14 ms·

Comic Code – Monospaced interpretation of the most over-hated typeface

284 points by FabianBeiner 7y ago

blululu 7y ago
There was once an “Ask HN: What Font do you use for Programming?”. Most folks chose mono-space standards. One guy said “Comic Sans - to remind me to be humble.” I like that sentiment and I hope that he will enjoy this font.
js4ever 7y ago
Honest question, buying fonts is still a thing nowadays with all the free fonts everywhere? (google fonts and others)
- nicoburns 7y ago
  It definitely is. Some of the best fonts are still paid. And there are only so many high-quality free-fonts. That said, I haven't personally purchased a font (or worked for a company that purchased a font) for several years. I can't imagine who would pay for this particular font :/
  - excalibur 7y ago
    I can see Dinesh buying it just to make Gilfoyle's skin crawl.
- gclaugus 7y ago
  I'd say yeah, I bought PragmataPro because it's a work of art and has great ligature support. Operator Mono is another popular choice.
  - exogeny 7y ago
    I bought FF Kievit back in the day because it was the most beautiful thing I had ever saw. Now everything on the web is Proxima Nova and it is a boring, boring place.
  - quaffapint 7y ago
    In terms of ligature support, as a free alternative there is FiraCode... https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
    - noir_lord 7y ago
      Iosevka as well, which has custom builds (on of which is aimed at making it as like pragmata pro as possible and it is damn close). Gorgeous font, bit of a bugger to build but once you get it working hours of tinkering ;)
    - gclaugus 7y ago
      Yeah, Fira Code is an excellent font, and it is something I have used in the past. PragmataPro looked prettier to my eyes so I bought it, that's all. In fact, it's linked as an alternative on that Github page. The condensed look and lack of interlinear spacing of PPro are a nice bonus, not that there aren't other condensed fonts. I suppose for intl use PPro might be nice too since it has 9000+ glyphs, and the dev is still adding more.
    - gnuvince 7y ago
      One big problem with Fira Code is its lack of italics.
- LukeBMM 7y ago
  In addition to the other replies, there's more to a font than the shapes of the letters. "You get what you pay for" correlates even more strongly with things like hinting (internal instructions of how to try to align with pixel edges) than it does with the immediately visible appearance of the letterforms. That's not a consideration for everyone, admittedly, but an incredibly important one for those who _do_ have to take it into account.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
- Causality1 7y ago
  I'm also curious as to how this doesn't violate Microsoft's copyright on Comic Sans, since it's a derivative work being sold for profit.
  - jagger27 7y ago
    From the about section: "Comic Code only takes inspiration from Comic Sans and was drawn entirely from scratch, in case you are wondering." So that's effectively asking why Arial doesn't violate Helvetica's copyright.
  - SloopJon 7y ago
    Case law on copyright for fonts is complicated, with fonts generally having less protection than other works. My impression is that Comic Code is no more derivative of Comic Sans than, say, Arial is of Helvetica.
    - tosche 7y ago
      Hi, the designer here. As for the font name, Microsoft owns "Comic Sans" but not "Comic" or "Sans" alone. And as already explained, fonts are copyrighted as software codes and a new one has to be made from scratch (except of course when you are the owner or permitted in license agreement). In terms of visual similarity, Comic Neue is much closer to Comic Sans but MS hasn't done anything with it. If that's fine, Comic Code surely would be too. In any case, I did speak with the MS guys prior to release, and they saw no issues with either trademark or copyright.
  - dsr_ 7y ago
    Font IP is special! The names are trademarks, so you can't copy them exactly, but you can use suggestive alternates. Palatino => Palatable, for example. TeX Gyre Pagella is a very nice version. The code is copyrighted, so you can't copy the code exactly. But -- you can rasterize a font, print it, scan it, vectorize the output, add your own hints, and now have a clean re-implementation. The shapes of the letters are not copyrightable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...
- TheRealPomax 7y ago
  Honest answer: that's a bit like asking "why buy games when there are so many free games available?" Modern fonts are vastly more elaborate pieces of software than what people tend to think they are [1], and you get what you pay for. If you just need 56 letters, get a free font. If you need full Unicode Latin support, with proper kerning between each of the thousands of possible pairs, with ligature substitution for hundreds of tuples, not just for one language but several, with compositional repositioning for languages that require it, and alternate glyphs based on initial, median, final, or isolated letter form, and so on and so forth, then dollars will get you what free cannot. Everyone can make a motivational jpg, but you need to pay a skilled digital artist to create a unique well composed new work. In the same vein, anyone can make a font, but you'll need to pay a skilled typographer (or foundry) if you want a well designed, feature rich typeface. [1] https://pomax.github.io/CFF-glyphlet-fonts/ https://pomax.github.io/CFF-glyphlet-fonts/
