3 ms·

Does anyone know where the use of cursive-style characters in monospace fonts originated from? (My guess would be that it came from something like Operator Mono

Does anyone know where the use of cursive-style characters in monospace fonts originated from? (My guess would be that it came from something like Operator Mono from Hoefler & Co.) I've always found the cursive to be a little jarring, since the cursive characters usually look so different from the normal ones, and switching between cursive and normal styles makes it slower for me to visually parse a section of code. I always thought that was an odd choice given that many folks seem to highly value legibility and immediate character recognition when they pick a monospace font.

naikrovek 3y ago
First place I saw it was Operator Mono. I think we place a bit too much weight on how much font matter, but then again, I couldn't find one I liked, so I made my own, so who knows.
- timeon 3y ago
  > I think we place a bit too much weight on how much font matter Are you expecting us to believe you when you had to create your own font?
doubloon 3y ago
IBM had a cursive font for typewriters
- crazygringo 3y ago
  Yup, IBM Selectric Scribe (towards the bottom of the page): http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-44934.html http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-44934.html It was a bit of a "novelty" font for typewriters. Almost like the Comic Sans of its day. It wasn't meant to be used as italics, it was for typing a fun invitation or more "personal" letter or something like that. I can't find any information on it specifically though, whether it was the first. It wouldn't surprise me if it were, however.
  - rntz 3y ago
    I think that's actually IBM Selectric Script, not Scribe (the images are labelled at the bottom not the top). https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/10922/script-ibm https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/10922/script-ibm finds two uses of it.
    - crazygringo 3y ago
      Quite right, thanks for the correction!
mannykannot 3y ago
Surely cursive was developed to make handwriting faster, not to enhance legibility?
dizhn 3y ago
They are usually used for comments which people also configure to be less visible. They are sort of there when you want but do not attract attention. I suppose they also make comments look like regular prose, rather than "code".

naikrovek 3y ago

First place I saw it was Operator Mono. I think we place a bit too much weight on how much font matter, but then again, I couldn't find one I liked, so I made my own, so who knows.

timeon 3y ago
> I think we place a bit too much weight on how much font matter Are you expecting us to believe you when you had to create your own font?

doubloon 3y ago

IBM had a cursive font for typewriters

crazygringo 3y ago
Yup, IBM Selectric Scribe (towards the bottom of the page): http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-44934.html http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-44934.html It was a bit of a "novelty" font for typewriters. Almost like the Comic Sans of its day. It wasn't meant to be used as italics, it was for typing a fun invitation or more "personal" letter or something like that. I can't find any information on it specifically though, whether it was the first. It wouldn't surprise me if it were, however.
- rntz 3y ago
  I think that's actually IBM Selectric Script, not Scribe (the images are labelled at the bottom not the top). https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/10922/script-ibm https://fontsinuse.com/typefaces/10922/script-ibm finds two uses of it.
  - crazygringo 3y ago
    Quite right, thanks for the correction!

mannykannot 3y ago

Surely cursive was developed to make handwriting faster, not to enhance legibility?

dizhn 3y ago

They are usually used for comments which people also configure to be less visible. They are sort of there when you want but do not attract attention. I suppose they also make comments look like regular prose, rather than "code".