Consolidation of Glyph Variants Requests

[be5invis]

• [x] Clearify #
• [x] More curly {}
• [x] Sulzbacher Form ß
• [X] @ in four-fold
• [X] @ like that in Fira
• [x] “Hooky” t
• [x] Percentage with rings (%)
• [ ] Ampersand (&) with open contour
• [x] Variants for 1
• [ ] Square puncatuation dots : ., ,, :, ;, ?, ! and quotes
  • Do we need to break into two selectors? one for . and one for ,?
• [x] Straight/curly y
• [ ] Rounded box-drawings (maybe a non-OT selector)
• [ ] Small caps by default (with c2sc feature?)
• [ ] Flat tail t / Angular t
• [x] Force-serif 7

[p-e-w]

Thumbs up for modifying {} – their curvature too closely resembles () and at small sizes they are hard to distinguish. Input Mono is an example of a font that leaves no doubt which type of brackets is which.

[be5invis]

So, @p-e-w, do you like this?

[slice]

@p-e-w I agree. I don't like the close resemblance to (. @be5invis Very nice! Though, I'm not sure how this would look like in real code.

[be5invis]

@p-e-w @sliceofcode Hmmm...

[slice]

@be5invis That looks nice. Although I prefer the tip of the brace (I don't know what it is called) to extend more instead of being short, like in Monaco:

That's just my personal preference though, the font looks great :smile: If you don't mind me asking what colorscheme and text editor is that? Looks great with Iosevka!

[be5invis]

@sliceofcode VSCode, theme is Railgun

[slice]

Alright, thanks.

[p-e-w]

@be5invis: Sorry for the late reply. I have studied the changes and find two small issues: First, the new ß is hard to distinguish from B because the bottom loop almost touches the stem. Other fonts eschew this problem by either leaving more space between the loop and the stem or by making the two loops "wavy" in a fashion that is obviously different from B. I would recommend the first approach as I think the overall glyph shape is good already.

Second, I agree with @sliceofcode in that I feel all three bracket types should be wider than they currently are, and indeed I believe should be as wide (and as tall) as the character cell allows. While your adjustments make ( and { more distinct, { almost looks like | now because of its small horizontal extent. I love the Monaco example given above – the wide extent makes it possible to really flesh out the different shapes, and matches the role brackets usually have in code: Containers for code blocks or array-type objects, which should be immediately recognizable.

In any case, I continue to be amazed by your responsiveness and swift release cycle. I am not aware of any other font with a development speed approaching that of Iosevka.

[slice]

Here is another comparison. This time, Iosevka and Input. Input's braces are shorter, and "longer". You can clearly see the difference between |, (), and {}. Although the same can be said for Iosevka, I prefer Monaco/Input style braces.

I agree on what @p-e-w said, especially the last sentence. It's what makes Iosevka so great. :+1:

[be5invis]

@sliceofcode well its “wider”. Given that Iosevka is designed to be very narrow (in fact it is the narrowest monospace typeface I know), I think I can increase the width of brackets only a little.

[be5invis]

@p-e-w @sliceofcode Like this?

[slice]

@be5invis Looks like it. :smile: Thank you for this.

[be5invis]

@sliceofcode It's in Master. build it (on linux please, because OSX fontforge is some sort broken)

[be5invis]

Add some overshoot

[slice]

@be5invis Looks beautiful. :smile:

Had to use this workaround for Fontforge to work properly in Linux: fontforge/fontforge#2992

[slice]

Here's some TTFs of master: iosevka-wide-braces.tar.gz Outdated.

[be5invis]

@sliceofcode I have no clue what happened to FF. Perhaps I should write something to get rid of it (for example, otfcc-ttcize is written to replace FontForge's TTC exporter)... It's annoying, really.

Currently FF is ueds to:

• Merge contours
• Transform contours into glyph references (Reduces about 50% of file size)

[slice]

Here is another preview, this time all weights. Click for higher resolution.

[p-e-w]

Interesting... in @sliceofcode's last preview, for the light weights } is shifted upwards compared to [, while for the heavy weights it is shifted very slightly downwards (or perfectly aligned, can't decide which one). Is the overshoot weight-dependent?

Otherwise, this is an enormous improvement, @be5invis! I'm also excited about the possibility you hinted at of eliminating FontForge from the build chain, which has always felt like the odd one here (FF is primarily a GUI tool, after all). A pure command line-based font compilation toolchain could literally usher in a new era of "precision fontmaking", of which Iosevka thus far appears to be the only example.

[be5invis]

@p-e-w {} and [] are perfectly vertically middle-aligned. His image just does not have enough resolution. FF is a cluster of uncertainty and bugs. It should be eliminated.

