It might be better to create a website with a light theme, especially for a typeface inspired by typewriters.
I just can't read it.
Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
71–80 of 100 posts
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah it's driving me crazy honestly -- why put art on there if it's not recognizable as anything?? It does indeed look like the overworld from DF, but not quite coherent enough... FWIW everyone's complaining about this so I'll throw in the recent monospace release that absolutely blew me away: https://monaspace.githubnext.com/ Who needs hackers when you have Microsoft the evil tech conglomerate pumping out fonts, any…
Another good Microsoft monospace font: Cascadia. Something about it just makes it super legible for me when coding in it, plus it has nerd fonts built in without needing to be patched. https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code
I use this one, too. I also love the (optional) ligatures for things like boolean comparisons.
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
I've never understood why the lowercase l and 1 so often look the same in monospace fonts. It's not like anyone actually writes an l like that — why not just a small bottom right hook? And maybe a top left hook as well? But a whole base is insanity.
I agree that this is a bad decision for programming, but the reason most fixed-width fonts do that is that they can look visually uneven if they don't use exaggerated serifs on narrow characters. It can even get to the point where words look like they have spaces in them if the wrong characters are next to each other.
Monospace (https://monaspace.githubnext.com/) has a feature that dynamically changes between different versions of characters and moves them inside their space in the font grid to make up for that. But even so, its bottom serifs on 1, I, and l extend to both sides.
Cascadia Code (https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code) has a lower-case L whose bottom serif only extends to the right. It's the typeface I use for writing code, and IMO, it's currently the best option available.
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#74Why do we need another font like this? It looks ugly anyway, plus has the other problems people mentioned about character distinguishability.
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#75after trying a myriad of "programming" fonts, nothing feels more comfortable than Pragmasevka [0], a mix of PragmataPro and Iosevka.
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
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-hei…
The line spacing on the site reminds me of 8-bit computers with 8x8 pixel character cells. For example https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpeedScript#/media/File:Speeds...
It does have that feel, but it's decidedly cramped compared to, say, the VT100's font, or even that of the VT52, which are both a bit closer to the "server" heritage they are alluding to.
Many other "code page 437" (console graphics fonts) do much better than this for readability at base line-height.
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#77After reading through the thread, I want to show my warm and honest appreciation for Server Mono.
I like the art! I like the feel and… idk, visual rhythm? One man’s inconsistent is another man’s lively. I like the tight linespacing; Am of the opinion that line art glyphs should touch each other across lines – of course! – but it can’t be solved at the font level. We need console-oriented text rendering that knows how to connect those glyps. Could be done automatically but seems awkward. Could be done even better with, say, some kind of anchor points embedded into the font file – in a particular UNICODE location maybe?
And I for one don’t really mind I and l and 1 looking similar. Distinct is better but I am fond of the historic imperfection. O and 0 absolutely need to be distinguishable though! haha
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#78So, 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…
Which OTF renderer? freetype?
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
The first thing I look at on ANY font is the capital "i." No crossbars? No dice. This one has those and a distinguishable zero vs. O, so far so good. Whoops; someone pointed out that 1 and l are indistinguishable. That's a major failing.
Maybe that's what they meant by "inspired by typewriters" (on many typewriters there was no 1, you had to use lowercase L)? But I agree that this is not a "feature" you want to have in a font that you use in terminals and/or for programming.
1’s are a luxury.
https://www.omnimaga.org/humor-and-jokes/dilbert-'we-could-o...
Re: Server Mono: A Typeface Inspired by Typewriters, Apple's SF Mono, and CLIs
#80So, 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…
> I would think they're only supposed to just touch, with no gap, no overlap.
Because of variations on how software terminals and GUIs render fonts, this is very tricky. That’s why so many terminal programs take over box-drawing characters and implement the glyphs themselves. This way the glyphs defined by the font are a rendering failsafe and it’s sometimes better to not even implement them and leave it to the systems font substitution mechanisms.
Hardware terminals had fixed vertical spacing, which made alignment much easier.