  - saidajigumi 7y ago
    Seconded. The company I work for is currently commissioning a custom family of fonts from a major digital type foundry... and it's a vast (and expensive) undertaking. Consider potentially important features like support for[1]: font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums For fonts with the support coded in, this variant means numbers in tables will line up in your font without outright switching to a monospace font. Beyond good glyph design, as the parent mentions, there's a lot of work to craft a professional modern font esp. the more of the Unicode language space it spans. [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/font-variant-numeric https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/font-varian...
  - LocalH 7y ago
    The fact of modern vector fonts being software is what makes most fonts fall under copyright law in the first place in the US. Generally, absent actual software in the font file, typefaces aren't copyrightable at all. Pure bitmaps of typefaces are pretty much free for everyone to use. But if you use a protected vector font to generate those bitmaps, then they become infringing. Color of bits and all that. This is also a US-centric comment. Other jurisdictions have differing rules to cover fonts and typefaces. In the US, however, it is fully legal to lawfully acquire a physical font specimen, scan that font, and do what you wish with it. Caveat: IANAL
- thebeefytaco 7y ago
  Same reason why a lot of people don't use things like material design. People want their designs to look good and stand out from the crowd - not have the same cookie cutter site as everything else.
- tiborsaas 7y ago
  Usually when I stop to admire the typography on a certain site it's almost always a paid font.
- pault 7y ago
  I started my career as a graphic designer, and I studied typography from an early age (my parents are both retired graphic designers and worked in the pre-digital era when designers really had to know their stuff). With the exception of a few well known typefaces (roboto, open sans, probably less than five in all) those free fonts suck. The kerning is terrible, there are usually no variants, they don't anti-alias well at different sizes, the international support is non-existent, etc. There is an absolutely insane amount of detail work that goes into designing a font and only the most OCD designers can pull it off, and only with an enormous amount of effort. If you spend 6 months to a year developing a font, you should be paid for it. Since I do notice these things I don't mind paying $100 for a font that ticks all of the above boxes. I stare at my IDE all day, and I wouldn't use a shitty color scheme, so I wouldn't use a shitty font on top of it.
empath75 7y ago
i would totally use this if it had nerdfont support and ligature support.
- bin0 7y ago
  You're in luck; you can patch your own! https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts#font-patcher https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts#font-patcher
  - empath75 7y ago
    yeah, but it wouldn't be in the same style.
    - bin0 7y ago
      Some glyphs wouldn't really replicate in the style of comic sans... plus, stuff like powerline glyphs wouldn't match up right.
- jve 7y ago
  How do you support ligatures for monospaced fonts?
  - lmilcin 7y ago
    The same way as in any other font. https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
  - Someone 7y ago
    You make sure all ligatures have widths that are integral multiples of the standard width. If you’re strict, you make them the same width as the separate characters would be. If you’re less strict, you could, for example, have “⇒” or “½” be one character width, and not 2, respectively 3 (the latter probably would make you give up making a ligature for “1/2”)
    - 7y ago
Twirrim 7y ago
I know people really hate Comic Sans, but it has some really useful properties. One particularly useful property, especially in the education sector, is that dyslexics typically find it decidedly easier to read. Comic Sans uses distinct shapes for each character, e.g. no 'p' rotated to be 'q', and a variety of different sizes, all of which help make it easier for dyslexics. AIGA article on the subject: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/sad-but-true-comic-sans-might-just-be-the-best-font-for-dyslexics/ https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/sad-but-true-comic-sans-might-j... From a bit by the British Dyslexic Association: https://bdatech.org/what-technology/typefaces-for-dyslexia/ https://bdatech.org/what-technology/typefaces-for-dyslexia/ Studies showed the following characteristics as being desired: * Good ascenders and descenders, b, d, f, h, k, l, t, and all capitals; g, j, p, q, y. * b and d; p and q distinguished, not mirror images. * Different forms for capital I, lowercase l and digit 1. * Rounded g as in handwriting. Most liked rounded a, although perhaps some felt that it may be confused with o. * Letter-spacing, e.g. r, n together rn should not look like m, (‘modern’ may scan as, or sound like, ‘modem’.) And their summary on Comic Sans MS: "It meets all dyslexic ‘likes’ except mirrored b and d."
