Live data from Hacker News

Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source

omgubuntu.co.uk

91–100 of 112 posts

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

#91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 cre…

I have a few CSS overrides for some websites to turn all input boxes into monospace fonts. It is far easier to use them then.

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

#92

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 ?…

According to Secretary of State, fonts can be woke now, so I guess?

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

#93
post #11

Great, but is it free of DEI? can it be used in official documents?

The round variant looks like a fatty lacking warrior ethos. Unsuitable for Department of War. /s

From now on, we're running the Army like a frat party. No fat chicks! No fuggos! And if you're a fat dude, you better be damn funny!

-- Secretary of War ~~Pete Hegseth~~ Colin Jost.

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

#95

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 ?…

According to Secretary of State, fonts can be woke now, so I guess?

Don't think he ever described it as "woke". https://daringfireball.net/2025/12/full_text_of_marco_rubio_...

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

#96
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…

Lately I’ve become a fan of: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Atkinson+Hyperlegible Mainly for its attention to detail. It’s careful to make it obvious when it matters. For example, O and 0, lower case L and 1, and others.

I mean, how can you not like it?

It's hyperlegible!

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

#97

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. :)

Funny, that's my one of my least favorite monospace fonts. My favorite is PragmataPro. I love how the characters are compact yet very readable.

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

#98
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…

This is an Interface font, most suited for User Interfaces (Websites, Apps, etc). Almost all fonts that I have seen that distinguish the “O0 & Il” properly do not look good when used as an Interface font, but look good as an editor or something you do with it (Notes).

For instance, I set Inter[1] as my UI font in Obsidian, but I have set “Atkinson Hyperlegible Next”[2] as my Editor Font. I would gladly use such clean sans-serif fonts (Inter, Flex Sans, Geist, etc.)[3] because they are easy for the human eye to read quickly, even if there is a spelling error, and hence the distinction between the “O0 & Il” would not matter.

So, It Depends on the use case. “Atkinson Hyperlegible Next” is a fantastic, highly readable/recognizable font, but it will look pretty ugly when using it to design interfaces.

1. https://rsms.me/inter/

2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atkinson_Hyperlegible

3. https://vercel.com/font

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

#99
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…

> stopped picking fonts that don't distinguish lowercase l and uppercase I

Strongly agree on this, Bitwarden previously used a font that made passwords that contains i (or was it I?) and l difficult to distinguish.

It seems they changed the fonts since the recent UI refresh.

Post reply on HN