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"Hack" Typeface Is Open Source, Easy On the IDEs

Posted by timothy on from the get-it-easy-on-the-eye-dee-never-mind dept.

Ars Technica writes that "At SourceFoundry.org this week, programmer Chris Simpkins debuted the 2.0 version of Hack, an open-source typeface designed specifically for use in source code." The revamped font is "characterized by a large x-height, wide aperture, and low contrast design in order to be 'highly legible' at common coding text sizes," and the font specimen shows how legible it is right down to downright tiny sizes, though Simpkins says the sweet spot is between 8 and 12 pixels. Hack's roots are in the libre, open source typeface community, and the project expands upon the contributions of the Bitstream Vera & DejaVu projects. ... Simpkins has been working on the project throughout 2015, and he tweeted that this latest version includes "new open type features, changes in weights, significant changes in spacing, Powerline glyphs, and more." The typeface now comes with four font styles: Regular, Bold, Oblique, and Bold Oblique.

10 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Here's the article by innocent_white_lamb · · Score: 4, Informative

    I know I know.. nobody reads the article. But here's the link:

    http://arstechnica.com/informa...

    --
    If you're a zombie and you know it, bite your friend!
    1. Re:Here's the article by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a simple, clean font.
      He took special care to make sure l,I, and 1 all look different, as well as 0, O.
      Looks good at low resolution.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:Here's the article by pedantic+bore · · Score: 3, Informative

      The underscores are awful. Almost invisible.

      --
      Am I part of the core demographic for Swedish Fish?
  2. Re:That's great and all... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linky here: http://sourcefoundry.org/hack/

    Is there a point to having editors on slashdot anymore?

  3. It's a hacked Deja Vu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    It's Deja Vu Sans Mono with some questionable changes to glyph shapes, sizes, and spacing. There's a sore lack of comparison with other programming fonts; Ars is making it out as though we've all been stuck on Courier New until this point, but that's ridiculous. I'd like to see a comparison with, e.g., Consolas, Deja Vu Sans Mono, Courier New, and others.

    1. Re:It's a hacked Deja Vu by nmb3000 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It's Deja Vu Sans Mono with some questionable changes to glyph shapes, sizes, and spacing.

      This is exactly what it is. Hack is nothing more than Deja Vu Sans Mono with some crappy amateur edits. For example, the line in the zero, the changes to the i and a -- all are horrible. I also don't like the increased vertical height, since the widescreen monitor plague has made vertical space a premium. I can only assume Hack came from someone grabbing the source for Deja Vu and messing around with it.

      Here are some examples of commonly recommended programming fonts, if you want to compare (open in new tabs for easy comparison):

      Hack
      Deja Vu Sans Mono
      Consolas
      Lucida Console
      Anonymous Pro

      I primarily use Deja Vu and Consolas, depending on what I'm doing. There's no way I'd switch either of them to Hack.

      --
      "What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
      /)
  4. Re:What is it with font developers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    ClearType makes use of the fact that a 1920x1080 color screen has 5760x1080 monochrome elements. It shows more detail. I suspect the PEBKAC.

  5. elastic tabstops by GodWasAnAlien · · Score: 3, Informative

    If editors would support elastic tabstops, then we would not be limited to fixed width fonts for code.

  6. Slashed O by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Ø is a letter, not a number.

  7. You're thinking of DejaVu Mono by tepples · · Score: 3, Informative

    That's because five years ago, Ubuntu was shipping with DejaVu Mono, and Hack's website admits that it's a modified DejaVu Mono.