Consider merging Menlo into generated font

[AlynxZhou]

When I open Monaco and Menlo in FontForge, I found that Menlo has a lot more glyphs (like icons for chess, etc), so I think if we can merge those glyphs into generated fonts, it will be great.

I am not so familiar with FontForge and it's python API, currently I just did a merge font in it's GUI and it works fine for me. This repo seems have more tweaks, should we apply those for merged glyphs?

[Alhadis]

🤔 I'm wondering if I shouldn't just merge Monaco on top of Menlo, replacing every glyph that is defined with those that are present in Monaco. I could even limit it to non-alphabetical glyphs, so as to avoid a jarring discrepancy whenever an accented glyph isn't present in both fonts (say, "Ň" and "N"). This would eliminate the need to specify a glyph-set explicitly.

What do you think?

[AlynxZhou]

That should be better, however I don't know which part should be kept in Monaco and which part should be replaced by Menlo, and that's why I am opening this issue, I am a newbie in fonts :laughing:

Monaco also has some non-alphabetical glyphs, they looks good and differs from Menlo's, so currently I kept those in Monaco. I am not sure for those types of glyphs which one is good to use.

[Alhadis]

All good, I'll just implement an option to specify a file containing characters that FontForge ought to replace when merging. Might as well add one to specify the glyphs as a string, too, while I'm at it…

$ make GLYPHS='┠ ┡ ┢ ┣' all
$ make GLYPHS-FILE='/path/to/glyphs-list.txt' all

Monaco also has some non-alphabetical glyphs, they looks good and differs from Menlo's

Aye, but I wasn't suggesting that Monaco's non-alphabetical glyphs get replaced with Menlo's… actually, I meant the exact opposite. 😉 Don't worry, I think we're on the same page.

I am a newbie in fonts 😆

I'll trade you my typography knowledge for the ability to read and write Chinese. 😁 Deal?

[AlynxZhou]

All good, I'll just implement an option to specify a file containing characters that FontForge ought to replace when merging. Might as well add one to specify the glyphs as a string, too, while I'm at it…

$ make GLYPHS='┠ ┡ ┢ ┣' all
$ make GLYPHS-FILE='/path/to/glyphs-list.txt' all

Well done! But the problem is I am not sure which glyph should choose :laughing:

Monaco also has some non-alphabetical glyphs, they looks good and differs from Menlo's

Aye, but I wasn't suggesting that Monaco's non-alphabetical glyphs get replaced with Menlo's… actually, I meant the exact opposite. wink Don't worry, I think we're on the same page.

I am a newbie in fonts laughing

I'll trade you my typography knowledge for the ability to read and write Chinese. grin Deal?

Monaco and Menlo do not have Chinese glyph so I'll be the winner :laughing:

[AlynxZhou]

I found a project that has generated bold and italic version of Monaco: https://github.com/cseelus/monego.

Maybe we can also patch them, but I am not sure if box-drawing chars should be bold or italic too (I check Iosevka font, it use normal box-drawing chars in bold or italic version). Also I think Monaco is not redistributable, so we cannot provide bold or italic version...

[Alhadis]

I found a project that has generated bold and italic version of Monaco: https://github.com/cseelus/monego.

Supporting that is out-of-scope for this project, I'm afraid. You're better off requesting that @cseelus add seamless box-drawing glyphs to Monego (if he hasn't already).