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Show HN: Iosevka Open Source Programming Typeface

67 points by be5invis 11y ago

scribu 11y ago
This looks interesting. What are those .patel files? [1] [1]: https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka/tree/master/glyphs https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka/tree/master/glyphs
- twic 11y ago
  I don't know, but at a guess, it's a language which compiles down to PostScript. curveTo and lineTo are PostScript functions, and there is a concept of a current transform.
  - be5invis 11y ago
    Nope, it compiles to JavaScript. The compiler is in http://github.com/be5invis/PatEL http://github.com/be5invis/PatEL and it uses Patrisika (http://github.com/be5invis/patrisika http://github.com/be5invis/patrisika) as its backend (which converts S-expression-ish AST into Mozilla AST, and generates JavaScript using Escodegen).
anon3_ 11y ago
Well done, thank you for this! Sometimes all it takes it a new font to jog your creativity a bit. What was your inspiration for this ?
- be5invis 11y ago
  Mainly Pragmata Pro, and I brought some ideas form DIN and M+ 1m series. All glyphs are exactly 0.5em wide so they can be compatible with 中日韩文字 (CJK characters, where every character are excatly 1em wide).
  - mahmoudimus 11y ago
    Please excuse my ignorance, and please correct me so I may learn, as I have no idea about fonts except that I simply them in my editors :) The inspiration of M+ 1m + Pragmata Pro is very interesting and make for a powerful font. Do you anticipate further font development, driven by the same code-generated workflow, attempting to tackle modernization of something like the venerable Misc Fixed 13pt, which needs an update for modern screens and/or resolutions? Then, there's the Apple Menlo/Monaco, Ubuntu Mono and derivatives, as well as Consolas and its derivatives which tend to focus on wider glyphs , as opposed to the narrowness and (longer?) line-heights of similar fonts to M+ 1m / Pragmata Pro? It would be interesting to see if newer fonts can evolve from this approach. Thanks for a great project!
    - be5invis 11y ago
      My future work will be focused on spatial balance and glyph coverage. (I'd want to coverage ALL UNICODE POINTS of Latin/Greek/Cyrillic/IPA, thanks to the building script generating them will be much easier than using a conventional font editor: Just add a mark glyph and all combining glyphs using it will be automatically generated.) Maybe I can make a library or toolchain after this font is almost completed, as a modernized METAFONT, which produces Opentype directly from your generation source code. And well, in that toolchain, i will not use PatEL since this language has not been documented yet.
      - mahmoudimus 11y ago
        That sounds like it would be a grand idea! Will be watching closely to see how it evolves. Thanks again.
twic 11y ago
I will confess to not being a fan. Characters seem too keen to fill their boxes; i had to bump up the line spacing in my IDE before code was at all legible, and even then the letters seem elongated and spidery, and despite being taller than in the default font (Menlo, as this is IntelliJ), are harder to make out in their details - for example, the strokes of the 'w' are barely visible. Reminds me a bit of mode 0 on the BBC Micro: http://beebwiki.mdfs.net/MODE_0 http://beebwiki.mdfs.net/MODE_0
wtbob 11y ago
Oddly, the sample isn't visible, even with JavaScript turned on. This is in Firefox on Linux.
- be5invis 11y ago
  I switched zepto.js to local directory and replaced $.getJSON with $.get (since .charmap may be sent as application/octet-stream). Is it fixed?
  - wtbob 11y ago
    It does work now, thanks. But it's very slow to respond to clicks. Please consider just putting in some img tags and linking in images…
cpr 11y ago
Wow, very reminiscent of the Orator type ball on the IBM Selectric.
lispython 11y ago
> compatible to CJK characters Could someone explain what does this mean?
- audreyt 11y ago
  This means that the latin character width is roughly half of character height, so "full-width" square CJK ideographs fits exactly as the width of two "half-width" latin characters. (Wider monospace fonts would typically require extra character spacing between CJK ideographs.) Ref: http://www.w3.org/TR/clreq/#basic_features_of_chinese_script http://www.w3.org/TR/clreq/#basic_features_of_chinese_script ("squares with the ratio of 1:1, and are seamlessly arranged with one another.")
nubela 11y ago
Question, how is it generated by code?
- be5invis 11y ago
  The outlines of every character are calculated by source code (the .patel files, compiles to JavaScript).
afandian 11y ago
Something about the stroke width and shape remind me of the Acorn typeface. Although it's only a passing similarity, somehow it makes me feel nostalgic. http://www.houseofmabel.com/puters/RISCOS3/plain.gif http://www.houseofmabel.com/puters/RISCOS3/plain.gif
Gonzih 11y ago
Love it! Any chances to see powerline specific characters added to this font?
- be5invis 11y ago
  My current goal is to make it WGL4 compatible. Powerline glyphs will be included later, though I can not test them since I am using VSCode.
  - Gonzih 11y ago
    You can just try to open some shell theme with those glyphs to test them. I can also provide you just some code file with them in if you want.
octatoan 11y ago
This is so Pragmata Pro. :) Love the ks especially.
DanitaBaires 11y ago
I really like it, but I wish type designers gave more love to the italics variations, they almost always come out as obliqué or slanted instead of a true italics. In my opinion, this typeface could use a bit of inspiration from the elegance of Consolas (http://www.lucasfonts.com/case-studies/calibri-consolas/ http://www.lucasfonts.com/case-studies/calibri-consolas/)
JohnDeHope 11y ago
I especially appreciate that it renders very cleanly at all point sizes in Windows Cleartype. A lot of fonts look fine at 12pt but then have odd jagged pixels at other sizes. Two cents: the double quote is a little anemic compared to the other (nicely sized) punctuation.
- be5invis 11y ago
  Thanks for your suggestion. I will fix it in v0.0.5
joshuapants 11y ago
Just threw v0.0.4 into gedit for a trial run. I like it a lot, very readable. I will echo JohnDeHope's comment that the double quote seems a little too light to match well with the other characters. I'm eager to see where this goes!
doug1001 11y ago
really fine work. just installed it and viewing some of my code (scala in emacs w/ a light theme) i swapped source code pro for this font

