I see what you mean.
What is the convention for a text representation that isn’t too verbose?
x02220 Fret
112 Finger
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@agitated_pear Your numbering for fingers is fine.
I’m not familiar with finger representations via text to be honest. It’s usually represented via chord boxes 
That’s what I was getting at. In the absence of additional information, given the following numerical chord description, how do I know whether the numbers represent fingers or frets?
x32111
And even if I’m advised the numbers are fingers, how do I know which frets to place those fingers on?
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That format is used for specifying fret numbers. It doesn’t tell you what fingers to use.
It should not be used to indicate fingers.
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We only need the finger numbers because we are discussing it specifically. Best not to confuse the notation.
What fingers to use is only a suggestion. A chord is a collection of notes played by pressing strings. As long as you press the strings you need to, it is fine. What will matter is the context of the song. What chords come before and after make specific choices easier or harder, also what notes ring out, need muting and so on.
When I play Canon in D, I need a very odd fingering of an F chord to allow strings to ring between chords. I end up with my 1st finger at 1st fret 2nd string and 2nd finger at 1st fret 6th string (instead of the barre). Different than even the teacher does which reverses the two fingers. His makes sense, but I just physically can’t do it, so I found a way I can. The reason is that the C note needs to ring while I lift the F on the 6th. Hard to do with a barre.
I think it’s always frets when viewed like this
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This is correct … if using only numbers to describe a chord it is always fret numbers (and the letter X used if a string is not played / included in the chord).
