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Hack: A typeface designed for source code

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Re: Hack: A typeface designed for source code

#181

Post by technomancy »

derefr wrote: post #41
dwc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not have to be. Go ahead and use nice proportional fonts and never looks back. There are certainly no shortage of them that are high quality and easy on the eyes. But for the rest of us, having a fixed width font is as important as any other consideration. And we're always on the lookout for a fixed width font that's as pleasing and readable as you proportional font people enjoy. Don't be jealous of us gettin…

On the other hand, I don't think I've ever seen a proportional font designed specifically for programming in. Like, with the same "make sure 1/l and 0/O look different" considerations programmers' fonts get, but proportional.

Serious question: what kind of codebases are you working on where there tokens in which it's not immediately obvious from the context whether they contain digits or numbers? I have never seen such a situation.

Re: Hack: A typeface designed for source code

#182

Post by klausa »

tambourine_man wrote: post #145
klausa wrote: post #73

I'm slightly surprised that almost nobody here uses Menlo or Monaco, even though several screenshots in the thread are clearly made on OS X. I'm curious why that's the case. Do people generally dislike the system-provided fonts or are the alternatives considered "better"?

Monaco 10 is the only true code font :) That is, until I get myself a retina Mac, of course. Then I'll use an undecided vector font and the last remaining piece of resistance from classic Mac will be gone.

That's painfully true. When I got my 13" retina mac, I literally couldn't decide on a terminal font for two weeks, switching them every few hours.

Nothing looked right. Nothing does even now, half a year later. Though personally, 12pt Monaco feels least "wrong".

Re: Hack: A typeface designed for source code

#185

Post by tyrust »

pluma wrote: post #65

Since everyone's mentioning their favourite code fonts -- any love for Ubuntu Mono? I know it's not trendy to like the OS default as a non-Apple user but I find myself always coming back to it when I see it in comparisons.

In addition to just being a nice monospaced font, I like that its non-monospaced version, Ubuntu, is also available. I can use Mono in my source and non-Mono in my desktop UI and everything looks consistent.

Re: Hack: A typeface designed for source code

#186

Post by hisyam »

klausa wrote: post #73

I'm slightly surprised that almost nobody here uses Menlo or Monaco, even though several screenshots in the thread are clearly made on OS X. I'm curious why that's the case. Do people generally dislike the system-provided fonts or are the alternatives considered "better"?

+1 for Menlo. I've tried all the fonts recommended here on HN and I always go back to Menlo.

Re: Hack: A typeface designed for source code

#187

Post by systoll »

derefr wrote: post #41
dwc wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It does not have to be. Go ahead and use nice proportional fonts and never looks back. There are certainly no shortage of them that are high quality and easy on the eyes. But for the rest of us, having a fixed width font is as important as any other consideration. And we're always on the lookout for a fixed width font that's as pleasing and readable as you proportional font people enjoy. Don't be jealous of us gettin…

On the other hand, I don't think I've ever seen a proportional font designed specifically for programming in. Like, with the same "make sure 1/l and 0/O look different" considerations programmers' fonts get, but proportional.

The most common concerns are a result of the font being monospace.

In most proportional fonts, 1 has a hat, and l is a vertical line; and 0 is a thin, squared off oval; while O is almost a circle. The characters become similar in monospaced typefaces so that they can fill the rectangle they're supposed to fill.

I and l are often indistinguishable; but there's no shortage of fonts that put the extra strokes onto I [eg: Verdana, Tahoma, every serif font...]

Re: Hack: A typeface designed for source code

#189

Post by white-flame »

This font does not work well at all in small font sizes, at least in Emacs. (ttf, linux mint, no font hinting)

At 4 & 5 point font sizes, there is a TON of whitespace around each character, destroying the text density and visible flow. Though it might be an Emacs rendering quirk as it never quite appears exactly the same as system fonts otherwise.

Liberation Mono is still works the best for me at those font sizes, still being legible and leaving enough pixels varying between similar characters to distinguish them.

Re: Hack: A typeface designed for source code

#190

Post by [deleted] »

onosendai wrote: post #61
dogas wrote: post #51

Hack is DejaVu sans mono. Below is a gif I took switching between DejaVu sans mono and Hack. Aside from line height I fail to see the difference. http://gfycat.com/SomberUnitedGermanshepherd

They do acknowledge the source of the font: "Hack has deep roots in the libre, open source typeface community and includes the contributions of the Bitstream Vera & DejaVu projects." It's a bit disingenuous though. I'd call Hack a straight copy of Deja Vu Sans Mono, with a few very minor tweaks. On Linux using the TTF fonts I can't even see a difference in line height: http://i.imgur.com/wxTr0at.png http://i.imgur.co…

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