- mrob 7y ago
  More recent research showed no benefit from a font designed for dyslexics: "Dyslexie font does not benefit reading in children with or without dyslexia" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11881-017-0154-6 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11881-017-0154-...
  - iamnotacrook 7y ago
    Use a different font then. I know dyslexic people who have had dyslexic fonts installed on their school computers because they found it amazing. If a report says it's no use, try a different dyslexic font...or read a different report!
    - bogwog 7y ago
      > Use a different font then. ...no shit? The research specifically was about one particular font ("Dyslexie") having no benefit, not that all fonts have no benefit.
cat199 7y ago
... awaiting OpenBSD wscons(4) soft font in 5.. 4.. 3..
- protomyth 7y ago
  Not open source, sadly.
linux2647 7y ago
I want to hate on it, but it’s actually like the perfect intersection of monospace and sans-serif; I find it incredibly readable.
stcredzero 7y ago
I wonder if machine learning could produce human looking comic book lettering? It seems like something it would be good at. Also, I bet it could produce human sounding drumming as well.
davewongillies 7y ago
For years I've used Fantasque Sans Mono [0] which is Comic Sans inspired: > realization that at some point it looked like the mutant child of Comic Sans and Helvetica Neue. [0] https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans
- dreamer_soul 7y ago
  That actually looks good haha
  - kbd 7y ago
    It's great actually. I've used it for years as my text editor / terminal font. Compare it to your font of choice in this handy app: https://app.programmingfonts.org/#fantasque-sans https://app.programmingfonts.org/#fantasque-sans
k6hkUZtLUM 7y ago
hilarious - this is the incarnation of a psuedo joke that will never die on the internet. remember the dog? this was his font. now it can be all your coding too LOL
PedroBatista 7y ago
Most of the "most over-hated" is just "hate" because it's cool. If they see me hatin' maybe they think I'm a cultured techno-intelectual but a cool one.
creeble 7y ago
Anybody know how to get this in vim?
- creeble 7y ago
  Follows terminal font. Down that Linux font rabbit hole, I guess.
- Bonooru 7y ago
  Edit your terminal's font settings. Without knowing more about the setup you use, I can't be more helpful.
microcolonel 7y ago
I unironically love this typeface. As soon as my main monitors are HiDPI, I'm liable to switch. It helps not to take things too seriously.
tropo 7y ago
I'd like a Comic Sans without the intentional imperfections. Comic Sans puts a bit of wobble in the letters, as if being written by a careless person. Alternately, with almost the same result, I'd like an Ariel with rounded tips. What I'm wanting is nice geometrically clean letters done with a circle-tip pen.
- jszymborski 7y ago
  You might be interested in Arial Rounded [0], a similarly over-hated font https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/arial-rounded-mt https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/arial-...
- ebg13 7y ago
  > I'd like a Comic Sans without the intentional imperfections http://comicneue.com http://comicneue.com
pixelbath 7y ago
While I try not to be too pithy or snarky here on HN, the one thing sprung immediately to mind was: Thanks, I hate it.
ezekg 7y ago
Thanks, I hate it.
wrp 7y ago
Several years ago, I experimented with a monospaced CS-like font. It has only the ASCII set, but it's free. https://www.dafont.com/pointfree.font https://www.dafont.com/pointfree.font
qwtel 7y ago
You can turn the actual Comic Sans MS into a monospaced font using FongForge. I've made a short video about this back when [1]. You'll have to pause a lot, but the end result is pretty neat. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg7rWHsiAfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg7rWHsiAfQ
Raphmedia 7y ago
In a similar vein, I really like Comic Neue http://comicneue.com/ http://comicneue.com/
tosche 7y ago
Hi, I'm the designer of Comic Code. I just wanted to join the discussion here, just because it looked fun. I know I released a Comic Sans variant, and I'm totally okay with the negative reaction; in fact it puts a big smile on my face. A world where everyone loves Comic Sans sounds wrong, doesn't it?. I used to hate Comic Sans but it's still an interesting typeface that teaches you a lot about typography. Comic Sans can be a great choice depending on the context, and I want to share my personal favourite. When I went to a restaurant in Istanbul, they gave me menus in Turkish and English. The former was set in Comic Sans and the latter in Frutiger. The English menu looked so much like an office document and the Turkish one looked much more appetising (and I wished I could read Turkish). That was a genuine time when Comic Sans beat Frutiger. Despite its quirky letterforms, it performs surprisingly well on screen. And I have seen people trying to use Comic Sans for coding too, most notably Simon Peyton Jones. Programming/coding is also a corner of typography where writing aspect plays a lot compared to others (e.g. user interface), so I found