Show HN: Programming Fonts Browser
I've spent some time collecting monospace programming fonts, particularly those that are free to use. (Monospace because you can program with any font and you've got to draw the line somewhere). Usually I include some background info and basic stats in a blog post, and add it to a test drive "app". I've gone through some iterations here, and currently the backbone is a JSON data set (https://github.com/braver/programmingfonts/blob/gh-pages/fon...). I've been wondering what further to include here, e.g. glyph counts, of the zeroes are slashed or dotted, if there are OpenType alternatives, etc etc. And how to expose all that.
It has been linked here before, but never by me and I haven't been able to respond before. Also, it has seen a lot of work since then. So, here I'd like to show HN what I've made and ask you for feedback, questions, suggestions, etc.
3 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 17.0 ms ] threadWhat amazes me is that in so many of the fonts the O (oh) looks the same or very similar to the 0 (zero). saxMono even manages to make l (small L) and 1 (one) look the same: http://app.programmingfonts.org/#sax
Dear font designers, if you want to create a font for programmers, please keep in mind these two basic rules:
1. A zero needs a slash, dash or a dot
2. A small L must be clearly distinguishable from a one.
Of course this is only my opinion, but it's a strong one.
Personally, if the characters on line 3 in the example code look too similar it's a no go.