[Tex/LaTex] Palatino fonts and the number 713

fontsmathpazooldstylenums

I have some trouble using Palatino fonts (psnfss2e distribution} for numerals in text and tables.

I load the package as \usepackage[sc,osf]{mathpazo} which sets the font to
oldstyle numerals in text and small caps. The oldstyle numerals look good with text having the letters match the lowercase characters. However, in tables they don't look very good. How can I apply a different font as a default for tables? What would be a suitable font to match?

The font also looks particularly ugly (the seven and one seem to have been designed by a different person!) as you can see in the image below. Is there a way to apply a different font to all numbers, but keep the font for characters only?
alt text

Below is a minimal with different font samples for convenience.

\documentclass[11pt]{article} 
\usepackage{graphicx} 
%\usepackage{mathptmx,courier}
\usepackage[scaled=0.92]{helvet}
\usepackage[sc,osf]{mathpazo}
\normalfont
\usepackage{pifont,tabularx,varioref,url}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{ragged2e}
\newif\ifutopia
\utopiatrue 
\newlength{\rightwidth} 
  \rightwidth=10cm
\newlength{\leftwidth}
  \leftwidth=\textwidth
  \addtolength{\leftwidth}{-\rightwidth}
  \addtolength{\leftwidth}{-1em} % ?
\newcommand{\sample}[5]{%
  \parbox[b]{\leftwidth}{%
    {\raggedright\footnotesize
    #1\\
    #3/#4\par}}
  \hfill
  \parbox[t]{\rightwidth}{
  {\fontfamily{#2}\fontsize{#3}{#4}\selectfont #5
    \scalebox{5}{fonj 713} \begin{tabular}{l}\Large \MakeUppercase{fontj 713} fontj 713\end{tabular}
  \par}}
  \medskip}
\begin{document}
\sample{Times scale5x}{ptm}{10}{12pt}{}

\sample{Palatino pplj scale 5x}{pplj}{10}{12.4pt}{}

\sample{Bookman scale 5x}{pbk}{9.6}{11.5pt}{}

\sample{Charter scale 5x}{bch}{10}{12.4pt}{}

\sample{New Century Schoolbook scale5x}{pnc}{9.6}{12pt}{}

\ifutopia
  \sample{Utopia scale 5x}{put}{9.6}{12pt}{}
\fi

\sample{Helvetica scale 5x}{phv}{10}{12pt}{}
\end{document}

Best Answer

To change the font in tables, use the etoolbox package to modify \@tabular:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[sc,osf]{mathpazo}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{etoolbox}

\makeatletter
\preto\@tabular{\fontfamily{pplx}\selectfont}
\makeatother
\begin{document}
OSF: 0123456789
\begin{tabular}{l}
0123456789
\end{tabular}

\end{document}
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