Proggy fonts

Sunday 21 September 2003 — This is more than 21 years old. Be careful.

Programmers are always looking for ways to see more code at once. Tristan has designed Proggy bitmap fonts just for programmers, putting a premium on legibility, though not necessarily on readability (more on this distinction here).

I’m still very pleased with Lucida Console 14-point (the smallest size with two-pixel stems). It doesn’t fit tons of code on the screen, but it’s oh so pleasant to the eyes!

Comments

andrew 9:52 AM on 21 Sep 2003

Thanks to you, I also use LC/14. Oh my, the jokes that I get about my eyesight when I am getting code reviews. A 14pt font in conjuction with my 1600 x 1280 laptop resolution seems silly also, but it works for me!

andrew 9:57 AM on 21 Sep 2003

I like the proggy fonts, but I wish that there was a 12 point version. Even at 8 pt, it is quite readable, but it is too damn small on my machine...

Keith 2:08 AM on 22 Sep 2003

Lucida Console is pretty nice, actually. I'm not sure if I tried it before. It turns out LC/8 seems to be the exact same size as Proggy Square, though I think I still prefer Proggy. But, FOURTEEN point man? That's enormous!

Simon Brunning 4:17 AM on 22 Sep 2003

The problem with Lucida Console is that the zeros ('0') are hard to distinguish from capital ohs ('O'). I prefer Andale Mono, 'cos the zeros have a little dot in the middle of them.

freddyMac 10:50 AM on 22 Sep 2003

i love fonts, period. I am going to download these and smear them all over my (clothed) body.

Simon Brunning 6:29 AM on 23 Sep 2003

A font fetishist, eh?

Look at the serifs on that! You don't get many of them to the point! I could give *that* a good kerning!

Ned Batchelder 9:13 PM on 23 Sep 2003

I've personally never minded the O-0 confusion (or the I-1-l confusion). I just don't find that to be an actual problem I face. I'm much more concerned with how the face looks on my screen, and with doing everything I can to reduce eye strain. My eyes are getting old (along with the rest of me)!

Ned Batchelder 9:14 PM on 23 Sep 2003

And about the number of lines on the screen: It's not the number, it's the quality that counts. One of the most productive programmers I've known always edited code in a full-screen DOS window, 24 rows by 80 columns. I don't know how he did it, but he did!

Bob 6:18 PM on 24 Sep 2003

DOS window? Go further back -- 24 rows by 80 columns was the screen size of most dumb terminals. Any Unix (or derivative) system still has a termcap file with an elephant's graveyard of terminal types such as the DEC VT100 and Perkin-Elmer Bantam.

Proggy fonts

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