The 'a' and the 'o' are a bit similar, but all in all I can see myself trying this out. Reminds me a bit of Comic Code and Maple Mono. Thanks for sharing!
There are a few odd things about this post though. Take this as well-intentioned feedback.
- New account. No previous submissions or comments.
- New Github account. No previous activity.
- Mentions custom engine (cool!), but omits any details.
- Calls other mono fonts 'fugly'; refuses to elaborate.
- Releasing based on interest feels like engagement farming. Let me know when it's done. Then I'll judge whether I'm interested.
- Regular weights are free. Implication is that other weights will be paid. That's fine. I'm happy to pay for fonts. But I'm unlikely to try a font in earnest without bold and italics.
Sorry if this comes off as harsh. I wish you the best with this!
hey! no i wasnt planning to charge... should i? the reason i didnt release the other weights is because i built the glyphs scaled by the width of the line... so i haven't really tested out the other "weights"... meaning, i haven't yet decided exactly what widths to set the other weights at... and that would take some time for me to do... and i would only do it if there was interest :) and its not a new github account, i just dont have any public repos https://linkedin.com/in/lorettarules im like a real person
i code like 18 hours a day... so i tweeked the font solely for myself, until it worked for me... for instance, the hashtag was super important, because i mostly code in python, so it went thru many iterations before i was happy with it... i was bored the other day and i was thinking i spent so much time on the font, i might as well let others use it, you know?
ya... the i was a tough one to do... because its a trade off you know? between having honor the fact that its a slim character and having it match the look of the others... this was incredibly difficult to do because of the fact that the characters have to align correctly - say if an i is between two M's - and also sandwiched between two T's... its really difficult... but let me know if you come up with an alternative solution!
Your documentation should definitely list the Unicode code points / glyphs covered, for people to get an idea which scripts are supported.
Also, the repository has a LICENSE file with the MIT license text, but the actual font file (.ttf) embeds the information that it's licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1. One of these two pieces of information needs to be corrected.
yes, im gonna fix this... honestly i didnt realize anyone would be actually interested... i've gotten really great responses... thank you so much! companies have actually been reaching out to me! im really honored thank you!
so i just use reportlab and i just created custom drawing classes for lines and arcs, which takes in a variable "weight" that controls the "thickness" of the line it draws...
and then after you generate the "basics" (A-z, digits and some basic shapes like dots and whatnot), almost all the remaining glyphs are just some (scaled) combination of those glyphs, in some way or another... and i made like a "map" of that...
I would suggest making the screenshot with the font at different sizes. They first thing I want is to have an approximation of how it will look at small sizes.
There's no Greek in there, so that's unfortunately another skip for me. I know most people won't care, but at least try for a WGL4 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Glyph_List_4) charset! All Greek-derived alphabets (Greek, Latin, Cyrillic) have very similar characteristics (unlike other writing systems such as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese or Korean), and it should be much easier to expand your system to cover those.
EDIT: As many people have said, the "custom Python engine" would be far more interesting than the font itself.
Nice variant to the otherwise sharper or edgier mono fonts (pardon my ignorance for terminology). Personally it feels too "girly" for my taste. Nothing wrong with that - just a personal preference. I'm sure others will like it.
Reminds me of wwii-era typewriter fonts and it also has a touch of "comic sans" to it.
Thanks for sharing.
I'm not a particular fan of this font. But I highly appreciate the systemic approach, the uniform aesthetics, and, most of all, the attitude: if something is unsatisfactory, build your own. Additionally, share with the world.
It's not very easy to use Metafont and its derivatives to produce a modern TrueType/OpenType font. Even the TeX Gyre fonts use FontForge [0] rather than Metafont.
I'm not sure but I thought it was funny that the "buy me a coffee" banner is the most prominent visual on the page, dwarfing the (typo'd) example text. At least that's how it appears to me on mobile.
oh okay so i had chatgpt generate the readme for me... and thats just how it came out... i dont really know how to shrink the size of the buymeacoffee banner... i didnt mean for it to be so big... i just have never done anything like this... ive never gotten so much flack from releasing a free font before... sheesh
Hacker News is notoriously so. People who don't make things have a lot of opinions about things. I appreciate your work and hope the random negative folks here don't detract you from continuing to create and build.
The 'a' and the 'o' are a bit similar, but all in all I can see myself trying this out. Reminds me a bit of Comic Code and Maple Mono. Thanks for sharing!
There are a few odd things about this post though. Take this as well-intentioned feedback.
- New account. No previous submissions or comments.
- New Github account. No previous activity.
- Mentions custom engine (cool!), but omits any details.
- Calls other mono fonts 'fugly'; refuses to elaborate.
- Releasing based on interest feels like engagement farming. Let me know when it's done. Then I'll judge whether I'm interested.
- Regular weights are free. Implication is that other weights will be paid. That's fine. I'm happy to pay for fonts. But I'm unlikely to try a font in earnest without bold and italics.
