Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Lesser Known Coding Fonts

vfoley.xyz

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 250 posts

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#61

Post by the_pwner224 »

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)

For ~6 months I used Comic Sans as my single font system-wide - like, for everything. Everywhere in the system UI, code, even on webpages (Firefox lets you disable CSS font selectors). The only exception was the terminal, which got messed up with non-monospaced fonts.

It was actually surprisingly great. Then as soon as I got a 4k monitor Comic Sans started to look very ugly - if not for that, I would still be using it. These days I use GNU FreeFont (FreeSans) for the system & Firefox & IDEs, but I have started to do almost all programming through the terminal so I use Fira Code and [Liga]Hack for that.

So give Comic Sans a shot, you might end up liking it too :) (On Windows/macOS you probably won't be able to set it as your system font, but you could still use it in your IDE and on the web)

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#62

Post by jwilk »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #48
mbrock wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

The original image might’ve been 3200x1800 but it sure ain’t on imgur, unless I’m missing an obvious ‘view raw/original image’ option...

Right-click the image, and choose "View image". Works at least in Firefox.

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#63

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

mbrock wrote: post #60
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original image might’ve been 3200x1800 but it sure ain’t on imgur, unless I’m missing an obvious ‘view raw/original image’ option...

Uhhh sorry I don’t understand imgur. I think there’s a way. Oh it seems that the mobile imgur site is totally nerfed. Sorry. Is there a better free image host?

Ah, no worries - I’ll take a look on desktop in a minute. Better free image host? I guess github pages is a less-friendly alternative.

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#64

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

jwilk wrote: post #62
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original image might’ve been 3200x1800 but it sure ain’t on imgur, unless I’m missing an obvious ‘view raw/original image’ option...

Right-click the image, and choose "View image". Works at least in Firefox.

I should’ve mentioned I’m using a tablet. Although there’s a convoluted method involving long-hold and the Photos app, it still only save the low-res thumbnail.

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#65

Post by jwilk »

oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #64
jwilk wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right-click the image, and choose "View image". Works at least in Firefox.

I should’ve mentioned I’m using a tablet. Although there’s a convoluted method involving long-hold and the Photos app, it still only save the low-res thumbnail.

Maybe try copy&pasting the URL instead of clicking it (so that no Referer is sent)?

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#66

Post by stinos »

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 also use Consolas, but from time to time I have to read code on another machine or some environment without Consolas or rendering problems, and the things is: if the other font is good at first it's a bit hard, but after a couple of minutes I don't feel like it's a problem reading it. Then going back to Consolas I have almost the same experience. So my anecdotal, personal idea about this is: as long as the font doesn't suck, it just doesn't matter. Same with books: I read everyday, different fonts, not once did I think 'wow this font should be banished, it hurts my eyes' or 'wow every book should use this font'. Of course on a subconcious level there might be fonts which measurably perform better (i.e. need less cognitive processing by the brain) so: show me the evidence before claiming your font is much better than mine :)

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#67

Post by oneeyedpigeon »

jwilk wrote: post #65
oneeyedpigeon wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should’ve mentioned I’m using a tablet. Although there’s a convoluted method involving long-hold and the Photos app, it still only save the low-res thumbnail.

Maybe try copy&pasting the URL instead of clicking it (so that no Referer is sent)?

Well, I'm not sure if there's a way of doing that on iOS, but I'm on desktop now anyway, so if anyone else just wants a direct link to the full-size image, here it is:

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

(edit: although, nope, even opening the direct URL to the image reroutes it to the low-res thumbnail version. I just don't think it's viewable on mobile — never mind!)

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#69

Post by Ezku »

This rarely gets a mention but totally deserves one: Iosevka[0], a programming font with great ligatures, multiple weights, and customizable character variants to tune it to your preferences. It’s more slender than most blocky monotypes which makes it stand apart especially from more traditional choices like Monaco and Consolas.

[0]: https://typeof.net/Iosevka/

Re: Lesser Known Coding Fonts

#70

Post by cjbprime »

mbrock wrote: post #37
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.

Incredibly readable, thanks for sharing. I like your color scheme, too.
Post reply on HN