So the server has been crushed under the boot of hacker news. Does anyone have a cached copy?
Try this: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:VWYxxWU...
Yeah, that gets the text but unfortunately no pictures of the font :-(
Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
171–180 of 195 posts
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#172The page is dead. Does anyone have the updated link?
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#173Now it's 404 the site said:
The server can not find the requested page:
* /p/hermit (port 80)* Please forward this error screen to pcaro.es's WebMaster.
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#174I'm liking OCRA lately: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OCR-A_font
apt-get install fonts-ocr-aRe: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#175It seems that link is 404 not found.
Is it changed?
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#176Earlier quoted context omitted.
It literally looks like a font designed by an engineer for a plotter, not something designed for the human eye or legibility. Plotter fonts are intended to exactly communicate important technical information. They are designed to be highly legible, irrespective of whether you think they look nice. It's the same with old-school pixel fonts, which had to exactly communicate easily confusable glyphs, instantly, on a low…
> Plotter fonts are intended to exactly communicate important technical information. They are designed to be highly legible, irrespective of whether you think they look nice. Legibility isn't the same as readability. ALL CAPS is highly legible, and so are freeway billboards - neither are optimized for high comprehension, high speed, and minimal fatigue during extended sessions. For example, exaggerating key elements…
Readability is a loaded term here. Code readability may or may not be the same as the readability of prose. Readability based on a font in one programming language may not be the same as in another programming language. I would question any assumptions otherwise, without sufficient reasoning to back them up.
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's important not to oversell the touchy-feely/what-looks-good side of this. Font design is certainly about planning and calculation, it's just that those calculations need to be based on optics rather than geometry. Instead of perfect circles, we use a shape that is taller than it is wide; instead of splitting the space in half, cross-strokes should be higher than the middle; different strokes need to be different…
What about the difference in use? Do you know of any work that examines whether there is a difference in the importance of attributes depending on whether it's for programming or reading? I know different things are important to me when viewing programming text than reading. A simple, somewhat contrived example would be whether 'r' and 'n' together are easily discernible as 'rn' or 'm' (which is mostly a non-problem…
You read code when you're programming. The only difference is the mix of characters you'll see near each other. General readability matters -- when is it OK for a regular font to be unclear about which character (a zero or 'O') you're looking at?
The 'rn' case is one of kerning, and is an issue independent of the mono- or proportional-ness of the font; it's one of kerning. You can have 'r' and 'n' at full width for the font, and they'll look very 'm'-ish. If you have 'rn' looking like 'm', it's just as awful when you're reading a novel as when you're reading code.
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
I worked at a printing company a long time ago (although in IT not as a graphics artist), and its a slightly rewarmed serif font thats about 200 years old and designed for newspaper levels of contrast (thats what it was used for two centuries ago). If you're going to stick with serifs try something like Georgia which is also a warmed over serif font, but somewhat More warmed over than Courier New. If you want a pleas…
We're talking about programming fonts here, though. Serifs have been proven easier to read than sans-serif fonts in usability studies. Also, there are multiple advantages to using monospaced fonts in programming applications.
No, serifs have not "been proven easier to read than sans-serif fonts". Nor has it been proven the other way around.
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#179Looked great on the web page so I downloaded it, installed it, and set my (XFCE) terminal to use it. It looks like crap, for some reason, and I quickly switched back to my normal font.
Re: Hermit: a font for programmers, by a programmer
#180Looks pretty good at lower sized fonts, but I regularly work in 24pt font size and it looks terrible at that size. Too bad.
I usually code around 10pt - more would mean I couldn't fit enough code on the screen... Are you talking about coding at 24pt? I'm interested why you'd do that?
I'm only going to pay attention to a single method anyways, so I don't need much on the screen. It's very lovely to read at that size and I don't need to strain my eyes at night.