Is there a way to specify the use of text or titling figures in CSS?

Question

My fonts of choice usually default to text figures

which is one reason I like them. However, for tables or headings I'd like to specify that lining figures should be used:

Is there a way to do so in CSS?

(To appease the search:

• old-style numerals, text figures, non-lining figures, medieval numerals
• lining numerals, titling figures)

Answer 1

Firefox 4.0 has basic text figure support. Here's how to turn on text (old-style) figures:

.text-figures {
  -moz-font-feature-settings: "onum=1";
}

Looks like there's a set of css3 properties, such as font-variant-numeric, to control common properties. These are not yet supported by any browser, as far as I know.

Here's a jsFiddle where you can play around with the styles. It toggles between lining and old-style figures. I'm using Minion Pro on Windows 7, so you might have to find your own supported font on other platforms.