handwriting fonts quite fitting too. I think Comic Code also helps coding beginners who may be intimidated by the cold and mechanical visual of codes. I for one am easily bored while writing codes in regular sans serif. Coding environment is a very personal space and there is no need to look professional. I didn't need maximum clarity or efficiency in my coding typeface, but I wanted to have fun coding. I think Comic Sans, for some people anyway, is something the internet told you to hate. I do see flaws in the typeface and I tried to improve it in my design, but I don't think you should be ashamed of liking Comic Sans. It's not even a bad typeface, and I have seen worse, many times. There is no bad typeface, only bad typography. (That's not strictly true but generally the case for Comic Sans) Sorry for the long post. If you have suggestions (e.g. what glyphs and ligatures added), I'm all ears.
- krisrm 7y ago
  I actually... don't mind it. $15 is a bit much for me to pop on something I'm likely to spend some time giggling at (or maybe pranking some colleagues with... hmmm), but it really does look like the best of both worlds between comic sans and a monospace terminal font. Whatever that is. Anyways, well done!
  - tosche 7y ago
codesushi42 7y ago
Why is Comic Sans so reviled? Is it because it is one of the few fonts you are able to name? It's like the mainstream view that ET is the worst game of all time. It is bad, yes, but not even close to the worst game of all time. Not even the worst mainstream game of all time. Stop font is far worse than Comic Sans, and that garbage was showing up all the time in the 90s well into the 2000s. https://fanart.tv/fanart/movies/5491/hdmovielogo/battlefield-earth-50941e2592c41.png https://fanart.tv/fanart/movies/5491/hdmovielogo/battlefield...
- ben509 7y ago
  > Is it because it is one of the few fonts you are able to name? More that people can name it and identify it. Plenty of people know what Arial is, and I'd imagine designers hate it far more, but most people can't distinguish it from Helvetica. > Stop font is far worse than Comic Sans Yeah, if the original San Francisco[1] had been made a TrueType font and become popular, it would be equally reviled. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(decorative_typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(decorative_type...
- mehrdadn 7y ago
  > Why is Comic Sans so reviled? This site sort of explains it (click to scroll): http://comicsanscriminal.com/ http://comicsanscriminal.com/
jonrx 7y ago
I wish that MyFonts has a better way to "test-drive" the font. When writing some small snippets of code, I wansn't exactly sure if it would work well. Ended up purchasing it, and I must say, it's really fun to use! I find that it makes it easier to go from "focus mode" to "overview mode": it's very readable, but since it looks less blocky than most monospace fonts, I find it easier to navigate larger blocks of code. I might not use it all the time, but this will keep me smiling for a while!
d--b 7y ago
This font is way better than comic sans. I mean look at the m
seltzered_ 7y ago
FWIW, I actually use the 'chalkboard' (apple's version of comic-sans) in my nvAlt (note-taking) app. Makes the feel a bit. On a different note, it'd be interesting to pair this with a friendlier color scheme: https://twitter.com/lovemecomputer_/status/1090367015141998592/photo/1 https://twitter.com/lovemecomputer_/status/10903670151419985... https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=soft-aesthetic.soft-era-theme https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=soft-aes...
craigds 7y ago
I've never bought a font before. These seem crazy expensive. Is this kind of pricing normal? I'd expect to pay maybe a dollar or two for a font; it really doesn't seem like it would provide enough value to be worth more than that.
- tosche 7y ago
  I totally understand that it seems expensive especially if you haven't bought fonts before. Designers are more willing to pay for fonts since fonts are their tools and money maker, but most people do not make a money's worth out of font purchase. If you are in an environment where you think font choices can improve your productivity, I do recommend you consider buying one. To talk about our side, serious typeface design requires years of experience, and people who buy fonts are much smaller in number, compared to film and music, which is also why fonts seem pricy. Look at MyFonts and you will see Comic Code is actually on the cheaper side. There are sometimes good fonts made open source, but the principle that we need to get paid still applies; for those projects, it's just that they were paid by other companies like Mozilla and Google, not users. Here is an open source option of monospaced Comic Sans, which seems to be a passion project rather than a paid one. It's a single weight with very small character count. I mean no harm to her project, but it does make a case for what you get for free vs money. https://github.com/shannpersand/comic-shanns https://github.com/shannpersand/comic-shanns
awinter-py 7y ago
not to be confused with the comics code authority, the censorship body governing comics for part of the 20th century
hnbroseph 7y ago
wow. someone really took comic sans and started charging $100 for it.

