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Comment by kbd | Hacker News Reader

Unfortunately not available to compare on https://www.programmingfonts.org/

While I'm here: Victor Mono has been my programming font of choice for a while now: https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/

Oh, look at that, the Victor Mono homepage has a font comparison slider that allows you to compare it to MonoLisa! MonoLisa advertises that it's wider than other monospace fonts, and you can really see that in the comparison. One of the things I appreciate about Victor Mono is that it is narrower than many other monospace fonts (while still being very readable), allowing you to fit more code side-by-side.

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I don't know why anyone would even bother to even go beyond the first item on the list. Such beauty, such elegant geometry, such timeless classic lines. Truly an elegant font for a more civilized time.

https://www.programmingfonts.org/#font3270

BTW, I'm also a huge fan of Luxi Mono, but I edit it and add a dot in the middle of the zero to make it different from the O. I like it because it reminds me a bit of the Sun console font (which I always forget the name). I could also go with Go Mono, which is mostly the same, but has a slashed zero.

edit: if you hate my font, just don't use it. You don't have to downvote this. ;-)

I really don't like it, but thanks for sharing it anyway (and creating it in the first place I guess).

Your font is cool, ignore the downvotes. It reminds me a bit of the default console font on OpenBSD, Spleen [1].

[1] https://www.cambus.net/spleen-monospaced-bitmap-fonts/

Same about Luxi Mono. I have also added a dot. I used to program in old redhat linux with crt monitor. And at that time, it used to be the default font for terminals.

I hate your font, but upvoted you to celebrate the diversity of human perception. :-D

I think it is wild that so many of us have these very strong, yet radically different, opinions.

Don't get people started on vim and Emacs...

It's a good font for those that think that the world and computer technology peaked in 1971. I don't share that opinion.

I don't think it necessarily peaked, but the IBM PC represents an inflection point - it was built on top of the office equipment more cozy aesthetics rather than the computer division's cleaner and minimalistic visual identity. The PC has a George Gershwin vibe while the terminals such as the 3278 have a definite Emerson, Lake and Palmer techo-utopia thing to it.

I'm a huge fan of that font, it looks great and there's a Nerd Font version of it available.

I don’t understand why none of these lists ever include my favourite font: PragmataPro.

I have to say I was quite surprised to find my font in there too.

Thanks for the victor mono recommendation. It looks really good! I was blown away by how narrow it was compared to other forms in the comparison tool.

Side note: it's a bummer that you never see Monaco on these comparison tools. Monaco has been my monospace font of choice for many years now despite never owning a Macbook: https://github.com/cseelus/monego

I, too, have a very strong preference for Monaco. I always wondered whether the font is indeed as great as I think it is, or whether I just like it so much, because I had already used it for 5-10 years before I ever consciously looked at other monospaced fonts. It's great to hear that you intentionally chose it without having already been adapted to it.

Oh, this was a new one for me.

In case you like narrow but Victor’s not your thing, I can enthusiastically point you towards Iosevka. (That’s also available in Victor’s comparison picker. Nice!)

I love both Iosevka and Victor Mono, but ended using Victor Mono because it has script version for italics.

Does Victor Mono have nerd font support? Bc Iosevka does

  $ brew tap-info "homebrew/cask-fonts" --json | jq -r '.[].cask_tokens[]' | rg victor
  homebrew/cask-fonts/font-victor-mono-nerd-font
  homebrew/cask-fonts/font-victor-mono

That's exactly the thing I hate about it. Base font is good, but god, the script!

Just add it there! It's on github

https://github.com/braver/programmingfonts

edit: ahhh it's a paid font.

so nope

IMHO Airbus' effort is better. https://github.com/polarsys/b612

Serifs are known to be less readable on screens. Each to their own but to me that MonoLisa thing is sort of half-serif... it's ... inconsistent and terrible. Possibly a joke.

On low resolution screens, yes. If you have a 2k or better monitor I would encourage you to test this out again. I have found that serifs are now actually easier to read than non, for the same reasons they are easier to read on paper.

An interesting perspective with which I respectfully disagree. I have high dpi displays (who doesn't?) but prefer sans. I think it's near-universal these days. Everyone is using them for logos too. There's a reason: legibility, everywhere, including for non-native readers. In a global world, one must prioritize clarity. See https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/the-rise-of-the-sans-se... and https://developer.apple.com/fonts/

I read the links. I don't believe that brand designers are optimizing for legibility, unless there's some real study showing sans is easier to read body text with. Designers just follow trends that have nothing to do with user experiences. People switching logos to sans are the same types of people coming up with "Metamates"; just people chasing corporate dogmas.

Some data: https://www.gwern.net/AB-testing#fonts

That gwern page is mostly rambling IMHO. Yes, there is a documented association between serifs and trust, but it is weak and mostly tested in print IIRC. I think you may be throwing the baby (real and objective improvement) out with the bathwater (fads) in the design world. There is substance there. I suggest https://watchdocumentaries.com/helvetica/

Victor mono is definitely not my thing, but thanks for pointing it out. I am quite fickle with typefaces so maybe one day this one will be the one I use for a few months.

That's a lovely site!

My own favorite programming fonts of choice at the time are either Liberation Mono (https://www.programmingfonts.org/#liberation) or Cousine (https://www.programmingfonts.org/#cousine) the latter of which builds upon the former.

They're delightfully boring, are readable at smaller sizes, have a good Unicode support, don't seem to have ligatures so i don't have to bother disabling them (personal preference) and are completely free. Plus they can be used to work with code that has large information density (think legacy Java apps) without causing strain on my eyes due to their simple look.

> While I'm here: Victor Mono has been my programming font of choice for a while now: https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/

This is an aside but it makes it really difficult to me to enjoy when the site requires javascript to show me a typeface.

Thanks. A bit narrow for my tastes but I'm impressed by the semi-cursive italic idea. Clever. Giving it a try right now!

Zeitung Mono Pro for me, rarely mentioned anywhere https://www.underware.nl/fonts/zeitung_mono/buy

Very nice, but it's probably rarely mentioned because the whole family costs $284 USD.

Another site for comparing fonts is the excellent https://devfonts.gafi.dev/. This also doesn't have MonoLisa, though.

Have been using Victor Mono for a year now, that Victor Mono demo on programmingfonts.org definitely does not look like what I'm used to. Looks like the medium weighted Victor Mono.

ooooo thanks for the recommendation. MonoLisa is pretty, but not $70 pretty. Especially when this is just as good (maybe better?) and I can just toss the author whatever I want.

Agree, I bought some merch from the author as thanks :)

I like it except for the ligatures with the < and /'s. Thanks for the recommendation, it encouraged me to revisit my font choices.

Thanks for the resource, that's a cool site!

...so was anyone going to tell me that that site existed or was I supposed to find out myself?

This is actually awesome, thank you for sharing!

Thank you, this one actually helps me read quite a bit.

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