67 points by be5invis 11y ago

This looks interesting. What are those .patel files? [1] [1]: https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka/tree/master/glyphs https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka/tree/master/glyphs

twic 11y ago
I don't know, but at a guess, it's a language which compiles down to PostScript. curveTo and lineTo are PostScript functions, and there is a concept of a current transform.
- be5invis 11y ago
  Nope, it compiles to JavaScript. The compiler is in http://github.com/be5invis/PatEL http://github.com/be5invis/PatEL and it uses Patrisika (http://github.com/be5invis/patrisika http://github.com/be5invis/patrisika) as its backend (which converts S-expression-ish AST into Mozilla AST, and generates JavaScript using Escodegen).

anon3_ 11y ago

Well done, thank you for this! Sometimes all it takes it a new font to jog your creativity a bit. What was your inspiration for this ?

be5invis 11y ago
Mainly Pragmata Pro, and I brought some ideas form DIN and M+ 1m series. All glyphs are exactly 0.5em wide so they can be compatible with 中日韩文字 (CJK characters, where every character are excatly 1em wide).
- mahmoudimus 11y ago
  Please excuse my ignorance, and please correct me so I may learn, as I have no idea about fonts except that I simply them in my editors :) The inspiration of M+ 1m + Pragmata Pro is very interesting and make for a powerful font. Do you anticipate further font development, driven by the same code-generated workflow, attempting to tackle modernization of something like the venerable Misc Fixed 13pt, which needs an update for modern screens and/or resolutions? Then, there's the Apple Menlo/Monaco, Ubuntu Mono and derivatives, as well as Consolas and its derivatives which tend to focus on wider glyphs , as opposed to the narrowness and (longer?) line-heights of similar fonts to M+ 1m / Pragmata Pro? It would be interesting to see if newer fonts can evolve from this approach. Thanks for a great project!
  - be5invis 11y ago
    My future work will be focused on spatial balance and glyph coverage. (I'd want to coverage ALL UNICODE POINTS of Latin/Greek/Cyrillic/IPA, thanks to the building script generating them will be much easier than using a conventional font editor: Just add a mark glyph and all combining glyphs using it will be automatically generated.) Maybe I can make a library or toolchain after this font is almost completed, as a modernized METAFONT, which produces Opentype directly from your generation source code. And well, in that toolchain, i will not use PatEL since this language has not been documented yet.
    - mahmoudimus 11y ago
      That sounds like it would be a grand idea! Will be watching closely to see how it evolves. Thanks again.