284 points by FabianBeiner 7y ago

There was once an “Ask HN: What Font do you use for Programming?”. Most folks chose mono-space standards. One guy said “Comic Sans - to remind me to be humble.” I like that sentiment and I hope that he will enjoy this font.

js4ever 7y ago

Honest question, buying fonts is still a thing nowadays with all the free fonts everywhere? (google fonts and others)

nicoburns 7y ago
It definitely is. Some of the best fonts are still paid. And there are only so many high-quality free-fonts. That said, I haven't personally purchased a font (or worked for a company that purchased a font) for several years. I can't imagine who would pay for this particular font :/
- excalibur 7y ago
  I can see Dinesh buying it just to make Gilfoyle's skin crawl.
gclaugus 7y ago
I'd say yeah, I bought PragmataPro because it's a work of art and has great ligature support. Operator Mono is another popular choice.
- exogeny 7y ago
  I bought FF Kievit back in the day because it was the most beautiful thing I had ever saw. Now everything on the web is Proxima Nova and it is a boring, boring place.
- quaffapint 7y ago
  In terms of ligature support, as a free alternative there is FiraCode... https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
  - noir_lord 7y ago
    Iosevka as well, which has custom builds (on of which is aimed at making it as like pragmata pro as possible and it is damn close). Gorgeous font, bit of a bugger to build but once you get it working hours of tinkering ;)
  - gclaugus 7y ago
    Yeah, Fira Code is an excellent font, and it is something I have used in the past. PragmataPro looked prettier to my eyes so I bought it, that's all. In fact, it's linked as an alternative on that Github page. The condensed look and lack of interlinear spacing of PPro are a nice bonus, not that there aren't other condensed fonts. I suppose for intl use PPro might be nice too since it has 9000+ glyphs, and the dev is still adding more.
  - gnuvince 7y ago
    One big problem with Fira Code is its lack of italics.
LukeBMM 7y ago
In addition to the other replies, there's more to a font than the shapes of the letters. "You get what you pay for" correlates even more strongly with things like hinting (internal instructions of how to try to align with pixel edges) than it does with the immediately visible appearance of the letterforms. That's not a consideration for everyone, admittedly, but an incredibly important one for those who _do_ have to take it into account.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
Causality1 7y ago
I'm also curious as to how this doesn't violate Microsoft's copyright on Comic Sans, since it's a derivative work being sold for profit.
- jagger27 7y ago
  From the about section: "Comic Code only takes inspiration from Comic Sans and was drawn entirely from scratch, in case you are wondering." So that's effectively asking why Arial doesn't violate Helvetica's copyright.
- SloopJon 7y ago
  Case law on copyright for fonts is complicated, with fonts generally having less protection than other works. My impression is that Comic Code is no more derivative of Comic Sans than, say, Arial is of Helvetica.
  - tosche 7y ago
    Hi, the designer here. As for the font name, Microsoft owns "Comic Sans" but not "Comic" or "Sans" alone. And as already explained, fonts are copyrighted as software codes and a new one has to be made from scratch (except of course when you are the owner or permitted in license agreement). In terms of visual similarity, Comic Neue is much closer to Comic Sans but MS hasn't done anything with it. If that's fine, Comic Code surely would be too. In any case, I did speak with the MS guys prior to release, and they saw no issues with either trademark or copyright.
- dsr_ 7y ago
  Font IP is special! The names are trademarks, so you can't copy them exactly, but you can use suggestive alternates. Palatino => Palatable, for example. TeX Gyre Pagella is a very nice version. The code is copyrighted, so you can't copy the code exactly. But -- you can rasterize a font, print it, scan it, vectorize the output, add your own hints, and now have a clean re-implementation. The shapes of the letters are not copyrightable. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protection_of_typefaces#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_property_protecti...
TheRealPomax 7y ago
Honest answer: that's a bit like asking "why buy games when there are so many free games available?" Modern fonts are vastly more elaborate pieces of software than what people tend to think they are [1], and you get what you pay for. If you just need 56 letters, get a free font. If you need full Unicode Latin support, with proper kerning between each of the thousands of possible pairs, with ligature substitution for hundreds of tuples, not just for one language but several, with compositional repositioning for languages that require it, and alternate glyphs based on initial, median, final, or isolated letter form, and so on and so forth, then dollars will get you what free cannot. Everyone can make a motivational jpg, but you need to pay a skilled digital artist to create a unique well composed new work. In the same vein, anyone can make a font, but you'll need to pay a skilled typographer (or foundry) if you want a well designed, feature rich typeface. [1] https://pomax.github.io/CFF-glyphlet-fonts/ https://pomax.github.io/CFF-glyphlet-fonts/
- saidajigumi 7y ago
  Seconded. The company I work for is currently commissioning a custom family of fonts from a major digital type foundry... and it's a vast (and expensive) undertaking. Consider potentially important features like support for[1]: font-variant-numeric: tabular-nums For fonts with the support coded in, this variant means numbers in tables will line up in your font without outright switching to a monospace font. Beyond good glyph design, as the parent mentions, there's a lot of work to craft a professional modern font esp. the more of the Unicode language space it spans. [1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/font-variant-numeric https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/CSS/font-varian...
- LocalH 7y ago
  The fact of modern vector fonts being software is what makes most fonts fall under copyright law in the first place in the US. Generally, absent actual software in the font file, typefaces aren't copyrightable at all. Pure bitmaps of typefaces are pretty much free for everyone to use. But if you use a protected vector font to generate those bitmaps, then they become infringing. Color of bits and all that. This is also a US-centric comment. Other jurisdictions have differing rules to cover fonts and typefaces. In the US, however, it is fully legal to lawfully acquire a physical font specimen, scan that font, and do what you wish with it. Caveat: IANAL
thebeefytaco 7y ago
Same reason why a lot of people don't use things like material design. People want their designs to look good and stand out from the crowd - not have the same cookie cutter site as everything else.
tiborsaas 7y ago
Usually when I stop to admire the typography on a certain site it's almost always a paid font.
pault 7y ago
I started my career as a graphic designer, and I studied typography from an early age (my parents are both retired graphic designers and worked in the pre-digital era when designers really had to know their stuff). With the exception of a few well known typefaces (roboto, open sans, probably less than five in all) those free fonts suck. The kerning is terrible, there are usually no variants, they don't anti-alias well at different sizes, the international support is non-existent, etc. There is an absolutely insane amount of detail work that goes into designing a font and only the most OCD designers can pull it off, and only with an enormous amount of effort. If you spend 6 months to a year developing a font, you should be paid for it. Since I do notice these things I don't mind paying $100 for a font that ticks all of the above boxes. I stare at my IDE all day, and I wouldn't use a shitty color scheme, so I wouldn't use a shitty font on top of it.

