5 ms·

With all these posts about fonts, I have to wonder, am I the weird one here for just using DejaVu Sans Mono for like past ten years and just, like, not caring t

With all these posts about fonts, I have to wonder, am I the weird one here for just using DejaVu Sans Mono for like past ten years and just, like, not caring that much? Does the font make that much of a difference?

TylerE 3y ago
Once your vision starts to go a little bit, yea. The biggest thing that bugs me (assuming we're talking about a baseline more or less decent font) is the spacing. Like, "Sweden Sans" posted here yesterday is waaaaay too narrow to be comfrotable for me to read, much less write. I've been using IntelOne Mono for about 6 months now, and I like it a lot. So legible I've actually been able to drop my main editor and terminal fonts sizes down a notch or two, while remaining readable.
- throwanem 3y ago
  I hear that - I use Iosevka comfortably at point sizes that haven't worked for me with DejaVu Sans Mono for years.
innocenat 3y ago
Other than that nice font is nice on the eye when you are staring at them for hours on end, I find that Iosevka does improve my workflow because I could pack more on my screen. Before Iosevka I was using Fira Code (because of ligatures), and before that I was using Courier New/Consolas.
- lawn 3y ago
  Same reason for me, although I used Hack for X years before that. I still think Hack looks more pleasing, but it's just so much wider than Iosevka I just can't go back.
gsliepen 3y ago
I'm that weird as well! My brain has optimized itself for reading DejaVu Sans Mono; I try other programming fonts now and then, but it's all been a disappointment. Also, no ligatures and 100% black/white, none of that gray-on-grey for me. I'm sure I am offending 98% of Hacker News readers by writing this :P
- SomeCallMeTim 3y ago
  I also tend to switch to straight black and white. I don't get the desire for less contrast. I do like ligatures, and I like checking out new fonts, but I'm not going to be offended if you don't. ;)
tshaddox 3y ago
I don't obsess over it and I don’t try to follow all the hip new programming fonts, but I do tend to change my IDE’s font a couple of times per year. It feels like a bit of a palette cleanser, I suppose.
imnel 3y ago
For me I don't mind a change every now and then as a font can make my coding experience feel "fresh" without needing to change a theme or something.
simias 3y ago
I like to micromanage my dev environment, I have custom everything (terminal, editor, WM...) yet I'm on the same boat when it comes to fonts. DejaVu + Noto for CJK just works. DejaVu is just a good font.
stronglikedan 3y ago
I enjoy comparing new fonts to Consolas, and then going right back to Consolas. It helps me feel justified! And I hate ligatures as much as I hate table aliases, so Consolas suits me just fine. Although, DSM is a close second. I just wish its "<=>" were more distinguishable.
- WorldMaker 3y ago
  What do you think about Cascadia? It was commissioned directly as the "sequel" to Consolas and is interesting because it is open source (unlike Consolas). (Therefore cheaply cross-platform and web-safe, versus paying for Consolas licenses for non-Windows machines or websites.) You may have overlooked it before because one of the more advertised "sequel" features is ligatures, but Cascadia is one of the fonts that uses the Mono/Code naming scheme to turn on/off ligatures. ("Cascadia Mono" doesn't include the coding ligatures that "Cascadia Code" does.)
- layer8 3y ago
  Same here, just with Lucida Console. All those newfangled fonts aren’t properly optimized and hinted for small sizes/low DPI.
gorjusborg 3y ago
My experience has been that there is a certain type of developer who likes to flex by showing they have new/neat tools. Not saying there is anything wrong with it, but for me it feels like to much of a distraction.
- SomeCallMeTim 3y ago
  Meh. I like nice fonts, but I never talk about what font I use. I don't even know what font I'm currently using, though I put some thought into choosing it at the time. Some of us just care about what our fonts look like. I'm loving the configurator with Iosevka; yes, I'll likely spend an hour tweaking a custom font, but after that I'll just be done and move on. There's no "flex" if I never even show anyone my dev environment or talk about what font I use. I think you're experiencing selection bias in thinking that only people who flex care about their fonts. ;)
  - gausswho 3y ago
    I am of a similiar mindset. I put an afternoon into choosing what font will inspire me to code to, about every couple years. I set it up, forget about it, tell no one since it would feel petty and personal. It'd be nice to have a word for something you care substantially about, but with fleeting desire and no desire to preen about. I am on Iosevka now partly because I can pull it from AUR in my setup scripts which is something not all do.
  - gorjusborg 3y ago
    I don't know you, so I am not claiming you are flexing. But you claim that I am suffering from mental bias, while you know nothing about me other than a single post. Maybe it is just that I posted something a little too close to the mark for you, and rather than reflect on why that might bother you, you externalize it.
- BiggsHoson 3y ago
  Also, I find that there just isn't a one best font, even for one person. There are just too many variables that effect how a font looks, not limited to the screen itself, the graphics controller, the software where I want to use the font.
oweiler 3y ago
I've used Consolas for 10 years.
throwanem 3y ago
I've used that font under several names, initially Bitstream's licensed version, for almost 20 years - until earlier this year, when I switched to Iosevka. It really is significantly more legible, especially in parens/braces/brackets and punctuation. Before, it was easy and common to mistype , for . or vice versa, and not notice until it failed to parse. Since, I've done that maybe twice.
AlchemistCamp 3y ago
It depends on how much of your time you spend looking at them. The bigger that quantity, the weirder it is to not put any thought into optimizing.
imiric 3y ago
Programmers spend all their working hours interacting with text. How the text is rendered on screen is arguably the most important aspect of their work, followed by a text editor, and programming language. If a certain font works for you, by all means keep using it. Just like nobody should tell you what editor to use, a font is also a matter of personal preference. That said, certain fonts have features that many find advantageous. I like that Iosevka is narrow, which means I can fit more text horizontally. Legibility and not having ambiguous symbols is also important. I also dislike ligatures, and want my font to be able to render multiple alphabets. But ultimately, I just like the way it looks. It renders nicely in all sizes and weights. All of these might be features your font choice also has, or you might not value some of these as much as me, which is perfectly fine.

