

Bottom line problem: the answers are useful to try but I can't quite move forward.

Answer 1

You can use Baskervaldx as a drop-in replacement for baskervald. From the docs:

The fonts included in this package are extensions and modifications of regular and bold weights of the baskervald fonts, which serve as a replacement for Baskerville. The changes provide small caps in all four styles, and a total of four ordinary figure types {tabular, proportional}x{lining, oldstyle} in each of those styles.

Borrowing some code from @Mico, here a solution for LuaLaTeX and/or pdfLaTeX:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{ifluatex}
\ifluatex
  \usepackage{fontspec}
  \fontspec{baskervaldx}
  \defaultfontfeatures+{Numbers={OldStyle,Proportional}}
  \setmainfont{baskervaldx}
\else
  \usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
  \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
  \usepackage[osf,proportional]{Baskervaldx}
\fi

\def\test{%
9876543210\par
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzäåàèéğłöőøřüß\par
\textsc{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzäåàèéğłöőøřü}}

\begin{document}

\obeylines

Regular weight/upright
\test

\medskip
{\itshape Regular weight/italic
\test}

\medskip
{\bfseries Bold weight/upright
\test}

\medskip
{\bfseries\itshape Bold weight/italic
\test}

\end{document}

Answer 2

The baskervald package lets TeX/LaTeX users access the Baskervald ADF font collection (designed by Hirwen Harendal of the Arkandis Digital Foundry (ADF)). According to the package's user guide, "Baskervald ADF is a serif family with lining figures designed as a substitute for Baskerville. The family currently includes upright and italic or oblique shapes in each of regular, bold and heavy weights. All fonts include the slashed zero and additional non-standard ligatures." [emphasis added] The absence of old-style figures is a deliberate choice of the font designer. Trying to "import" old-style figures from some other, sort-of kind-of compatible font family and match them with Baskerville letters and punctuation symbols should only be contemplated if there's absolutely no better alternative available. (Even then, it should probably be avoided...)

There are quite a few Baskerville clone fonts out there, some of higher quality than others. If you're looking for a high-quality Baskerville clone that provides old-style figures, lots of glyphs, and upright, italic, bold, and bold-italic shape/weight combinations, you may want to check out the Baskerville 10 Pro font family. It's a commercial font -- i.e., it's not free-of-charge -- in the OpenType format. To use it in a LaTeX document, you'll need to compile the document with either LuaLaTeX or XeLaTeX.

The following screenshot shows the font's "regular" and bold weights. There's also a semi-bold weight, in case the bold font weight looks too heavy for your taste.

% !TEX TS-program = lualatex
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont[Numbers = OldStyle]{Baskerville 10 Pro}

\def\test{%
9876543210\par
abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzäåàèéğłöőøřüß\par
\textsc{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzäåàèéğłöőøřü}}
\begin{document}
\obeylines

Regular weight/upright
\test

\medskip
{\itshape Regular weight/italic
\test}

\medskip
{\bfseries Bold weight/upright
\test}

\medskip
{\bfseries\itshape Bold weight/italic
\test}

\end{document}