empath75 7y ago

i would totally use this if it had nerdfont support and ligature support.

bin0 7y ago
You're in luck; you can patch your own! https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts#font-patcher https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts#font-patcher
- empath75 7y ago
  yeah, but it wouldn't be in the same style.
  - bin0 7y ago
    Some glyphs wouldn't really replicate in the style of comic sans... plus, stuff like powerline glyphs wouldn't match up right.
jve 7y ago
How do you support ligatures for monospaced fonts?
- lmilcin 7y ago
  The same way as in any other font. https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
- Someone 7y ago
  You make sure all ligatures have widths that are integral multiples of the standard width. If you’re strict, you make them the same width as the separate characters would be. If you’re less strict, you could, for example, have “⇒” or “½” be one character width, and not 2, respectively 3 (the latter probably would make you give up making a ligature for “1/2”)
  - 7y ago

Twirrim 7y ago

I know people really hate Comic Sans, but it has some really useful properties. One particularly useful property, especially in the education sector, is that dyslexics typically find it decidedly easier to read. Comic Sans uses distinct shapes for each character, e.g. no 'p' rotated to be 'q', and a variety of different sizes, all of which help make it easier for dyslexics. AIGA article on the subject: https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/sad-but-true-comic-sans-might-just-be-the-best-font-for-dyslexics/ https://eyeondesign.aiga.org/sad-but-true-comic-sans-might-j... From a bit by the British Dyslexic Association: https://bdatech.org/what-technology/typefaces-for-dyslexia/ https://bdatech.org/what-technology/typefaces-for-dyslexia/ Studies showed the following characteristics as being desired: * Good ascenders and descenders, b, d, f, h, k, l, t, and all capitals; g, j, p, q, y. * b and d; p and q distinguished, not mirror images. * Different forms for capital I, lowercase l and digit 1. * Rounded g as in handwriting. Most liked rounded a, although perhaps some felt that it may be confused with o. * Letter-spacing, e.g. r, n together rn should not look like m, (‘modern’ may scan as, or sound like, ‘modem’.) And their summary on Comic Sans MS: "It meets all dyslexic ‘likes’ except mirrored b and d."

