[HN Gopher] Input: Customisable Fonts for Code
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       Input: Customisable Fonts for Code
        
       Author : p4bl0
       Score  : 103 points
       Date   : 2021-03-31 09:59 UTC (13 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (input.djr.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (input.djr.com)
        
       | ashton314 wrote:
       | This has been my font for my terminal and Emacs (ever since I
       | switched to the GUI) for several years now. I even got
       | Fontcase[^1] on my iOS devices so I could install it there. Super
       | legible, looks great, and nice and customizable.
       | 
       | [^1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/fontcase-manage-your-
       | type/id12...
        
       | armagon wrote:
       | Ooh, these are nice. I love using a proportional font for coding.
       | 
       | As an aside, anyone know of proportional fonts with coding
       | ligatures (or a way to generate them/create a mash-up)?
        
         | aendruk wrote:
         | Iosevka with `quasiProportionalDiversity = 1`.
         | 
         | e.g. https://gist.github.com/4256994d206875f6407979d63b40764c
        
       | jvican wrote:
       | My favorite mono space font ever. I've stuck with it for years
       | and can't get tired of it. I highly recommend folks give it a
       | try. Keep in mind that things such as font width and letter
       | spacing have a huge influence in how it looks, especially in
       | macOS.
        
         | airstrike wrote:
         | Same. I previously used Ubuntu Mono, Consolas and Monaco for
         | the most part, but once I customized Input to look _just right_
         | for my tastes, I never looked back.
        
       | hyper_dynamics wrote:
       | I love it!
        
       | monkey_monkey wrote:
       | I try so many fonts, but in the end I always return to Inconsola-
       | dz.
        
       | superfamicom wrote:
       | I tried ligatures and different letter combos and none of them
       | ever stuck with me. I have used M+ MN Type-1 Regular as my
       | terminal and programming font for years, I started because it was
       | narrow but it's been my go to ever since.
       | 
       | https://mplus-fonts.osdn.jp/about-en.html https://mplus-
       | fonts.osdn.jp/design.html#mplus_mn1
        
       | bogdan wrote:
       | Similar and more customizable: https://typeof.net/Iosevka/
       | https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka
        
         | darkblackcorner wrote:
         | This looks good! I've been using
         | [Hack](https://sourcefoundry.org/hack) for a while, but it
         | might be time for a change..
        
       | sooheon wrote:
       | Was a long time input user until Jetbrains Mono was released:
       | https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/
       | 
       | To my eyes it's the best font for coding (SF Mono on the Mac
       | being another nice one that I like on the terminal)
        
         | willemlabu wrote:
         | Came here to say this. JetBrains Mono is my favourite code-
         | font. The ligatures are excellent too.
        
         | eknkc wrote:
         | After using Jetbrains Mono for a while, I switched completely
         | to Cascadia Code (https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code).
         | Looks great
        
           | hnbad wrote:
           | Personally I prefer Hack (https://sourcefoundry.org/hack/)
           | but I used Ubuntu Mono (https://design.ubuntu.com/font/)
           | before. I find the harsh serifs in many monospace fonts too
           | jarring but this comes down to taste.
        
         | alpaca128 wrote:
         | It looks nice overall, but I can't get over the jarring edges
         | on the M. And to this day I don't get why so many great fonts
         | have a dot inside the digit 0 instead of a stroke.
         | 
         | Minor details, absolutely. But with the number of newly
         | released coding fonts you gotta compare them somehow.
        
           | threepio wrote:
           | > I don't get why so many great fonts have a dot inside the
           | digit 0 instead of a stroke
           | 
           | A slashed zero often looks too similar to the figure 8
        
       | oedmarap wrote:
       | This is amazingly useful. I've always had to settle for a
       | tradeoffs between widths and alternates when choosing a
       | terminal/IDE font; I've just created the perfect combination that
       | fits my readability needs.
       | 
       | Storing the configuration in URL query strings is also a nice
       | touch. Thank you for making this.
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | The asterisk ("*") lower variant is still too high. It should be
       | vertically center-aligned with "=" etc.
        
       | qart wrote:
       | https://www.recursive.design/ has these features too. I use it
       | everywhere.
        
         | andrewshadura wrote:
         | A really great font; sadly, not open source, so cannot be
         | shipped by your favourite distro.
        
           | qart wrote:
           | https://github.com/arrowtype/recursive/blob/main/OFL.txt says
           | it is the most common open source font license, and allows
           | even commercial use. It can definitely be shipped by distros.
        
             | andrewshadura wrote:
             | Sorry, by mistake I replied to a wrong comment -- I meant
             | Input, of course.
        
       | mekkkkkk wrote:
       | I use the non-monospaced version (Input Sans) in every editor I
       | work with. A lot of you might consider it heresy to do so, but I
       | would highly recommend you to try out. Unless you are trying to
       | align tokens on the same line with spaces or create ASCII art, it
       | doesn't interfere. And the readability is massively improved.
        
         | nerdponx wrote:
         | I'll only consider using a non-monospaced font for code if
         | elastic tabstops [0] become commonplace.
         | 
         | [0]: https://nickgravgaard.com/elastic-tabstops/
        
           | mekkkkkk wrote:
           | Fair enough. I suppose it depends on your language and coding
           | style. If you want/need to align arguments with start
           | parenthesis for example, you'll have a bad time with variable
           | width fonts for sure.
        
       | amelius wrote:
       | I use the Iosevka typeface family [1] which also allows
       | customization.
       | 
       | [1] https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka
        
       | vbsteven wrote:
       | Amazing to play with. In light of the font size discussion from a
       | few days ago: I would love to have a UI like this integrated into
       | an IDE like InteliJ so I can fine tune the font rendering to my
       | liking.
        
       | antman wrote:
       | Recursive has the bold the same width as regular, which allows
       | for a very flexible experience. Don't know if any other fonts
       | offer that feature.
        
       | garrepi wrote:
       | I didn't realize how strongly line spacing effected code
       | readability for me -- really glad I saw this.
        
       | moron4hire wrote:
       | I use Cascadia Code from Microsoft because I enjoy the
       | programming-oriented ligatures it includes, such as rendering
       | '!=' as '[?]'.
       | 
       | https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code
        
         | Syzygies wrote:
         | One can copy ligatures between fonts:
         | https://github.com/ToxicFrog/Ligaturizer
         | 
         | That would remove my primary objection to Input. Seeing a
         | broken arrow -> is ground glass in my eye; other font
         | subtleties are a sign to me I'm losing focus.
        
       | Cenk wrote:
       | For those who don't know him, David Jonathan Ross who made Input
       | also runs the "Font of the Month Club", where for $6 / month you
       | get one font made by him per month, as well as really detailed
       | and well written emails about the thoughts and process behind his
       | typefaces.
       | 
       | https://djr.com/font-of-the-month-club
        
       | andrewshadura wrote:
       | Input is a really great font; sadly, not open source, so cannot
       | be shipped by your favourite distro.
        
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       (page generated 2021-03-31 23:02 UTC)