twic 11y ago

I will confess to not being a fan. Characters seem too keen to fill their boxes; i had to bump up the line spacing in my IDE before code was at all legible, and even then the letters seem elongated and spidery, and despite being taller than in the default font (Menlo, as this is IntelliJ), are harder to make out in their details - for example, the strokes of the 'w' are barely visible. Reminds me a bit of mode 0 on the BBC Micro: http://beebwiki.mdfs.net/MODE_0 http://beebwiki.mdfs.net/MODE_0

wtbob 11y ago

Oddly, the sample isn't visible, even with JavaScript turned on. This is in Firefox on Linux.

be5invis 11y ago
I switched zepto.js to local directory and replaced $.getJSON with $.get (since .charmap may be sent as application/octet-stream). Is it fixed?
- wtbob 11y ago
  It does work now, thanks. But it's very slow to respond to clicks. Please consider just putting in some img tags and linking in images…

cpr 11y ago

Wow, very reminiscent of the Orator type ball on the IBM Selectric.

lispython 11y ago

> compatible to CJK characters Could someone explain what does this mean?

audreyt 11y ago
This means that the latin character width is roughly half of character height, so "full-width" square CJK ideographs fits exactly as the width of two "half-width" latin characters. (Wider monospace fonts would typically require extra character spacing between CJK ideographs.) Ref: http://www.w3.org/TR/clreq/#basic_features_of_chinese_script http://www.w3.org/TR/clreq/#basic_features_of_chinese_script ("squares with the ratio of 1:1, and are seamlessly arranged with one another.")

nubela 11y ago

Question, how is it generated by code?

be5invis 11y ago
The outlines of every character are calculated by source code (the .patel files, compiles to JavaScript).

afandian 11y ago

Something about the stroke width and shape remind me of the Acorn typeface. Although it's only a passing similarity, somehow it makes me feel nostalgic. http://www.houseofmabel.com/puters/RISCOS3/plain.gif http://www.houseofmabel.com/puters/RISCOS3/plain.gif

Gonzih 11y ago

Love it! Any chances to see powerline specific characters added to this font?

be5invis 11y ago
My current goal is to make it WGL4 compatible. Powerline glyphs will be included later, though I can not test them since I am using VSCode.
- Gonzih 11y ago
  You can just try to open some shell theme with those glyphs to test them. I can also provide you just some code file with them in if you want.

octatoan 11y ago

This is so Pragmata Pro. :) Love the ks especially.

DanitaBaires 11y ago

I really like it, but I wish type designers gave more love to the italics variations, they almost always come out as obliqué or slanted instead of a true italics. In my opinion, this typeface could use a bit of inspiration from the elegance of Consolas (http://www.lucasfonts.com/case-studies/calibri-consolas/ http://www.lucasfonts.com/case-studies/calibri-consolas/)

JohnDeHope 11y ago

I especially appreciate that it renders very cleanly at all point sizes in Windows Cleartype. A lot of fonts look fine at 12pt but then have odd jagged pixels at other sizes. Two cents: the double quote is a little anemic compared to the other (nicely sized) punctuation.

be5invis 11y ago
Thanks for your suggestion. I will fix it in v0.0.5

joshuapants 11y ago

Just threw v0.0.4 into gedit for a trial run. I like it a lot, very readable. I will echo JohnDeHope's comment that the double quote seems a little too light to match well with the other characters. I'm eager to see where this goes!

doug1001 11y ago

really fine work. just installed it and viewing some of my code (scala in emacs w/ a light theme) i swapped source code pro for this font