dw_dev_training: Confusing fonts!

Simon (

swaldman) wrote in

dw_dev_training,
@ 2012-07-08 09:51 am UTC

Current mood:

baffling problem de-baffled

Confusing fonts!

Just a warning to people after my last half hour of "why doesn't this work":

If you use the Microsoft font "Consolas" for your terminals, you may find that the characters "l" and "1" look almost identical.........

I had a look at some of the other monospaced fonts I have on this system. They all fall into either "those characters look the same" or "much less readable". Consolas is a good font, except for that confusion!

So, I post this to,

Vent my frustration
Warn others
Ask if anybody has a favourite terminal font, and what it is?

Sorry if it's too off-topic :-)

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	no subject qem_chibati 2012-07-08 09:26 am UTC (link)
	On macs, I usually use the default monaco. On windows, I think I end up using courier usually. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject thorfinn 2012-07-10 06:44 am UTC (link)
	The new default as of a couple of years back (Snow Leopard release, I think, maybe earlier) is Andale Mono... I switched to it back then from Monaco, and rather like it. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject denise 2012-07-08 09:29 am UTC (link)
	I use Courier New, mostly because I've been using it for years and can tell various easily-confused characters apart by now :) (Reply to this)

	no subject stormerider 2012-07-08 09:41 am UTC (link)
	Honestly, I stick with Courier New for this kind of reason. It's not the prettiest, but I'll take clarity over pretty. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

	no subject swaldman 2012-07-08 09:46 am UTC (link)
	I tried Courier New, those characters look even more similar there than they do in Consolas. At least, to my eye when displayed small... ;-) (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject stormerider 2012-07-08 09:51 am UTC (link)
	I guess I'm used to it because I've been using it for so long. In the lowercase l the lines are all 90 degree angles. In the 1, it's a 45 degree angle at the top. I think Lucida has a monospaced font, and there are some custom console fonts from programs like TerraTerm and whatnot... vt100 and such. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject dreamatdrew 2012-07-08 10:20 am UTC (link)
	I'm using Lucidia Console, and the difference is obvious to me. (The l lacks the horizontal base stroke, the 1 has it.) (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 5 comments) (Show 5 comments)

	no subject swaldman 2012-07-08 10:27 am UTC (link)
	nod Lucida Console was one of the altenatives I tried, and indeed I've used it as my main terminal font in the past. I may try it again, but after being used to Consolas it's much less readable. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 3 comments) (Show 3 comments)

	no subject denise 2012-07-08 10:28 am UTC (link)
	Clearly the solution is for us all to get together and create our own monospaced font. (I have been avoiding learning font design for about 20 years. I do not have time for font creation geekery.) (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

	no subject swaldman 2012-07-08 10:29 am UTC (link)
	grin (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject pauamma 2012-07-08 03:56 pm UTC (link)
	You know you want to! ducks (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject metawidget 2012-07-08 11:59 am UTC (link)
	At work in Windows, I use Lucida Console as well. At home in Mac-land, I use Monaco, as I have for over two decades. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject zvi 2012-07-08 11:25 am UTC (link)
	Have you tried ubuntu? (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 5 comments) (Show 5 comments)

	no subject stormerider 2012-07-08 11:51 am UTC (link)
	Interesting, I didn't realize Ubuntu had it's own font set. Trying it now, first impression is that it's very... flowy. I'll have to see if I can acclimate to it or not. Thanks for the link :) (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject zvi 2012-07-09 07:30 pm UTC (link)
	It's recent, within the last two years. I don't actually use it on my desktop, but I've find them fairly nice for other applications. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject swaldman 2012-07-08 12:07 pm UTC (link)
	No, I hadn't. I think I like it. Thank you! (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject zvi 2012-07-09 07:30 pm UTC (link)
	Welcome. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject pauamma 2012-07-08 04:04 pm UTC (link)
	İ use the monospace font from that family for all my terminal/shell windows (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject exor674 2012-07-08 01:42 pm UTC (link)
	I use Inconsolata ( http://levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html ) (Reply to this)

	no subject kraig 2012-07-08 02:52 pm UTC (link)
	I've used and liked all of Andale Mono (should be easily available), Anonymous Pro, Proggy, and, briefly, Inconsolata. None of them suffer from the 0/O 1/l problems. This page lists these and a few more. (Reply to this) (Thread) (Hide 2 comments) (Show 2 comments)

no subject

swaldman
2012-07-08 05:01 pm UTC (link)

I like both Inconsolata and (especially) Anonymous Pro. However, they're less condensed than Consolas and Ubuntu Mono. That means that suddenly I can't fit two 80-char windows side-by-side on my screen. Lucida Console has the same problem.

So I'm trying out Ubuntu Mono, which has roughly the same proportions[1] as Consolas but has distinct 1 and l ;-)

[1] I'm sure there must be a typographical term for that...

(Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent) (Thread) (Hide 1 comment) (Show 1 comment)

	no subject kraig 2012-07-08 07:26 pm UTC (link)
	Yeah, it seems like a silly reason to not like a font, at least it does to me, but at the same time, usability is usability is highly personal. There's a couple fonts I liked but rejected for the same sort of reason. I have widescreen displays everywhere now, so I prefer wide and short to skinny and tall. (Reply to this) (Thread from start) (Parent)

	no subject vass 2012-07-09 12:37 am UTC (link)
	Sing it! I have been wishing for some time that there was some way to tell 1Password not to generate passwords with 1s or ls or Is or even is. (Reply to this)

	no subject alierak 2012-07-09 01:52 am UTC (link)
	I use Bitstream Vera Sans Mono (VeraMono.ttf). It has good 0/O and l/1 distinction like the ubuntu fonts, and it comes with X11 on a variety of platforms including the Mac. (Reply to this)

	no subject swaldman 2012-09-25 08:41 am UTC (link)
	An update for anybody who comes across this in the future: here's another decent font for these purposes. Although I'm still using Ubuntu Mono as this one is a bit wide for me. http://sourceforge.net/projects/sourcecodepro.adobe/ (Reply to this)

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