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MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

monolisa.dev

61–70 of 294 posts

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#61
post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not if a part of a line is out of the window right? This makes splitting harder, therefore, reading harder

Why not just use word wrapping?

I find reading code with word wrapping nearly impossible.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'm not sure what you're referring to. The font is a one time purchase and significantly cheaper than a new monitor. Both things (a better monitor and a better font) can make you enjoy the things you're doing more.

Yes, there might be billions of free fonts out there, but the cost of that font is also not exactly making a huge impact for me that I have to save money there. Why would I start saving with the font all the sudden when I spend more money on literally everything else? Does not really compute to me.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#63

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.

yes, some people care, also SF Mono is a really great font too! Its ok for people to like stuff that doesn't make sense to you

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#64

If you're willing to spend money on a font for coding, then do yourself a favor and take a look at PragmataPro as well. I bought a license (checks notes...) 8 years ago and it has served me very well. If I was not down to pay for a font, then I'd probably use one of Iosevka's forms. Personally, however, it became clear to me that just like my monitor, the font I spend hours looking at every day is also worth some mon…

Pragmata Pro is quite nice... but not for coding. I like narrow fonts. Barlow is excellent. News Gothic is fantastic. Geo Grotesque is super beautiful. But it just doesn't work for me when a coding font is narrow. Fonts like Iosevka and Pragmata are harder to read than needed and for no clear benefit. Especially when used for projects based on C and derivatives. If you ever find yourself needing to cram more symbols…

Different strokes, I suppose. (Pun intended.)

I like the narrower font so I can fit two side-by-side files with full 120 character width each on a regular 16:9 display. Iosevka is likely my forever font. I find it both beautiful and fit for purpose; I couldn't ask for more.

Re: "lines should be short." I prefer my code font to work even for bad code. It's not always my code that I'm looking at!

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I would be shocked if this was not up to personal preference :)

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#66
post #41
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…

Oh, this was a new one for me. In case you like narrow but Victor’s not your thing, I can enthusiastically point you towards Iosevka. (That’s also available in Victor’s comparison picker. Nice!)

I love both Iosevka and Victor Mono, but ended using Victor Mono because it has script version for italics.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#67
I looked at it a few years ago and dismissed it because it’s so similar to Source Code Pro in terms of spacing, size and overall feel. Source Code Pro is an excellent wide font that I’ve been using since its release about a decade ago. And it’s free, and there are Nerd Font variants with ligatures if you’re into that.

I noticed that MonaLisa added script variant last year, so if you want something like that in your editor it’s a very good choice. In fact, I’d recommend it over Operator Mono (the OG monospaced font with scripted italics), because the later has a much smaller character set.

Or, pick a free Victor Mono if you like narrower symbols. Alas, us - wide font users - have to pay for a script italics :)

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#68

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.

No, sorry fontographers, but I can't tell the difference between the scores of mono fonts created in the last half dozen years. As long as it's kinda pleasing and can easily see the differences between () and {}, 1iIlL| and oO0, I'm all set.

Re: MonoLisa – A font designed for developers

#69
post #59

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 comme…

Selling font direct to consumers is extremely bad business model. This doesn’t work. People are not keen on shelling out 100s of dollars when IDEs already come with decent fonts and other thousands of free fonts readily available. This font looks great but most people would argue about marginal benefit. I would hope they would partner with IDE makers and big tech and give them license to use it for their expected revenue instead.
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