TylerE 3y ago

Once your vision starts to go a little bit, yea. The biggest thing that bugs me (assuming we're talking about a baseline more or less decent font) is the spacing. Like, "Sweden Sans" posted here yesterday is waaaaay too narrow to be comfrotable for me to read, much less write. I've been using IntelOne Mono for about 6 months now, and I like it a lot. So legible I've actually been able to drop my main editor and terminal fonts sizes down a notch or two, while remaining readable.

throwanem 3y ago
I hear that - I use Iosevka comfortably at point sizes that haven't worked for me with DejaVu Sans Mono for years.

innocenat 3y ago

Other than that nice font is nice on the eye when you are staring at them for hours on end, I find that Iosevka does improve my workflow because I could pack more on my screen. Before Iosevka I was using Fira Code (because of ligatures), and before that I was using Courier New/Consolas.

lawn 3y ago
Same reason for me, although I used Hack for X years before that. I still think Hack looks more pleasing, but it's just so much wider than Iosevka I just can't go back.

gsliepen 3y ago

I'm that weird as well! My brain has optimized itself for reading DejaVu Sans Mono; I try other programming fonts now and then, but it's all been a disappointment. Also, no ligatures and 100% black/white, none of that gray-on-grey for me. I'm sure I am offending 98% of Hacker News readers by writing this :P

SomeCallMeTim 3y ago
I also tend to switch to straight black and white. I don't get the desire for less contrast. I do like ligatures, and I like checking out new fonts, but I'm not going to be offended if you don't. ;)

tshaddox 3y ago

I don't obsess over it and I don’t try to follow all the hip new programming fonts, but I do tend to change my IDE’s font a couple of times per year. It feels like a bit of a palette cleanser, I suppose.

imnel 3y ago

For me I don't mind a change every now and then as a font can make my coding experience feel "fresh" without needing to change a theme or something.

simias 3y ago

I like to micromanage my dev environment, I have custom everything (terminal, editor, WM...) yet I'm on the same boat when it comes to fonts. DejaVu + Noto for CJK just works. DejaVu is just a good font.

stronglikedan 3y ago

I enjoy comparing new fonts to Consolas, and then going right back to Consolas. It helps me feel justified! And I hate ligatures as much as I hate table aliases, so Consolas suits me just fine. Although, DSM is a close second. I just wish its "<=>" were more distinguishable.

