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Holigen · Mar 23, 2004, 08:44 PM

Im looking for a good fixed-width font to use with a plain text editor. Something thats pretty plain, no weirdness going on. Sans serif or serif is fine although I prefer sans. Just something that you like or suggest. Thanks!

Oh ya, and preferably free... I probably wouldnt buy a typeface for my computer...

u2zoo · Mar 23, 2004, 09:02 PM

I use ProFont w/ BBEdit.

idle · Mar 23, 2004, 09:03 PM

what about "courier"? that one always worked for me on IRC chat (otherwise i was not able to see the ASCIIart

)

[ idle. ]

Holigen · Mar 23, 2004, 10:13 PM

Thanks u2zoo, looks like a nice font.

I tried courier, but it was a bit too much on the widish side for me. It looked sorta stretched out, thank you all the same though.

justinp · Mar 23, 2004, 10:24 PM

I believe the default in BBEdit is 9pt Monaco; it works great.

testnull · Mar 23, 2004, 11:36 PM

I highly recommend Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, available at http://www.gnome.org/fonts. It is a complete coding font with distinguishable 0/O/o and l/1/L/| . ProFont and Monaco look like crap by comparison, especially when antialiased!

Fluid · Mar 23, 2004, 11:42 PM

:: I use 10pt Monaco and love it. As you can see by my website.

:: Fluid

Holigen · Mar 23, 2004, 11:48 PM

Monaco's great I love it too. I was just looking for something different than the system fixed width fonts. Thanks though.

Vera Sans Mono looks awesome! Thanks testnull.

cgc · Mar 24, 2004, 12:05 PM

I like Andale Mono and even use OCR on occassion.

NetworkShadow · Mar 24, 2004, 12:34 PM

Originally posted by testnull:
I highly recommend Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, available at http://www.gnome.org/fonts. It is a complete coding font with distinguishable 0/O/o and l/1/L/| . ProFont and Monaco look like crap by comparison, especially when antialiased!

Where's the download link?

::maroma:: · Mar 24, 2004, 01:39 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Where's the download link?

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sourc...eam-vera/1.10/

fireside · Mar 24, 2004, 01:41 PM

Originally posted by NetworkShadow:
Where's the download link?

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/ttf-bitstream-vera/1.10/

u2zoo · Mar 24, 2004, 03:53 PM

Of course ProFont looks like crap anti-aliased... it is a bitmap font designed to only work at certain sizes. Personally, I can't stand to code with an anti-aliased font.

That said, Vera Sans is an awesome font and the licensing on it is quite open.

testnull · Mar 24, 2004, 10:49 PM

Personally I think Hyatt's full of crap there. Whatever appeal bitmap fonts might have once had in the past, their usefulness is now dead with the advent of good antialiasing algorithms like Quartz and subpixel antialiasing. For low-DPI displays, bitmap fonts will "flip-flop" in visual parsing between a collection of boxes and the actual letter form, which is annoying to look at. High DPI displays are generally speaking LCDs, which provide even greater clarity with subpixel antialiasing.

Hopefully the Macintosh old guard will go back to OS 9 at some point. There they can embrace everything I hate about OS 9 - the spatial finder, the bitmap fonts, the metadata, and the cooperative multitasking.

lenox · Mar 29, 2004, 06:10 PM

Originally posted by testnull:
Personally I think Hyatt's full of crap there. Whatever appeal bitmap fonts might have once had in the past, their usefulness is now dead with the advent of good antialiasing algorithms like Quartz and subpixel antialiasing. ...

However, that doesn't change the fact that bitmap fonts were NOT meant to be antialiased or scaled. They are meant to be displayed with 100% pixel accuracy.

Holigen · Mar 30, 2004, 01:10 AM

Exactly, and some people enjoy this accuracy.