Published 2024-09-27
tag(s): #meta #programming
Well, that #meta tag there was kind of a stretch.
I was thinking "it impacts how I write this blog, so I guess it is meta?"
Anyway, this is a bit of "spur of the moment posting", I
just read a
post and figured this was as good a time as any to write about something only programming
nerds and I guess design nerds care about, and that is fonts. And also to add
a bit more to the (IMO) deserved praise
of Berkeley Mono.
But let's start at the beginning.
I started my programming journey with Microsoft products, and a couple years later, my first
full time dev job was writing ASP.NET applications. Which in 2004 meant "using Visual Studio
.NET".
I would like to say that despite not knowing that many other fonts, not even
knowing what a monospace font is, I really liked Consolas on its own merits. But it will never
beat the allegations of receiving preferential treatment because of being my
first[1].
In any case, Consolas was then brand new, and I took a liking to it. It is so easy on the
eyes, and I think a bit after that was when I learned about monospace fonts and became a fan
of this "proportionality" and how it made all characters equal...it is hard to explain. Maybe
it spoke to my pseudo-socialist leanings, or something. I just like it, and just like
importing my .vsettings file, making sure Consolas was the font in all my dev
tools was required task in any new computer setup.
I've tried a number of fonts, but a couple days, sometimes only hours later, I would go back to Consolas. I find it very easy to read, clean. It made me like more "stocky" fonts, I've noticed a trend of some programming fonts being more long and thin and I am not a fan.
The ones that I used for some time and I think are worth a shot for anyone are:
First IBM Plex Mono, which is distinctively retro, its
IBM aesthetic is really noticeable, even to a design dunce like myself. Despite being very
clean, it is not ideal for smaller sizes. But at this point I am already old enough that I
moved away from trying to cram as much text as possible in the screen, hehehe.
Second, Iosevka Comfy Wide, a fork
of Iosevka by the prolific Protesilaos Stavrou, author
of many Emacs packages[2]. I can't quite explain why I like it, but I get
a very consistent sense from it, despite all characters being quite different among themselves
- as expected from a programming font.
Going back to Berkeley
Mono. I found out this existed either from a blog or a post in /r/emacs. Once
I laid my eyes on it, I was blown away. And yes #hyperbole (read it like "hashtag (very slight
pause) hyperbole". Thank you).
Look at that 0 with a little dot. Very Matrix-esque. The 7 with a little line in the middle. Tall parenthesis. The @ sign. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words:
The site for it explains how it is supposed to be a callback to the 70s, and evoke retro
computing. While IBM Plex Mono is very distinctively IBM, Berkeley Mono feels more inclusive
and a less tied to a singular aesthetic, which in turn makes it more unique. But despite being
anchored in the past it is also very modern, and...easy to read?.
I don't know. I am the worst person to review fonts, I know nothing about them, or design
(have you seen this blog?). I wanted to share my love for Berkeley Mono, which I bought
earlier this week. And now the post is too long for me to delete it, and I am not sure it has
any value - but you know what? Off it goes.
You still here? Go try these fonts.
Thank you for reading.[3]
modus-operandi.