Sorry if this comes off as harsh. I wish you the best with this!
hey! no i wasnt planning to charge... should i? the reason i didnt release the other weights is because i built the glyphs scaled by the width of the line... so i haven't really tested out the other "weights"... meaning, i haven't yet decided exactly what widths to set the other weights at... and that would take some time for me to do... and i would only do it if there was interest :) and its not a new github account, i just dont have any public repos https://linkedin.com/in/lorettarules im like a real person
i code like 18 hours a day... so i tweeked the font solely for myself, until it worked for me... for instance, the hashtag was super important, because i mostly code in python, so it went thru many iterations before i was happy with it... i was bored the other day and i was thinking i spent so much time on the font, i might as well let others use it, you know?
I find the "i" quite excruciating to look at.
Also would like to see more examples, say including this deep math.
It's just letting you dot your Ts and cross your Is. ;)
EDIT: The joke wasn't that bad. :(
I liked it :3 thought it was funny
:3
It's like a dotted version of the false/bottom symbol from logic: ⊥̇
ya... the i was a tough one to do... because its a trade off you know? between having honor the fact that its a slim character and having it match the look of the others... this was incredibly difficult to do because of the fact that the characters have to align correctly - say if an i is between two M's - and also sandwiched between two T's... its really difficult... but let me know if you come up with an alternative solution!
Nice work!
Your documentation should definitely list the Unicode code points / glyphs covered, for people to get an idea which scripts are supported.
Also, the repository has a LICENSE file with the MIT license text, but the actual font file (.ttf) embeds the information that it's licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1. One of these two pieces of information needs to be corrected.
yes, im gonna fix this... honestly i didnt realize anyone would be actually interested... i've gotten really great responses... thank you so much! companies have actually been reaching out to me! im really honored thank you!
Calla the "a" in other fonts fugly, does that with the lowercase "i"... Something about living in glass houses maybe.
i don't like the lowercase "a" because i dont understand why it looks like a backwards six... i don't understand why it has that tail on top...
Could you share more information on this custom python procedural engine?
ya...
so i just use reportlab and i just created custom drawing classes for lines and arcs, which takes in a variable "weight" that controls the "thickness" of the line it draws...
and then after you generate the "basics" (A-z, digits and some basic shapes like dots and whatnot), almost all the remaining glyphs are just some (scaled) combination of those glyphs, in some way or another... and i made like a "map" of that...
does that make sense?
and you dont even need all the A-z and digits...
Is this related: https://www.paratype.com/fonts/pt/xenia ?
no
you can use this site to check that the name you choose hasn’t already been taken:
https://namecheck.fontdata.com/
I would suggest making the screenshot with the font at different sizes. They first thing I want is to have an approximation of how it will look at small sizes.
There's no Greek in there, so that's unfortunately another skip for me. I know most people won't care, but at least try for a WGL4 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Glyph_List_4) charset! All Greek-derived alphabets (Greek, Latin, Cyrillic) have very similar characteristics (unlike other writing systems such as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese or Korean), and it should be much easier to expand your system to cover those.
EDIT: As many people have said, the "custom Python engine" would be far more interesting than the font itself.
if you file a ticket or email me, i can try to get to the glyphs that you need... when i have time... thanks!
There is a name collision with the Xenia emulator for the Xbox 360. https://xenia.jp/
Nice variant to the otherwise sharper or edgier mono fonts (pardon my ignorance for terminology). Personally it feels too "girly" for my taste. Nothing wrong with that - just a personal preference. I'm sure others will like it. Reminds me of wwii-era typewriter fonts and it also has a touch of "comic sans" to it. Thanks for sharing.
thank you so much!
Does it emulate an XBOX 360?
I'm not a particular fan of this font. But I highly appreciate the systemic approach, the uniform aesthetics, and, most of all, the attitude: if something is unsatisfactory, build your own. Additionally, share with the world.
I tried this font out but had issues with the terminal in VS code.
what kind of issues?
"a" and "o" are way too similar, sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine.
It calls out O and 0 as unambiguous. I never find an ever so slightly more narrow ellipse to be less ambiguous.
Why do this rather than just using METAFONT/METAPOST/METATYPE1?
It's not very easy to use Metafont and its derivatives to produce a modern TrueType/OpenType font. Even the TeX Gyre fonts use FontForge [0] rather than Metafont.
[0]: https://ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/tex-gyre/source
I love it, just switched my terminal over to it from Monaco.
thank you so much! im autistic and its soothing to me :)
same
is this bait?
I'm not sure but I thought it was funny that the "buy me a coffee" banner is the most prominent visual on the page, dwarfing the (typo'd) example text. At least that's how it appears to me on mobile.
oh okay so i had chatgpt generate the readme for me... and thats just how it came out... i dont really know how to shrink the size of the buymeacoffee banner... i didnt mean for it to be so big... i just have never done anything like this... ive never gotten so much flack from releasing a free font before... sheesh
you folks are super harsh... my gosh lolz
Hacker News is notoriously so. People who don't make things have a lot of opinions about things. I appreciate your work and hope the random negative folks here don't detract you from continuing to create and build.
oh thats really nice of you to say... thank you codezero