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MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

monolisa.dev

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Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#51

Post by jck »

kbd wrote: post #24

Unfortunately not available to compare on https://www.programmingfonts.org/ While I'm here: Victor Mono has been my programming font of choice for a while now: https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/ Oh, look at that, the Victor Mono homepage has a font comparison slider that allows you to compare it to MonoLisa! MonoLisa advertises that it's wider than other monospace fonts, and you can really see that in the compariso…

Thanks for the victor mono recommendation. It looks really good! I was blown away by how narrow it was compared to other forms in the comparison tool.

Side note: it's a bummer that you never see Monaco on these comparison tools. Monaco has been my monospace font of choice for many years now despite never owning a Macbook: https://github.com/cseelus/monego

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#52

Post by StevePerkins »

I wonder how many people glancing at the landing page have browsed over to the download page, and discovered that this a paid font? To the tune of $69 to $239, depending on the options you want.

If this were something really revolutionary, then okay. But this looks like every other Bitstream Vera Sans Mono variant, just tweaked to be a touch wider than Fira Code or Jetbrains Mono. But half of the fonts on https://www.programmingfonts.org are Bitstream Vera Sans Mono variants, a touch wider than Fira Code or Jetbrains Mono. And they're all open source and free.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#53

Post by bitwize »

enricozb wrote: post #35
bitwize wrote: post #31

Another day, another Letter Gothic lookalike "developer font". I do not feel particularly motivated to switch away from the terminal bitmap fonts I normally use. There's something about an 8x8, 8x16, or similar small numbers grid of pixels -- the constraints seemed to breed creativity that you don't see too much of anymore in monospaced fonts for coding/terminal use.

Curious which bitmap font you use? I use terminus.

Terminus is a great one, but right now I'm partial to the Atari ST 8x16 font.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#54

Post by moffkalast »

StevePerkins wrote: post #52

I wonder how many people glancing at the landing page have browsed over to the download page, and discovered that this a paid font? To the tune of $69 to $239, depending on the options you want. If this were something really revolutionary, then okay. But this looks like every other Bitstream Vera Sans Mono variant, just tweaked to be a touch wider than Fira Code or Jetbrains Mono. But half of the fonts on https://www…

People charging $199 for a slightly wider Lucida Console, you can't make this shit up. The marketing is so outrageous.

In case someone's seriously considering this, here are an additional two sites that have literally hundreds of CC0 and other free to use fonts, not just monospace:

https://www.1001freefonts.com

http://allfont.net

DIN 1451 Mittelschrift is my personal favorite.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#55

Post by kuratkull »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #16
xgme wrote: post #12

Isn't "increased width" an ungodly sin to the developer lord? If anything, we want to see more in a given space, not less...

Wider fonts are significantly easier to read than narrow fonts which is the main point a programmer typically optimizes for. Since most editors can reflow anyways and programmers are relatively conservatives for max width anyways my general experience is that I have more than enough space on the right unused.

It's strange, I find the complete opposite to be true. A narrower font allows my brain to grasp the line quicker, without having to move my eyes as much.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#56

Post by cortesoft »

cercatrova wrote: post #44

Do people really care that much about editor fonts? I just use SF Mono and call it a day. I've never had a problem where the font, of all things, was the main cause of something not working for me.

It’s definitely something some people care about, although I am certainly in the camp of not caring at all. I have no idea what font my IDE uses, and I have never thought about changing it.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#58

Post by qbasic_forever »

xgme wrote: post #12

Isn't "increased width" an ungodly sin to the developer lord? If anything, we want to see more in a given space, not less...

For terminal/console use wide fonts hurt IMHO. I really like Iosevka, it even has a terminal optimized version that's explicitly less wide: https://typeof.net/Iosevka/

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#59

Post by GuB-42 »

I am the only one who finds fonts a bit expensive for personal use? It is not a rant, I am not saying it isn't worth it, that font designers can't make money, etc... But that puts it on the same level as tools like Sublime Text or Beyond Compare. For me, it is enough of a turn off not to use a commercial font, especially considering that the free offering is quite good.

I totally understand the higher price for commercial use, here, it is cheap compared to the costs of hiring a designer, and it may have a real impact on your sales and ultimately earn you money.

But why is the price for personal use around $60? Is it some kind of a sweet spot because most people won't buy fonts anyways, even for $1, but those who do expect to pay that kind of money. Does it account for piracy, which I guess is easy and goes unnoticed if you only use it personally?

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#60

Post by moffkalast »

the_mitsuhiko wrote: post #47
cercatrova wrote: post #44

Do people really care that much about editor fonts? I just use SF Mono and call it a day. I've never had a problem where the font, of all things, was the main cause of something not working for me.

If you're looking your day at nothing else but text it's the most obvious thing to spend time and money on to improve. Sure, it's an utilitarian thing at the end of the day, but why should it not look pleasant to your eyes? I don't think I ever had _a problem_ with a font, but that does not mean I do not want to spend a bit of time and effort to improve my experience. I could probably also get away with a much worse…

Idk, putting the $199 towards buying a nicer monitor seems like the pro gamer move. There are billions of free fonts out there.
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