The most expensive coding font for free? • Hacker News Board

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#111

Post by maratd » Thu, Nov 03, 2011, 8:49 PM UTC

peteforde wrote: post #97

praptak wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I have tested this hypothesis on myself. I have tried lots of fonts touted as the best for programming and found exactly zero difference. Time wasted, chalked up to experience. I think that anyone considering a donation should at least try the freely available fonts to see whether they make any difference.

Why are you so determined to damn this effort? Can you imagine launching a weekend web startup project and having someone on here to look elsewhere before considering a donation? People starting businesses come here to be encouraged, and this guy isn't doing anything wrong. In fact, I wish more creatives would consider these sorts of alternative approaches to patronage.

> Why are you so determined to damn this effort?

It's important to give people honest and clear feedback. By blindly encouraging them, you are doing them a disservice. Perhaps he can fine-tune his effort. Perhaps his talents are best applied elsewhere. You simply don't know. If his skin isn't thick enough to accept honest criticism, he shouldn't be starting or doing anything on his own. Honest feedback is important.

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#112

Post by vl » Thu, Nov 03, 2011, 11:42 PM UTC

yan wrote: post #36

Just wanted to chime in: I paid Fabrizio for PragmataPro last year and haven't regretted it a bit. Maybe paying $100+ for a font isn't for everyone, but my entire life revolves around looking at fixed-width fonts and it's important to me. After trying almost everything else out there, Pragmata/PragmataPro feel much better and make me happier looking at lots of text.

Did you have a change to compare it to Bitstream Vera Sans Mono? How does it fare?

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#113

Post by davidu » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 2:54 AM UTC

wccrawford wrote: post #40

davidu wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What? You get your money back with Kickstarter? I've never heard of that... I'm pretty sure I've lost a few hundred bucks on failed kick-starters... I mean, they meet the goal, but the person never delivers.

Well yeah, if the person doesn't deliver, you've helped fund them, but get nothing back. That's why kickstarter projects aren't supposed to supply actual value for the pledge. A lot of the latest one offer the product as a bonus, but don't tell you that you won't get the product if they fail.

Oh, I see. I guess I've only backed products or software or things where there was a deliverable... even a book once!

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#114

Post by jcitme » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 3:13 AM UTC

moe wrote: post #33

fabrizioschiavi wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

True. There are a lot good monospaced font but it's impossible for me working at screen with these cool fonts for this I designed PragmataPro. Tastes are tastes. All the glyphs of PragmataPro are designed under suggestions of programmers. In the set there are many glyphs ignored by other monospaced font designers, because I designed this font with programmers for programmers. PragmataPro are designed to work with and…

And it works Apparently not on the Mac. The font looks quite terrible in your own Mac screenshot, there is visible blur at least in the letters w,m and T.

Well, he did say it's only 50% done. If it mostly works on Windows, porting it to mac shouldn't be hard...

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#115

Post by meric » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 7:04 AM UTC

13% fees, 43% taxes: Shouldn't the 13% fees be tax deductible, because they were incurred as a result of earning the revenue?

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#116

Post by rdtsc » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 12:04 PM UTC

peteforde wrote: post #97

praptak wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, I have tested this hypothesis on myself. I have tried lots of fonts touted as the best for programming and found exactly zero difference. Time wasted, chalked up to experience. I think that anyone considering a donation should at least try the freely available fonts to see whether they make any difference.

Why are you so determined to damn this effort? Can you imagine launching a weekend web startup project and having someone on here to look elsewhere before considering a donation? People starting businesses come here to be encouraged, and this guy isn't doing anything wrong. In fact, I wish more creatives would consider these sorts of alternative approaches to patronage.

Sorry, perhaps it was my fault by starting on the criticism. It was just meant to be an honest observation.

I think the font looks great and I appreciate the effort and time it took to create this font. However I see it more as an art piece. Just like an artist might have painstakingly created a body of work for 5 years, just the effort put into it, makes it impressive. To someone (a collector, a gallery) the piece might be worth $200,000, to me though, it might be or worth $0, just because I don't like it or I am shopping for utilitarian things at the moment. "Would this piece help me code faster?" kind of reasoning. So maybe it is just the wrong market.

There might also be a luxury market out there for fonts, someone who has the latest and greatest set-up and has deep pockets who just needs something extra ? A book publisher? An OS vendor?

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#117

Post by micheljansen » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 1:32 PM UTC

This method of project funding suffers from an unfortunate separation of "pain" and reward. I have to hand over my money now, knowing that it might lead to the font being available in 800 days. That is a long time.

Compare this with two major alternatives to this model: Kickstarter and things like the Humble Indie Bundle.

In one, I pledge money now for some future benefit, but I do so knowing that I only end up paying if the project reaches enough support and funding. This feels safe: I can pledge however I think the result is worth, because I only pay if it succeeds.

In the other, I can get my reward immediately (instant gratification!), but I can choose how much to pay for it.

The problem of Indiegogo, is that I have to pay now, but I cannot be sure that I actually get anything in return (a discount on a license is not enough). This means the risk of investment is much higher. I did pledge some money, but not what I would pay for the font were it either in Kickstarter form or through a "Humble Bundle" kind of model. I am sure I am not the only one.

To turn this into some useful advice for Fabrizio: How about giving donators preview access to the unfinished font? This brings the reward closer to the donation :)

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#118

Post by fabrizioschiavi » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 1:52 PM UTC

IMPORTANT UPDATE: In case the campaign does not reach the objective, I will offer to every contributors the regular license of PragmataPro™ at €20 (instead of €170) also if the contributor donate also just $1 only. At the end of this campaign every contributors can claims this offer. But please don’t offer anonymously if you want this discount.

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#119

Post by fabrizioschiavi » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 1:57 PM UTC

micheljansen wrote: post #117

This method of project funding suffers from an unfortunate separation of "pain" and reward. I have to hand over my money now, knowing that it might lead to the font being available in 800 days. That is a long time. Compare this with two major alternatives to this model: Kickstarter and things like the Humble Indie Bundle. In one, I pledge money now for some future benefit, but I do so knowing that I only end up payin…

I thinked a lot of time at a solution to this problem and the best one I found it's this:

In case the campaign does not reach the objective, I will offer to every contributors the regular license of PragmataPro™ at €20 (instead of €170) also if the contributor donate also just $1 only. At the end of this campaign every contributors can claims this offer. But please don’t offer anonymously if you want this discount.

It's now written in the fundrasing page of Indiegogo and for me it's like to be signed with blood...

Re: The most expensive coding font for free?

#120

Post by fabrizioschiavi » Fri, Nov 04, 2011, 2:09 PM UTC

kenjackson wrote: post #87

Fabrizio, have you thought about pitching this to Apple? Seriously. I personally don't get it, but it seems like the type of thing that Jobs would appreciate (if he liked it) and say it was worth the money. Ask Apple if they'd buy it for XCode, so all Apple devs could have it.

I submitted to all the big companies computer related, Apple included. They ignored PragmataPro™. For this I need of your understanding and your support because I'm sure you know better than them what's a good programming font.