mrob 7y ago
More recent research showed no benefit from a font designed for dyslexics: "Dyslexie font does not benefit reading in children with or without dyslexia" https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11881-017-0154-6 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11881-017-0154-...
- iamnotacrook 7y ago
  Use a different font then. I know dyslexic people who have had dyslexic fonts installed on their school computers because they found it amazing. If a report says it's no use, try a different dyslexic font...or read a different report!
  - bogwog 7y ago
    > Use a different font then. ...no shit? The research specifically was about one particular font ("Dyslexie") having no benefit, not that all fonts have no benefit.

cat199 7y ago

... awaiting OpenBSD wscons(4) soft font in 5.. 4.. 3..

protomyth 7y ago
Not open source, sadly.

linux2647 7y ago

I want to hate on it, but it’s actually like the perfect intersection of monospace and sans-serif; I find it incredibly readable.

stcredzero 7y ago

I wonder if machine learning could produce human looking comic book lettering? It seems like something it would be good at. Also, I bet it could produce human sounding drumming as well.

davewongillies 7y ago

For years I've used Fantasque Sans Mono [0] which is Comic Sans inspired: > realization that at some point it looked like the mutant child of Comic Sans and Helvetica Neue. [0] https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans

dreamer_soul 7y ago
That actually looks good haha
- kbd 7y ago
  It's great actually. I've used it for years as my text editor / terminal font. Compare it to your font of choice in this handy app: https://app.programmingfonts.org/#fantasque-sans https://app.programmingfonts.org/#fantasque-sans

k6hkUZtLUM 7y ago

hilarious - this is the incarnation of a psuedo joke that will never die on the internet. remember the dog? this was his font. now it can be all your coding too LOL

PedroBatista 7y ago

Most of the "most over-hated" is just "hate" because it's cool. If they see me hatin' maybe they think I'm a cultured techno-intelectual but a cool one.

creeble 7y ago

Anybody know how to get this in vim?

creeble 7y ago
Follows terminal font. Down that Linux font rabbit hole, I guess.
Bonooru 7y ago
Edit your terminal's font settings. Without knowing more about the setup you use, I can't be more helpful.

microcolonel 7y ago

I unironically love this typeface. As soon as my main monitors are HiDPI, I'm liable to switch. It helps not to take things too seriously.

tropo 7y ago

I'd like a Comic Sans without the intentional imperfections. Comic Sans puts a bit of wobble in the letters, as if being written by a careless person. Alternately, with almost the same result, I'd like an Ariel with rounded tips. What I'm wanting is nice geometrically clean letters done with a circle-tip pen.

jszymborski 7y ago
You might be interested in Arial Rounded [0], a similarly over-hated font https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/arial-rounded-mt https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/typography/font-list/arial-...
ebg13 7y ago
> I'd like a Comic Sans without the intentional imperfections http://comicneue.com http://comicneue.com

pixelbath 7y ago

While I try not to be too pithy or snarky here on HN, the one thing sprung immediately to mind was: Thanks, I hate it.

ezekg 7y ago

Thanks, I hate it.

wrp 7y ago

Several years ago, I experimented with a monospaced CS-like font. It has only the ASCII set, but it's free. https://www.dafont.com/pointfree.font https://www.dafont.com/pointfree.font

qwtel 7y ago

You can turn the actual Comic Sans MS into a monospaced font using FongForge. I've made a short video about this back when [1]. You'll have to pause a lot, but the end result is pretty neat. [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg7rWHsiAfQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wg7rWHsiAfQ

Raphmedia 7y ago

In a similar vein, I really like Comic Neue http://comicneue.com/ http://comicneue.com/

tosche 7y ago

Hi, I'm the designer of Comic Code. I just wanted to join the discussion here, just because it looked fun. I know I released a Comic Sans variant, and I'm totally okay with the negative reaction; in fact it puts a big smile on my face. A world where everyone loves Comic Sans sounds wrong, doesn't it?. I used to hate Comic Sans but it's still an interesting typeface that teaches you a lot about typography. Comic Sans can be a great choice depending on the context, and I want to share my personal favourite. When I went to a restaurant in Istanbul, they gave me menus in Turkish and English. The former was set in Comic Sans and the latter in Frutiger. The English menu looked so much like an office document and the Turkish one looked much more appetising (and I wished I could read Turkish). That was a genuine time when Comic Sans beat Frutiger. Despite its quirky letterforms, it performs surprisingly well on screen. And I have seen people trying to use Comic Sans for coding too, most notably Simon Peyton Jones. Programming/coding is also a corner of typography where writing aspect plays a lot compared to others (e.g. user interface), so I found handwriting fonts quite fitting too. I think Comic Code also helps coding beginners who may be intimidated by the cold and mechanical visual of codes. I for one am easily bored while writing codes in regular sans serif. Coding environment is a very personal space and there is no need to look professional. I didn't need maximum clarity or efficiency in my coding typeface, but I wanted to have fun coding. I think Comic Sans, for some people anyway, is something the internet told you to hate. I do see flaws in the typeface and I tried to improve it in my design, but I don't think you should be ashamed of liking Comic Sans. It's not even a bad typeface, and I have seen worse, many times. There is no bad typeface, only bad typography. (That's not strictly true but generally the case for Comic Sans) Sorry for the long post. If you have suggestions (e.g. what glyphs and ligatures added), I'm all ears.

