Comic Mono
(dtinth.github.io)418 points by rootforce a day ago
418 points by rootforce a day ago
If you look at screenshot #5, the text is the same size as the text the page is written in, yet looks very different. No slab serifs on 'r' or 'n', and a less quirky 'y' and 'k'. So now I don't know if the page is written in the font it's talking about, or some other font. Confusing.
According to my browsers dev-tools the text on the page is Dossier[0], which happens to be a font by the same author. I admit I also first thought that it would be set in the font its trying to demonstrate.
Yeah, it's different enough to avoid triggering my Comic Sans allergy, but OTOH at least Comic Sans has a clear purpose (comic-style lettering), while this sits in the middle between Comic Sans and a "typewriter-like" font (Courier), and I somehow can't imagine a typewriter with this font...
> I remember reading the font is similar to the letters that are taught in kindergarten which is a theory of why it's easy on the eyes.
I know some people find it easier to read, but that explanation does not seem right to me. For one thing are kids not taught to read using printed materials? I taught my kids to read using whole words - flash cards and then "look and say" books and those did not use fonts anything like this.
I personally find it hard to read and it slows me down slightly. I wonder whether some people benefit from being slowed down? Maybe making their eye movements more deliberate or efficient?
Comic Code does look significantly better than Comic Mono (which wasn't created by a professional) in my opinion. Just compare i and l (lower case L), for example.
https://fonts.ilovetypography.com/fonts/tabular-type-foundry...
I really like his Codelia font; but I just can't justify spending that much on a font when there's so many free alternatives. Wish the was a cheaper non-commercial license.
$15.50 for something you use every moment of your working life?
It's not that much.
It's fine to use free versions instead, but maybe let's stop asking for freebies from folks who make their living that way, especially from Indy folks. (Badger your average megacorp for free stuff for all you want, they'll find ways to extract money somehow)
>$15.50 for something you use every moment of your working life?
$16 to upgrade my life? well worth it. $16 to own something that I'd need to carry around for the rest of my life in a file, or track a download code for, and configure into every new system I boot up, and... nah, that's buying a responsibility
creatives out there: you are using and benefitting from the free open source internet where other creatives gave away their work product free. Stop trying to monetize your tiny contributions.
I first saw this when I was on a screen sharing session with a client, and couldn't help but ask – is that... is that comic sans?
Turns out he was also using Comic Code, and he basically had the same feelings as you towards it. I thought what the heck why not, and gave it a go. Now I'm hooked as well, for the very same reasons.
Coding, somehow, is just more fun and enjoyable now. Moreover, it's probably one of the more legible fonts I've ever used. Didn't expect that!
// Sublime Text Settings {"font_face": "Comic Mono"} :)
While we're in this thread suggesting comic-style monospaced fonts, I can recommend Monaspace Radon:
https://monaspace.githubnext.com/ (go down to variants, it's 4th)
It actually works!
I actually really like Comic Sans and that style of font. Don't understand the haters!
My two problems with it were/are:
1. Gratuitous overuse often in inappropriate places (bad news from work, invitation to a funeral, etc.)
2. The fact that it was optimised in its hinting for low resolution screens common around the time of its creation (and its initial target, via MS Bob) making it not optimal for higher resolutions (in print, or on more modern higher resolution screens with or without sub-pixel rendering). If you are going to use that sort of font, I think there are better choices than Comic Sans itself (unless CS has had updates over the years, which, come to think of it, is not unlikely).
If you really want to wind up people who care too much about what fonts you use, try combining the two most overuses and disliked with Comic Papyrus: https://creativemarket.com/blog/designer-combines-papyrus-an... (since renamed Comic Parchment due to litigious arseholery).
Funeral invitation in comic sans (or your combo punch of comic sans + papyrus) is absolutely my vibe, brb gotta update my will to stipulate this
Jokes aside, I see a lot of either font on local small businesses' branding and it definitely makes an impression, for better or (usually) worse. I'm probably missing out on some great local businesses because I've written them off without really thinking about it until now because of using either font.
Begging the question? It appears to be an opinion, and it is definitely not an argument.
Well, I gave two examples of many possibilities. To go into a bit more detail on them:
Bad news from work in a jovial friendly font like comic sans would be inappropriate from the view of entirely failing to show empathy and read the room. A typeface like that on a 0% pay rise, redundancy notice, or news that the team had lost a significant contract would be an extra slap in the face. I have seen this sort of thing. The level of incredulity that could be read into your reply begs a question or two back: do you really think it might be appropriate?, and if so: why?
The funeral notice is more of a grey area as it depends on the person being funed. I don't think many would want comic sans used in that context, I know I wouldn't, but of course some might, and may even request it. Heck, if they requested bright rainbow striped Ransom Note Extra Bold with added porn windings, darn well use that. It is their funeral, after all.
It’s not just you. A few weeks ago I saw the “noble gas” fonts here on HN and gave them a try, ended up going back to JetBrains Mono. Still haven’t found one that can reliably displace it—even my prior daily driver, Fira Code!
I've taken the Coding Font blind test tournament a couple of times the last years, and I somehow always end up with Fira Code as the winner.
I just don't like it as a comic handwriting font. Something about its character, or lack of character. It should feel lively and impish, but instead it feels lame and half-dead, to me. There's all these attempts at quirkiness like the 'C' with its irregular curve and little hook, but they all fall flat, they don't seem natural, they don't have rhythm. It gives me a feeling like I've been handed a weak joke and I'm expected to read it aloud.
