I'm looking for a good looking Monospaced Font

TacticalCoder

26 May 2012, 19:54

For what it's worth I'm using a free pixel-perfect "programming font" (monospaced of course) called "proggy" "made by a programmer, for programmers".

I started from the pixel perfect proggy "squared / slashed zero" font and did modify a few pixels left and right to make it look the way I like it :D

I don't remember how exactly (it was literally years ago) but I did create both a .pcf (.pcf.gz) and a ttf version of my own version of the proggy font to use under Linux / X Window. I can't redistribute my modified version AFAICT but the stock proggy fonts can be d/l'ed for free... In case anyone is into "pixel perfect" / "no anti-aliasing at all".

By default in some proggy fonts a few characters (like !, used a lot in some programming languages) are "bolder" than usual (which I like a lot).

Then I'm using "reverse video" modes (dark background) for my terminals, for my Emacs and for IntelliJ IDEA (when I need to edit some Java code).

Nice xmonad screenshot btw...

TacticalCoder

26 May 2012, 20:14

RC-1140 wrote:This sharp edges make my eyes hurt...
The xmonad screenshot is using a pixel perfect font without any anti-aliasing (nearly everywhere: there's one horizontal line at the very top of the xmonad screenshot which, for whatever reason, is anti-aliased).

I've still got no eyeglasses and still have a 10/10 eyesight at nearly 40 years old and literally 25+ years spent looking at monitors for many hours a day, many days a week, etc. and to me your screenshot using anti-aliased fonts everywhere instantly looks very blurry. I don't like it because it "makes my eyes sleep" very fast (I don't know how to explain it: I'm not a native english speaker but basically anti-aliased font --even subpixel anti-aliased fonts-- causes me to get tired way faster than pixel perfect non-AA fonts).

So for me it's the contrary: I like the "sharp edges" of pixel perfect fonts.

But YMMV and there are really two camps here and I guess no one camp is "right" :?

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RC-1140

26 May 2012, 20:28

Yup, some prefer pixel perfect fonts, some prefer anti aliased fonts. I prefer to the second group. I generally dislike high contrasts (which is why I use solarized as a color scheme as well), so the smooth/blurred edges suit me well. I guess everything has its pros and cons. But I'm still looking for a good consolefont. As there is no AA, or hinting there I would need something pixel perfect looking in a way similar to Inconsolata for my console.

My eyes are fine as well, the last time I was being tested I was told I had a sight of 130% (sic!). But still I prefer „Blurry fonts“

TacticalCoder

27 May 2012, 16:27

RC-1140 wrote:Yup, some prefer pixel perfect fonts, some prefer anti aliased fonts. I prefer to the second group. I generally dislike high contrasts (which is why I use solarized as a color scheme as well), so the smooth/blurred edges suit me well. I guess everything has its pros and cons. But I'm still looking for a good consolefont. As there is no AA, or hinting there I would need something pixel perfect looking in a way similar to Inconsolata for my console.
I dislike high contrasts too, I'm usually using the Zenburn color scheme or something close to it :P

mSSM

28 May 2012, 00:41

TacticalCoder wrote:
RC-1140 wrote:Yup, some prefer pixel perfect fonts, some prefer anti aliased fonts. I prefer to the second group. I generally dislike high contrasts (which is why I use solarized as a color scheme as well), so the smooth/blurred edges suit me well. I guess everything has its pros and cons. But I'm still looking for a good consolefont. As there is no AA, or hinting there I would need something pixel perfect looking in a way similar to Inconsolata for my console.
I dislike high contrasts too, I'm usually using the Zenburn color scheme or something close to it :P
Do you have a fitting ANSI colorscheme (Xresources) for that? :D

ripster

18 Jun 2012, 04:35

Some good ones..

http://www.reddit.com/r/typography/comm ... i_l_1_o_0/

Plus, I learned what a dotted zero is.
Dotted zero
The zero with a dot in the center seems to have originated as an option on IBM 3270 controllers. The dotted zero may appear similar to the Greek letter theta (particularly capital theta, Θ), but the two have different glyphs. In raster fonts, the theta usually has a horizontal line connecting, or nearly touching, the sides of an O; while the dotted zero simply has a dot in the middle. However, on a low-definition display, such a form can be confused with a numeral 8.

Multiple

19 Jun 2012, 16:37

The IBM VGA font wins every time.
Attachments
Codepage-437.png
Codepage-437.png (2.45 KiB) Viewed 7612 times

ripster

19 Jun 2012, 16:47

There it is again.

The dotted zero.

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Daniel

19 Jun 2012, 21:19

mSSM wrote:[...]
Could you tell me how you got this neat sidebar of your gmail-folders into mutt?
Never seen this before...