krisrm 7y ago
I actually... don't mind it. $15 is a bit much for me to pop on something I'm likely to spend some time giggling at (or maybe pranking some colleagues with... hmmm), but it really does look like the best of both worlds between comic sans and a monospace terminal font. Whatever that is. Anyways, well done!
- tosche 7y ago

codesushi42 7y ago

Why is Comic Sans so reviled? Is it because it is one of the few fonts you are able to name? It's like the mainstream view that ET is the worst game of all time. It is bad, yes, but not even close to the worst game of all time. Not even the worst mainstream game of all time. Stop font is far worse than Comic Sans, and that garbage was showing up all the time in the 90s well into the 2000s. https://fanart.tv/fanart/movies/5491/hdmovielogo/battlefield-earth-50941e2592c41.png https://fanart.tv/fanart/movies/5491/hdmovielogo/battlefield...

ben509 7y ago
> Is it because it is one of the few fonts you are able to name? More that people can name it and identify it. Plenty of people know what Arial is, and I'd imagine designers hate it far more, but most people can't distinguish it from Helvetica. > Stop font is far worse than Comic Sans Yeah, if the original San Francisco[1] had been made a TrueType font and become popular, it would be equally reviled. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(decorative_typeface) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_(decorative_type...
mehrdadn 7y ago
> Why is Comic Sans so reviled? This site sort of explains it (click to scroll): http://comicsanscriminal.com/ http://comicsanscriminal.com/

jonrx 7y ago

I wish that MyFonts has a better way to "test-drive" the font. When writing some small snippets of code, I wansn't exactly sure if it would work well. Ended up purchasing it, and I must say, it's really fun to use! I find that it makes it easier to go from "focus mode" to "overview mode": it's very readable, but since it looks less blocky than most monospace fonts, I find it easier to navigate larger blocks of code. I might not use it all the time, but this will keep me smiling for a while!

d--b 7y ago

This font is way better than comic sans. I mean look at the m

seltzered_ 7y ago

FWIW, I actually use the 'chalkboard' (apple's version of comic-sans) in my nvAlt (note-taking) app. Makes the feel a bit. On a different note, it'd be interesting to pair this with a friendlier color scheme: https://twitter.com/lovemecomputer_/status/1090367015141998592/photo/1 https://twitter.com/lovemecomputer_/status/10903670151419985... https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=soft-aesthetic.soft-era-theme https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=soft-aes...

craigds 7y ago

I've never bought a font before. These seem crazy expensive. Is this kind of pricing normal? I'd expect to pay maybe a dollar or two for a font; it really doesn't seem like it would provide enough value to be worth more than that.

tosche 7y ago
I totally understand that it seems expensive especially if you haven't bought fonts before. Designers are more willing to pay for fonts since fonts are their tools and money maker, but most people do not make a money's worth out of font purchase. If you are in an environment where you think font choices can improve your productivity, I do recommend you consider buying one. To talk about our side, serious typeface design requires years of experience, and people who buy fonts are much smaller in number, compared to film and music, which is also why fonts seem pricy. Look at MyFonts and you will see Comic Code is actually on the cheaper side. There are sometimes good fonts made open source, but the principle that we need to get paid still applies; for those projects, it's just that they were paid by other companies like Mozilla and Google, not users. Here is an open source option of monospaced Comic Sans, which seems to be a passion project rather than a paid one. It's a single weight with very small character count. I mean no harm to her project, but it does make a case for what you get for free vs money. https://github.com/shannpersand/comic-shanns https://github.com/shannpersand/comic-shanns

awinter-py 7y ago

not to be confused with the comics code authority, the censorship body governing comics for part of the 20th century

hnbroseph 7y ago

wow. someone really took comic sans and started charging $100 for it.