Lesser Known Coding Fonts • Hacker News Board

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#31

Post by tobr » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:04 AM UTC

nielsbot wrote: post #13

I see Input Mono is mentioned, but I actually really like using Input Sans, also from Font Bureau. It's a proportional coding font. I feel like I'm living in the future. You can get it here: https://input.fontbureau.com And amazingly, you can personalize your font on download, such as choosing dotted vs slashed zeroes. Not free, but free for personal, non-commercial use. (Check the terms)

There’s now also Output[1], designed for UI rather than code, but with a feel that is very similar to Input.

1: https://djr.com/output/

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#32

Post by ManDeJan » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:04 AM UTC

I'm a big fan of https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans/ the characters make me happy every day :)

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#33

Post by andreareina » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:05 AM UTC

pmontra wrote: post #24

nielsbot wrote: post #13

I see Input Mono is mentioned, but I actually really like using Input Sans, also from Font Bureau. It's a proportional coding font. I feel like I'm living in the future. You can get it here: https://input.fontbureau.com And amazingly, you can personalize your font on download, such as choosing dotted vs slashed zeroes. Not free, but free for personal, non-commercial use. (Check the terms)

I've been using proportional fonts for coding for years. Nobody notices when looking at my screen or when doing a screen sharing session. The few times I talk about it everybody agrees that it's easier to read. I'm not surprised, because nobody formats books, magazines, newspapers, web sites with monospaced fonts. The only problem is that it's impossible to align code on successive lines to the right of an equal sign…

ASCII diagrams in comments/docstrings are doable if your editor supports custom faces. For example `M-x list-faces-display` on emacs tells me that (among other things) I can customize:

- font-lock-comment-face - font-lock-doc-face - org-table (also depends on alignment)

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#34

Post by flobosg » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:06 AM UTC

oofabz wrote: post #3

Go Mono looks very much like Luxi Mono, one of my favorites. I'll have to give it a try.

Both were designed by the same studio, and the Go fonts are clearly inspired by the Luxi family: https://twitter.com/0intro/status/799230797601525765

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#35

Post by Erlich_Bachman » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:07 AM UTC

Every thread about programming fonts is not complete without mentioning the wonderful website https://app.programmingfonts.org (no affiliation, I just find it really useful) which lists all the free programming-related fonts with live preview (for example every single font from the article, and every one mentioned so far in every comment in this thread is already there in the app) - it allows quick one-click preview with custom text on each font, and has direct links for downloading said fonts.

Every font from this thread is already there in the app so you might as well just try them all.

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#36

Post by Zizizizz » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:10 AM UTC

Iosevka is the one that I always go back to: https://typeof.net/Iosevka/

Both the standard and slab versions are great

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#37

Post by mbrock » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:16 AM UTC

petters wrote: post #2

There should be more variable-width coding fonts.

The latest release of Iosevka has a "quasi-proportional" variant called Iosevka Aile which I really, really like.

Here's a 3200x1800 screenshot with some code in Emacs.

https://i.imgur.com/LdzBmpx.png

The kerning is not as tight as in a real proportional font. It's a bit more spacious and regular so that fixed width tabular layouts still look relatively decent.

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#38

Post by mxstbr » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:16 AM UTC

This is definitely missing Dank: https://dank.sh

It's my favorite programming font, made by a good friend of mine. It has awesome ligatures and the italic version is beautiful, similar to Operator Mono!

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#39

Post by pcr910303 » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:18 AM UTC

I have tried lots of different coding fonts for fun (and when I change fonts, it just feels like using a brand new computer :-)), but my go-to font when I just don’t want to think what I’m gonna using is SF Mono, from the San Francisco fonts by Apple[0].

It blends well with the macOS system fonts, and it’s great.

[0] https://developer.apple.com/fonts/

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#40

Post by Jaruzel » Sun, Oct 20, 2019, 9:21 AM UTC

forrestthewoods wrote: post #16

Give me Consolas or give me death. I have tried many programming fonts. I love articles like this that expose to me to new, fun things to try. But alas Consolas is King.

I used to think this, until I went on my quest to find a better fonts. Microsoft did a really good job on Consolas to make it look great on Windows.

Unfortunately a lot of coding fonts dont hint well on Windows, or only look good in hiDPI...

Eventually I settled on Droid Sans Mono, which I modified to have a slashed Zero.