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captain

19 Jun 2012, 22:23

I liked the Apple][ screen font.
Image
Lowercase came along a few years later, but it never looked as clean. Obviously, we don't want to fall back on the familiar when so many better examples exist today, but the IBM comment above reminded me of the joy I had with Apple's simple ASCII set. And, no gorram dotted-zero. SLASH your zeros! :-)

PS: Xcode4 standard is Menlo. In "presentation" style it's 18pt, multicolor. My jury is still out on that, but it's leading the pack. I've been using it's older brother, Monaco, for years as my standard terminal font.

I wish someone would fix the m on these monospaced fonts. It seems to me that the center descender could be truncated to make the character look better, while still fitting into the X space.

Has anyone used Magda Clean Mono for any length of time? https://www.fontfont.com/fonts/magda-clean-mono

Yes, the first one is proportional, the next three are monospaced.
Screen shot 2012-06-19 at 16.28.18.png
Screen shot 2012-06-19 at 16.28.18.png (40.99 KiB) Viewed 7587 times

Multiple

30 Jun 2012, 22:46

Apple][ font looks pretty viable, do you know if there's any TFF or pcf copy of that font?

pyro

01 Jul 2012, 00:52

I like Consolas, too
Image
notice the italic variant is not simply a skewed regular (compare "f" in line 153 vs 154), which adds more visual structure to the code.

woody
Count Troller

01 Jul 2012, 17:02

Multiple wrote:Apple][ font looks pretty viable, do you know if there's any TFF or pcf copy of that font?
One of the few:
http://www.thugdome.com/software_a2f.html

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off

01 Jul 2012, 17:14

pyro wrote:I like Consolas, too
notice the italic variant is not simply a skewed regular
Now compare the 'i' in those lines... imho way too straight.

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RC-1140

01 Jul 2012, 17:25

Alright, here's my current setup, with a little tweaked character spacing, hinting for my screen, and Inconsolata-g instead of Inconsolata (note the dotted zero instead of the dashed one)
Image

woody
Count Troller

01 Jul 2012, 17:38

"<+>" needs some work in terms of symmetry.

dotancohen

04 Jul 2012, 14:37

nathanscribe wrote:OS X Terminal defaults to Menlo, which looks very similar:

Image
That is a real nice comparison. How did you make that?

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nathanscribe

04 Jul 2012, 15:19

dotancohen wrote:That is a real nice comparison. How did you make that?
I didn't, I just found the image online. 8-)

It's a handy way to show the differences though, I agree.

ripster

04 Jul 2012, 16:49

Easy to do in photoshop

mSSM

04 Jul 2012, 22:13

I have actually switched to DejaVu Sans Mono, as it has superior Unicode support as compared to any other free font out there...

Djuzuh

08 Jul 2012, 21:59

I love this thread, I didn't even think about caring about my console font. But now, I can't decide between inconsolata and termsyn.

But I think I'll chose termsyn. inconsolata is probably better for reading, but termsyn just looks sexier.

Now I need to find out how to install this font everywhere hm…

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harrison

09 Jul 2012, 18:09

off wrote:
pyro wrote:I like Consolas, too
notice the italic variant is not simply a skewed regular
Now compare the 'i' in those lines... imho way too straight.
i agree, actually... the italic i is too straight in Consolas, but otherwise, i like it quite a bit and use it more or less across the board. Anything to get rid of Lucidia console.

ripster

09 Jul 2012, 18:57

dotancohen wrote:
That is a real nice comparison. How did you make that?
ripster wrote:Easy to do in photoshop

See!
Image
Last edited by ripster on 10 Jul 2012, 05:12, edited 1 time in total.

fuah

09 Jul 2012, 19:42

My personal favorite: http://www.tobias-jung.de/seekingprofont/

example:
Image

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nathanscribe

09 Jul 2012, 21:24

ripster wrote:Easy to do in photoshop

See!
Spoiler:
Image
The earlier post shows black where the two overlay. I don't use photoshop but would guess it's something to do with transparency?

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Soarer

09 Jul 2012, 22:28

ripster wrote:Easy to do in photoshop

See!
ROFL.
Spoiler:
Consolas_vs_Droid_Sans_Mono.png
Consolas_vs_Droid_Sans_Mono.png (18.31 KiB) Viewed 7391 times

pyro

09 Jul 2012, 23:17

Image
Spoiler:
Image

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Soarer

09 Jul 2012, 23:21

I don't see your point, pyro :?

ripster

10 Jul 2012, 05:02

Soarer wrote:
ripster wrote:Easy to do in photoshop

See!
ROFL.
Spoiler:
Consolas_vs_Droid_Sans_Mono.png
You kern the letters to superimpose with alt-Arrow in Photoshop.

I may be a HTML noob but I've learned to kern. Drop in mono spaced fonts or a few pairs like Arial/Helvetica.

Check THIS nice keyboard font (currently under debate)
http://www.reddit.com/r/identifythisfon ... yriad_pro/
Last edited by ripster on 10 Jul 2012, 05:05, edited 1 time in total.

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TexasFlood

10 Jul 2012, 05:04

kern bigot

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