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Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

Very nice. It's awfully similar to Droid Sans, but the slightly lower x-height, and more more "playful" elements (like the gap in the lowercase 'g', the curve at the bottom of the lowercase 'l') make it bit more playful and legible. Above all, it feels more balanced, and accomplished, than Droid Sans.

Excellent work.

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You know, I just don't think a humanist sans with a lot of character is the right choice for an operating system.

So stick with Windows and let the Free Software hippies have a little fun. :)

I'm not a huge fan of Windows, but I must say that the new Microsoft-designed fonts (Cambria, Calibri, Corbel, Consolas) strike a great balance between neutrality and character for an OS.

I like Constantia, by John Hudson. It has become my go-to font for screen reading, since it manages an almost-oldstyle feel without falling apart at current resolutions. MS did commission some good work for the C-series.

Have to say that Consolas is the best monospaced font (that supports a large swath of Unicode) for my terminal emulator. I've always taken a rather dim view of non-functional niceties but have been swayed by just how damn nice the terminal looks while programming in Vim using Consolas. Well worth the purchase so that I could use it on Linux.

If you want a free clone then Inconsolata is pretty good (and open source, hence improvable): http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html

To my eye, only the name looks similar.

My gnome-terminal seems to be using Source Code Pro from https://github.com/adobe/Source-Code-Pro at Semibold weight and 12 points, though I basically just fullscreen it and frequently resize up and down depending on requirements. In reality I probably mostly I use it at 14 or 16 points, on a black background of course.

compiz-fusion spins between desktop cube faces with ctrl+alt+arrow and a handy wacom tablet allow easy text selection, window placement and inkscape-driven thought-capture.

I'm very interested in striking a balance between a minimalist console and graphical thinking, and have become a big fan of tools like mscgen, graphviz, and inkscape.

Every time I use inkscape, default font selections irritate me to the point where I now generally the more tedious option of manually scribbling on the wacom tablet.

There's also Candara and Constantina.

I think they did a bang up job with them, especially Cambria (If I never saw Times again I'd be happy).

Agreed. Unfortunately I can't say the same about Frutiger ripoff Segoe UI. I got tired so quickly of that font, and I barely even use Windows 8. You still see it all the time on other Microsoft branded stuff though, and all I can think is 'meh'.

A neutral font like Helvetica is a much better choice IMO.

Yes, I was shocked how bad it looks, considering Microsoft has some really good font designers.

Ironically they are both in the same neutral family. https://www.dropbox.com/s/peqvvtw50ko6kbv/Screenshot%202013-...

That's probably also the reason why you think that it is meh.

I think his 'meh' was directed toward Segoe UI, not Frutiger.

Segoe UI is extremely similar to Frutiger Next, which is an expanded and slightly reworked Frutiger. That's what the whole fuss was about -- Microsoft not paying for a Frutiger Next license.

I wouldn't think that bubbly windows with cheesy drop shadows and gee-whiz transparency effects would be the right choice for an operating system, either. And yet look at the last decade's design trends there, too.

Honestly, a somewhat playful humanist sans looks just fine in context, and a lot cleaner than many other trendy OS designs recently.

I have to agree with you on that. I was really looking forward to iOS 7 being a step forward in that regard, but it's as bubbly as anything else, and inconsistent to boot. At least Helvetica is nice and neutral.

I think the word for all of this is kitsch.

Sure it is, so long as it's legible. Operating systems aren't just for getting work done. We spend our digital lives there. Why shouldn't they feel comfortable? Feel like home?

The g looks like "Trebuchet MS" ugh. A traditional g would've been awesome.

Overall I find it very reminiscent of Trebuchet, but I happen to like both fonts.

Also, the l and the g are similar to Trebuchet too.

For me I wish more fonts made a clear distinction between 0 (number) and O (Letter), I, l, and 1, 5's and S's, and B and 8. Instead it seems to always be about a's and g's.

Fira is based on FF Meta, by Spiekermann. Trebuchet is an imitation of FF Meta.

https://blog.tilton.co/2013-08-01-fira-feura-typeface-from-m...

I don't think they are that similar.

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