WorldMaker 3y ago
What do you think about Cascadia? It was commissioned directly as the "sequel" to Consolas and is interesting because it is open source (unlike Consolas). (Therefore cheaply cross-platform and web-safe, versus paying for Consolas licenses for non-Windows machines or websites.) You may have overlooked it before because one of the more advertised "sequel" features is ligatures, but Cascadia is one of the fonts that uses the Mono/Code naming scheme to turn on/off ligatures. ("Cascadia Mono" doesn't include the coding ligatures that "Cascadia Code" does.)
layer8 3y ago
Same here, just with Lucida Console. All those newfangled fonts aren’t properly optimized and hinted for small sizes/low DPI.

gorjusborg 3y ago

My experience has been that there is a certain type of developer who likes to flex by showing they have new/neat tools. Not saying there is anything wrong with it, but for me it feels like to much of a distraction.

SomeCallMeTim 3y ago
Meh. I like nice fonts, but I never talk about what font I use. I don't even know what font I'm currently using, though I put some thought into choosing it at the time. Some of us just care about what our fonts look like. I'm loving the configurator with Iosevka; yes, I'll likely spend an hour tweaking a custom font, but after that I'll just be done and move on. There's no "flex" if I never even show anyone my dev environment or talk about what font I use. I think you're experiencing selection bias in thinking that only people who flex care about their fonts. ;)
- gausswho 3y ago
  I am of a similiar mindset. I put an afternoon into choosing what font will inspire me to code to, about every couple years. I set it up, forget about it, tell no one since it would feel petty and personal. It'd be nice to have a word for something you care substantially about, but with fleeting desire and no desire to preen about. I am on Iosevka now partly because I can pull it from AUR in my setup scripts which is something not all do.
- gorjusborg 3y ago
  I don't know you, so I am not claiming you are flexing. But you claim that I am suffering from mental bias, while you know nothing about me other than a single post. Maybe it is just that I posted something a little too close to the mark for you, and rather than reflect on why that might bother you, you externalize it.
BiggsHoson 3y ago
Also, I find that there just isn't a one best font, even for one person. There are just too many variables that effect how a font looks, not limited to the screen itself, the graphics controller, the software where I want to use the font.

oweiler 3y ago

I've used Consolas for 10 years.

throwanem 3y ago

I've used that font under several names, initially Bitstream's licensed version, for almost 20 years - until earlier this year, when I switched to Iosevka. It really is significantly more legible, especially in parens/braces/brackets and punctuation. Before, it was easy and common to mistype , for . or vice versa, and not notice until it failed to parse. Since, I've done that maybe twice.

AlchemistCamp 3y ago

It depends on how much of your time you spend looking at them. The bigger that quantity, the weirder it is to not put any thought into optimizing.

imiric 3y ago

Programmers spend all their working hours interacting with text. How the text is rendered on screen is arguably the most important aspect of their work, followed by a text editor, and programming language. If a certain font works for you, by all means keep using it. Just like nobody should tell you what editor to use, a font is also a matter of personal preference. That said, certain fonts have features that many find advantageous. I like that Iosevka is narrow, which means I can fit more text horizontally. Legibility and not having ambiguous symbols is also important. I also dislike ligatures, and want my font to be able to render multiple alphabets. But ultimately, I just like the way it looks. It renders nicely in all sizes and weights. All of these might be features your font choice also has, or you might not value some of these as much as me, which is perfectly fine.