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Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs

servermono.com

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Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs

#21
post #13

I can't put my finger on it but I don't find this enjoyable to read at all.. so I don't know much about readability claims here. Maybe I'm an outlier.

The line spacing is way too tight (this is line-spacing: 1).

Obviously that is beneficial for ASCII-art (smaller vertical gaps), but plain text would benefit from at least 1.1 and maybe 1.2.

I am not a typographer but the cap height of this font (I think it's the cap height) appears quite large, when perhaps it would be better to have a slightly smaller cap height so the ASCII-art features would work well at line-height 1.0 without the letters feeling so vertically cramped.

Basically, slightly less-tall letters.

But as I say, not an expert.

Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs

#22

Much good there but l and 1 are identical.

To be fair, they did say it was inspired by typewriters, and most old typewriters don't have a '1', so you type a lowercase 'l' instead.

Then don't call it "server". Call it "typewriter".

Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs

#26

So, if you're going to demonstrate the box drawing characters — and in a monospaced font, I would — they should line up? E.g., under "lines", the rows are overlapping; https://i.imgur.com/KnOP2Wu.png ; I would think they're only supposed to just touch, with no gap, no overlap. The boxes, similarly, don't quite line up right. https://i.imgur.com/6pVYh9a.png (Even the 100% box isn't lining up right, although somehow wh…

They do line up, if you install and use the OTF version:

https://imgur.com/a/N2tNaiO

although some characters still seem to be missing, most of them work as intended.

edit: nevermind, looks like it was using Lucida Sans instead! what is going on? does the OTF only include ASCII or something?

Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs

#28
Not sure what the images on this page are supposed to be, they don’t load in iOS Safari. Also I’m not seeing the 1/I/l confusion other people are talking about, so it’s possible the font isn’t rendering in Safari either and it’s falling back to the default monospace font.

Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs

#29

So, if you're going to demonstrate the box drawing characters — and in a monospaced font, I would — they should line up? E.g., under "lines", the rows are overlapping; https://i.imgur.com/KnOP2Wu.png ; I would think they're only supposed to just touch, with no gap, no overlap. The boxes, similarly, don't quite line up right. https://i.imgur.com/6pVYh9a.png (Even the 100% box isn't lining up right, although somehow wh…

Number One, Pipe Character, lower case L, upper case I, zero and O, Parentheses and Brackets, are so common pain points on coding and terminal fonts. Those should be painfully distinct.

Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs

#30

Much good there but l and 1 are identical.

Yeah it's annoying in several fonts, not just that one. So I simply modify the font I'm using: one thing I do is I remove the lower left horizontal bar from lowercase 'l', that way it cannot be mistaken from a '1'. Basically changing what's on the left to what's on the right: *** *** * * * * * * ***** *** It's a little trick I've been using since so long I don't even remember since when I'm doing that.

Do you use [ttx](https://fonttools.readthedocs.io/en/latest/ttx.html) for this?
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