The closest matches seem to be Helvetica Bold (CSS weight 700) for the main letter and Helvetica Demi-Bold (600) for the symbols and keywords but some symbols like @ # and ~ are slightly different.
It’s a very pleasant looking humanist sans. Now I’m wondering about the story of the original typeface – were the glyphs specifically designed for the keyboard? Seems more likely that some existing font was used.
The G is different (look at the lower right corner), the 0 (zero) has a slash which looks custom, and the Q is very different (it looks like a letter O with a piece of another O added for the tail).
And yes, since it's the standard comment about fonts, this is a commercial font that costs an arm and a leg.
There was a band named PRESS PLAY ON TAPE (stylized in all caps, of course) playing SID covers and similar stuff that I saw performing a couple of times back in the 00s/10s. Actually, looks like they’re still active at least to some extent: https://pressplayontape.com/
Wow, I like the idea and how this was used as a photography arts project.
Also, I think this idea could be transferred to other materials, such as iron, or ice.
Nice. It never really occurred to me how different these are from 64C keycaps. I guess through our affinity for retro look, the original typeface ended up feeling more modern/current than the newer one.
Why would keys with full words like shift/return/etc be useful in creating a font. Basic comprehension skills are at a loss for this user. The issue comment should have ended with the first sentence. However, could the keys with full words have been used to provide clues on kerning or other spacing to use when building the font?
It's not faithful. The AI took the original image and assumed the ! was supposed to be elevated like that. This project is low-effort AI generated.
Edit to add: This GitHub user has a over a hundred repositories full of random slop. It's clearly being used to generate activity for a resume or something.
thank you so much for this! love how this looks, it's such a clean typeface
EDIT: I kept getting problems downloading it--errors acting like nothing was there. After clicking around on the download links a few times, it eventually made it to my downloads and I got the file. Not sure what's going on there, but just a heads up for anyone else
It's quite hollow and plasticky on the inside. This is not a bad thing nor a mark of cheapness, but it sounds very roomy and echo-y for a keyboard, so if you like the sound of the clacking on a keyboard, it's quite amplified by the board.
I wasn't around to use an actual C64 to compare the sound against that, but I suspect it's an intentional choice as a retro keyboard to mark itself apart from the foamy modern keyboards that tend to dampen the keyboard.
These are absolutely beautiful! However, I think I often feel that when looking at fonts somebody has shared online, which makes me wonder how much I love the font, vs how much I just like the design aesthetic of people that craft fonts.
Also I understand why only the uppercase version is given, but it does pretty much preclude me from using the font, since 95% of the letters I type are lowercase
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[ 5.0 ms ] story [ 14.3 ms ] thread"How do I download the TTF". Well, use your brain.
https://www.dafont.com/zx-spectrum.font
The G is different (look at the lower right corner), the 0 (zero) has a slash which looks custom, and the Q is very different (it looks like a letter O with a piece of another O added for the tail).
And yes, since it's the standard comment about fonts, this is a commercial font that costs an arm and a leg.
https://aresluna.org/the-hardest-working-font-in-manhattan/
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49201953
https://bjoernkarmann.dk/project/occlution_grotesque
https://www.homecomputermuseum.nl/collectie/sharp/sharp-mz-8...
(Actually, I think the Commodore had a better font)
https://www.reddit.com/r/vintagecomputing/comments/1pjw7q6/t...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microgramma_(typeface)
There's an open source font QTEurotype that does an excellent approximation that I've been using in a recent project
(Yes, I realize the € symbol didn't exist until 1996)
This saddens me, frankly.
I'm not disputing that -- the approach of the issue OP was what irked me.
Imagine being at work in a professional job and filing a bug like that to a coworker. Totally inappropriate.
Frankly, it's usually just gatekeeping (or just being threatened) hiding behind some moral system they just assume you should share with them.
"There is no RETURN, SHIFT...", "Too many F keys". They are confusing a typeface with trying to replicate the keyboard keys.
The arrows are not the cursor keys, but based on the ESC key.
They are right about the @ character though, it looks quite wonky.
(Yes, I copied the image from the page into Paint and drew a line)
Edit to add: This GitHub user has a over a hundred repositories full of random slop. It's clearly being used to generate activity for a resume or something.
EDIT: I kept getting problems downloading it--errors acting like nothing was there. After clicking around on the download links a few times, it eventually made it to my downloads and I got the file. Not sure what's going on there, but just a heads up for anyone else
How does it feel and sound?
I wasn't around to use an actual C64 to compare the sound against that, but I suspect it's an intentional choice as a retro keyboard to mark itself apart from the foamy modern keyboards that tend to dampen the keyboard.
There's nothing correct about a "WIN" key.
I think peak keycaps font were the ones used in the Epson QX-10, Epson HX-20, Tandy 100, and the common C-64.
Also I understand why only the uppercase version is given, but it does pretty much preclude me from using the font, since 95% of the letters I type are lowercase