What's the benefit of no descenders?
In theory it allows to pack text tighter with minimal line spacing.
Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
31–40 of 63 posts
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#32Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#33Hey, this is my first font design, constructive criticism welcome! Thanks.
I find it legible except for y becoming u
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#34I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity. For example, lowercase q is easy to recognize because your eyes are already drawn to it being one of few characters that descend. In the case of this font, you have a small uppercase Q as the lowercase q. This feels like it accomplishes the opposite of this stated benefit.
Yep, I agree. Your eyes need these clues to help you read at speed. When every character looks similar, you have to slow down to look at individual characters, rather than just glancing at a whole word.
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#35I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity. For example, lowercase q is easy to recognize because your eyes are already drawn to it being one of few characters that descend. In the case of this font, you have a small uppercase Q as the lowercase q. This feels like it accomplishes the opposite of this stated benefit.
> I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity.
Of course not: if it did we would be doing it that way everywhere. Typeface design has thousands of years of history, there's only a few major variations in latin types and we've tried them all. Descenders exist for a reason.
This type is pretty cool for what it is meant for, the retro aesthetics. Old school digital displays (like alarm clocks) don't have descenders so it fits pretty well.
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#36Sorry, but it's hard to read for me. I have to really look at what's written to recognise the letters. That's the opposite of a good font. Good font is easy to run through. But maybe it's just me.
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#37when showcasing fonts please also showcase pre-rendered font images, because some of us override website fonts for legibility (and possibly speed or memory consumption)
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#38Hey, this is my first font design, constructive criticism welcome! Thanks.
Aesthetically, great. But i can't help but find it harder to read this font. Probably cool for things such as a poster or album art, but not something i'd enjoy using in my code editor.
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#39I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity. For example, lowercase q is easy to recognize because your eyes are already drawn to it being one of few characters that descend. In the case of this font, you have a small uppercase Q as the lowercase q. This feels like it accomplishes the opposite of this stated benefit.
> I'm unsure if "no descenders" provides increased clarity. Of course not: if it did we would be doing it that way everywhere. Typeface design has thousands of years of history, there's only a few major variations in latin types and we've tried them all. Descenders exist for a reason. This type is pretty cool for what it is meant for, the retro aesthetics. Old school digital displays (like alarm clocks) don't have de…
> Descenders exist for a reason.
Yeah but I wouldn't just assume it's because they are the optimal solution. Look at architectural handwriting, very clear, no descenders.
Re: Retrocide Mono – A monospaced font with no decenders
#40What's the benefit of no descenders?
its popular in basic games where fonts are made from bitmap glyphs and pixels are at a premium.