Proggy fonts

Sunday 21 September 2003 — This is 20 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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