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Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

omgubuntu.co.uk

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Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#61

Post by Hupriene »

adrian_b wrote: post #49
virtue3 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

they probably deem it as not important. "Context is all you need to tell the difference, keep the font clean"

Context solves this ambiguity in texts recording a human language, but in computer or smartphone applications it is extremely frequent to not have a context that allows disambiguation. Ambiguous characters may have been acceptable in typefaces designed before 1990, but they are certainly not acceptable for any more recent design, unless the typeface is designed for a very specific and limited purpose, e.g. for a sing…

To be fair the designer who created the font would probably agree that for use cases like passwords or serial numbers etc. you should use a different font. That's the nice thing about having different fonts around. You can choose which one you want to use.

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#62

Post by spankalee »

torbengee wrote: post #28

I've tried so many fonts in my coding life, but I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono. Crisp, all characters distinguishable, slightly larger lowercase for better reading ... I recently compared it once more to others – https://www.programmingfonts.org/ makes it easy to narrow down to your favourites one by one ... JetBrains Mono still wins. :)

Google Sans isn't a coding font though.

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#63

Post by amelius »

pdimitar wrote: post #53
amelius wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite coding font: Iosevka Term. https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka It takes a day or so to get used to the condensed form factor, but after that you can enjoy much more horizontal space in your terminal windows. There is one downside: all the other fonts will look bulky :)

I like that family of fonts but ultimately couldn't live with how tall they are. I want to have 50-60 lines of code on my screen. With it I had 35-40.

From another point of view, the font is just as tall as other fonts, just less wide. So I suspect you are (maybe unconsciously) making an unfair comparison by scaling one font more than the other.

You can see an apples-to-apples comparison here:

https://www.programmingfonts.org/#iosevka

(and then put and hold your finger on the last line of text and select another font)

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#64

Post by aucisson_masque »

Does it matter ?

No really, I'm not trying to be edgy. Does the font we're using to read a document matters??

Last time I checked, scientist agreed that the best for an average user is the font you're used to. Serif, sans serif,.. didn't matter. Just keep using the one you always used.

So I don't get why every so often, Google work on a new font. Pick one and stick to it, user don't care.

Or am I missing something ?

BTW, personnel opinion but the only fonts i found to really look better than anything else were apple fonts. They don't make things easier to read but they just look so nice whereas Google always feel meh.

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#65

Post by worble »

lucb1e wrote: post #9

Where possible, I've stopped picking fonts that don't distinguish lowercase l and uppercase I. Words virtually always have redundancy (or context in the sentence) and it's fine in 98% of cases, but too often someone sends a token, password, name, or other string where you need to copy it out to another application to see it and just... why? Why bother? I/O test for Sans Flex: https://snipboard.io/wXCQq5.jpg It passes…

Hello fellow Ubuntu font lover.

I have this set as my OS default and also forced for all webpages, I just find it so clear and easy to read. On the occasion that I have to browse the web without it, I don't struggle per-say, but I definitely find that I have to read slower, and find myself rereading words more often.

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#66

Post by adrian_b »

Hupriene wrote: post #61
adrian_b wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Context solves this ambiguity in texts recording a human language, but in computer or smartphone applications it is extremely frequent to not have a context that allows disambiguation. Ambiguous characters may have been acceptable in typefaces designed before 1990, but they are certainly not acceptable for any more recent design, unless the typeface is designed for a very specific and limited purpose, e.g. for a sing…

To be fair the designer who created the font would probably agree that for use cases like passwords or serial numbers etc. you should use a different font. That's the nice thing about having different fonts around. You can choose which one you want to use.

That is a solution applicable for a document or GUI created by yourself, where you can define various styles with associated fonts and use them appropriately.

However, I see the worst offenders on various Web pages (frequently for various URLs) where I do not control the typeface, unless I instruct the browser to ignore the style sheet of the rendered Web page and use my own fonts instead, which can be tedious or create other problems in the rendered page.

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#67

Post by 0xfab1 »

amelius wrote: post #41
torbengee wrote: post #28

I've tried so many fonts in my coding life, but I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono. Crisp, all characters distinguishable, slightly larger lowercase for better reading ... I recently compared it once more to others – https://www.programmingfonts.org/ makes it easy to narrow down to your favourites one by one ... JetBrains Mono still wins. :)

My favorite coding font: Iosevka Term. https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka It takes a day or so to get used to the condensed form factor, but after that you can enjoy much more horizontal space in your terminal windows. There is one downside: all the other fonts will look bulky :)

It's also what I've settled into, after using Consolas, Fira Code, and Inconsolata.

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#68

Post by wongarsu »

samoyy wrote: post #44
apt-apt-apt-apt wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One would think that this would be a fundamental principle in font design, distinguishing letters from each other.

It’s just not a common enough feature of handwriting, I assume.

Is it not? The style of block letters I learned (in 90s Germany) has the capital I as a straight line, the digit 1 as a straight line with an angular downward hook at the top, and the lowercase l as a line with a smooth 45-90° right hook at the bottom. I always perceived that style as quite common in handwriting, just uncommon in print (just like close to nobody does the fancy a in handwriting but it's common in print)

And of course in cursive I and l look nothing alike, no matter which cursive you write

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#69

Post by ashton314 »

pdimitar wrote: post #53
amelius wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite coding font: Iosevka Term. https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka It takes a day or so to get used to the condensed form factor, but after that you can enjoy much more horizontal space in your terminal windows. There is one downside: all the other fonts will look bulky :)

I like that family of fonts but ultimately couldn't live with how tall they are. I want to have 50-60 lines of code on my screen. With it I had 35-40.

I hear you: I don't like how skinny the letterforms are. There's an "extended" variant that I find much more pleasing. I put together a customization you can see here: https://codeberg.org/ashton314/iosevka-output (there's a nice screenshot on that page).

You can probably get the proportions you want if you find a way to tweak the line spacing (also possible by adjusting the `leading` option in `private-build-plans.toml` and rebuilding).

Re: Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

#70

Post by dialogbox »

lucb1e wrote: post #9

Where possible, I've stopped picking fonts that don't distinguish lowercase l and uppercase I. Words virtually always have redundancy (or context in the sentence) and it's fine in 98% of cases, but too often someone sends a token, password, name, or other string where you need to copy it out to another application to see it and just... why? Why bother? I/O test for Sans Flex: https://snipboard.io/wXCQq5.jpg It passes…

I also agree with you on the O0 I'll distinctions importance. So as google open-source it, someone can improved it freely.
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