Architects, scientists, computer geeks, and Europeans (heh) are, IIRC, in the habit of putting slashes through some characters to minimize confusion with other characters. There are even fonts that intrinsically include the slashes, such as Monaco (not M0nac0)*.
I believe the rule is that a Z gets a slash so you know it isn’t a 2; a 0 gets a slash to differentiate it from an O; a 1 gets a serif always to distinguish it from a lowercase l and a 7 gets a slash so we know it isn’t a 1.
How about g versus 9?
I was in the deli this morning and happened to glance at the Duracell display and the top of the packages have an identifier, such as “AA” or “D” or “C”, etc… and I found myself wondering what the hell a “gv” battery is! After a moment or two my eyes tracked down to the battery itself and I saw the flat-sided rectangular shape with the dual top terminals and had a :smack: moment. Obviously 9v, not gv.
Which all led to the musings rendered in this post. I don’t recall ever seeing either a 9 or a g slashed for clarity to make it easy to tell them apart. Is the standard to write the 9 with a non-curved descender? (Actually if so it would look less like a g but more like a q).
- If you’re on a PC and/or don’t have Monaco installed, I have no idea what substitute font your browser’s gonna render this in