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Comment by int_19h | Hacker News Reader

There's nothing wrong with the original IBM VGA console font, for that matter. Font perception is a very subjective thing, though.

Also, I think increase in screen resolution contributes somewhat. I find that I'm a lot pickier about fonts after getting a 4K display.

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> There's nothing wrong with the original IBM VGA console font

Oh boy... Don't get me started on this. Those semi-consistent application of serifs, wide vertical traces and the overall MDA-ness of it drives me nuts. It's not like IBM didn't have anything better to choose from.

disclaimer: I make the 3270 font, which is based on the 3270 terminal font, which is the better thing I mentioned in the above paragraph.

I took a look at 3270 font, and I definitely strongly prefer IBM VGA. I don't care about semi-consistent serifs etc - I'm not a font designer. But it's very readable.

Which, again, just goes to show that this stuff is all very subjective.

It is. A lot of my strong feelings for the IBM MDA/EGA/VGA font comes from its 80's-ness and its origins. Also, at the time I first saw them (first on CGA, then on MDA) I was an active user of 3270's terminals and I wondered why would they do that if they had the choice of using something cleaner. I understand CGA dictated wide vertical stems (because NTSC) and that probably influenced the choice for MDA (it was already used in other pieces of equipment, IIRC) for consistency but...

Yes, it's a matter of personal taste.

I use a reproduction of the IBM VGA console font called Nouveau IBM [1]. Very happy with it: https://i.imgur.com/cT0pCL4.png

[1] https://www.dafont.com/nouveau-ibm.font

If you don't mind pixels, you can get the exact originals (but packaged as a TTF, and incorporating many encodings).

https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/fontlist/

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