All of the Monaspace fonts are really well done.
But Krypton is the best :P
Does anyone else remember when the OpenBSD people were releasing research slides and other material in MS comic sans? The LibreSSL logo still has it on their site and if you scroll far enough here [1] they go off about 'weaponizing' it, something about the license actually being free enough to piss off linux nerds while being what it is enough to piss off design nerds
https://www.openbsd.org/papers/bsdcan14-libressl/mgp00001.ht...
I use fantasque sans. I forget what made me choose it over Comic Shanns. It's worth a look if you like this style.
I've tried Operator Mono, SF Mono, Ubuntu, Roboto, Consolas etc. Switched daily, weekly, monthly..
But I've been using Comic Mono for 2 years now (SW developer) and forgot all about it. The mark of a truly great font.
There is a fork of this[1] that includes programming ligatures, which might make this a more viable FOSS alternative to Comic-Code mentioned elsewhere.
I've been using a similar font called Maple Mono [1] for around a year now, and it's amazing. I personally find it more readable for code.
I'm working on a fork of it [1], because the original didn't have diacritics (á,ã,etc.), the metrics were a bit off for me and the "f" has a line at the bottom which I didn't like; and I'm also trying to adjust parameters because some IDEs (Eclipse on Windows) are have problems with it. I've also made it work with Python 3 and put the source fonts in submodules so you don't need to search for them manually to build it yourself. Work in progress.
Huh, I’m pretty sure the version I use is the one from the post and it does have diacritics. (I’m not on my computer now but will check later.)
One thing that bothers me, though, is that “í” is oddly positioned and almost makes it look like there’s an extra space between it and the following character.
Wow, this is weirdly lovely. I don't think I would code with it (probably!) but it would look great for sort of blackboard-ish code samples in teaching materials.
I use APL386 as my daily font, has some comic sans vibe but has a simpler and cleaner look imo
As I said a year ago, the i, l, and f serifs feel extremely non-comic. It's not right if it's not sans. IMO https://www.dafont.com/pointfree.font is still the best monospace comic font. All the others try to uncomic themselves with smoother more regular letterforms as though the goal for some reason is to become more mechanical and less lovingly human. No! I reject it! Pointfree retains the purity of the original beauty without sacrifice.
Comic sans is great for dyslexia, b's and d's are not mirror images.
I have used Comic Code for years for this reason, and get the occasional giggle when pair programming.
we need to stop pushing that narrative, Comic Sans is merely ONE OF the fonts that are better for people with dyslexia
Some previous discussion:
If you want this style but balanced slightly more utility, I love Codelia [1]. It's my main coding font. It is, however, a paid font.
There is also Comic Code by the same author: https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code. Feels like a more polished version of Comic Mono (but it is paid, too).
$15 is expensive? Just wait until you find out how much a professional design font costs!
It is all relative, if you want the set of normal, italic, bold and bold italic you need the 80$ package.
A lot of people seems to use a coding font, wear off a bit of it or want a new one just to make a small change and have diversity. It an expense you might not be ready to spend for something you may not be 100% sure you will want to use for more than a couple of months.
He has a set of demo fonts but from what I understand this would swap random characters to rectangle so you can't really try it working on an actual code. This is only useful to check quickly how it looks on your IDE or terminal but I usually spend a few hours working on a font before deciding to commit using it for more or swapping back to my previous preferred one.
I have a thing for monospaced fonts and sans-serif.
What they all have in common is slab-like serifs on the i and j. It is not an easy problem to solve to make these two fit harmonically in their allotted space but does anyone know a monospace font that solved this issue in a different way?
Pointfree does it right by giving i and l friendly curves.
Related: the SeriousShanns fork: https://kabeech.github.io/serious-shanns/
If nothing else, Serious adds the lambda symbol, which is a useful shorthand to use with Emacs' pretty symbols mode.
This has been my coding and terminal font for about three years now.
I really like it. I find it really easy to read, and it's fun to see people's reactions when they suddenly realize that they've been staring at Comic Sans on my computer.
I need to try out Comic Code at some point, but it's hard for me to justify when Comic Mono is free.
We have a group chat with 20 random people sending just Comic Sans spotted in the wild. Just pictures, nothing else. Its the best thing that ever happened to me.
I have used Comic Mono as my coding font for the past 2 years and unironically love it. I installed it as a joke so I could take some screenshots and get funny reactions out of my friends, but found myself genuinely enjoying the readability. These days I frequently forget it's even installed except when someone new joins the team and sees my IDE setup for the first time:
"What font is that??"
"Oh, haha, yeah... It's Comic Sans, but monospaced!"
"Uh huh. Okie dokie then."
Slashed zeroes, carry-over from a more civilized time.
I've yet to find a programming font better than Ubuntu Mono, but I definitely want to try this as it looks really nice. What's the difference between this and Comic Shanns Mono, though? There is a nerd font[0] available for the latter.
Iosevka is the one for me: https://www.programmingfonts.org/#iosevka
it really is the dumbest-looking font in history, absolutely iconic and unmistakable
I've been using a comic sans based mono font now since the last time I saw it on HN (about a year ago based on my receipt). I use a paid version called Comic Code [1]
I find it very easy to read as well as fun. I had similar feelings about using Monaco in the past. I find it personally makes programming easier on the eyes and enjoyable.
I remember reading the font is similar to the letters that are taught in kindergarten which is a theory of why it's easy on the eyes.
[1] https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code