[jdw1996]

I'm glad that the # sign has been mentioned—that is the least clear symbol in the font for me. However, there are a couple others that I would also love to see variants of:

• $ — Right now, I find that the dollar sign looks a bit too much like an S. It would be nice to have a variant that created a stronger distinction. Here are some examples; from left to right, the fonts are Iosevka, Monoid, Input, and Consolas: While I prefer the $s in Input and Consolas to Monoid's, something more similar to Monoid's $ may be more feasible because Iosevka is such a narrow font.
• Q — The current letter Q is nice and simple, but I find it a bit hard to distinguish from O. Again, I think there are a few different ways to handle this; from left to right this image shows Iosevka, Monoid, Input, and TexGyre Schola: Input's Q is the most similar to the current Iosevka Q, but its tail is more pronounced, making it easier to see. That said, I think the other two are clearer, as the tail breaks the circular outline of the letter.

Thanks again for the great font!

[be5invis]

@jdw1996 How about this?

[be5invis]

@therockmandolinist Here you are:

[be5invis]

@jdw1996 And we have this:

[be5invis]

@nick-s-b This is for you:

[dieggsy]

@be5invis thanks, but I believe that's closer to z-shaped - wouldn't hooky be straight down?

Also perhaps for future consideration, I had mentioned the possibility of a t with more similar curvature to the l. You can see the difference here:

[nick-s-b]

@be5invis thank you! Looks great and much better than the current one.

[jdw1996]

@be5invis The Q, $, and # all look awesome!

[be5invis]

@therockmandolinist So you need a t like it is in Futura?

[dieggsy]

@be5invis that's the type I was referring to, yes. I wouldn't say need, it was a suggestion for consistency :)

[be5invis]

@therockmandolinist

[dieggsy]

@be5invis quite so! very nice

[nick-s-b]

@be5invis I'm still hung up on hash/octothorpe... lol. After compiling and looking at the latest one, I still wish there was a slanted variation. Slanted one is the default in Monospace (which is probably the default monospace font for all distros) and it's also default one in Pragmata Pro and slew of other "programmer fonts". Even Roboto and other regular screen fonts have it slanted. So when you read some code in a browser, it will most certainly have a slanted #. it's weird when I go to Terminal and then see it straight up & down.

Here's a slanted one in Monospace at 10pt in the Terminal:

and here's the outline of Pragmata Pro's in FontForge:

I really hate bugging you but if you get a chance, could you please add a slanted variant?

Thanks :)

[be5invis]

@nick-s-b My pleasure.

[nick-s-b]

@be5invis wow! Thank you! Looks great!

[AndydeCleyre]

I'd love to see some options to further differentiate within each of the following pairs (so an alternate of at least one from each pair):

• db
• qp
• un

This can be especially helpful for those with dyslexia. Below are samples from other fonts, under Iosevka; but I don't know what might work best with your style. Maybe d-hooky, b-hooky . . .

EDIT: I guess a tail-less u is a good option here.

[jdw1996]

@AndydeCleyre Any chance you could post a list of the fonts you've shown here?

[AndydeCleyre]

@jdw1996

[be5invis]

@AndydeCleyre Have you tried Iosevka Slab? The general design of Iosevka is neo-grotesque so d and b should be similar.

[AndydeCleyre]

@be5invis Yes, but I find the regular style more readable and less distracting. I'm unfamiliar with neo-grotesque standards; I'll read what I can find.

[AndydeCleyre]

@be5invis fwiw I found a couple of fonts described as neo-grotesque that firmly disambiguate d and b, and q and p:

Safety

Berlingske Sans

Meanwhile, I'm compiling a slab variant to reconsider it.

EDIT: I do appreciate that the slab variant disambiguates d and b, and u and n, though p and q still look identical. I'll try it out for a while.

EDIT: slab is less readable at small sizes. Is there somewhere you can point me to, to learn about the specific d, b, p, q, n, u requirements for the style you're going for?

[jdw1996]

I really like the curlier italic y in the slab version of Iosevka, but I prefer to use the sans version. Is there any way you could add the option of a curlier y to the sans?

[alexeyten]

I would like to request square variant for period (like one in Cousine)

[be5invis]

@alexeyten Looks interesting but might be hard to implement. Symbols that would be affected:

• i, j, etc. — Mark dots
• ., :, ?, !, etc. — Periods
• ,, ;, “, ”, etc. — Commas

[notsukamto]

Can you also add variation for straight and curly 'f'? I would like to have f-straight for my italic.

[be5invis]

@notsukamto @jdw1996 @moosotc Added in 1.14.2

[ghost]

I was told that /(002F / SOLIDUS) in Iosevka is too tall never bothered me right until the moment i was told that it is.. Now i cant help but notice that it is indeed too tall.. A shorter variant would be nice to have.

[AmerM137]

I changed the "hook" parameter and the shape of "t" is now perfect for me! (closed issue #269). Just out of curiosity do we still have to officially request a variant for t? I am just making sure I understood your comment to my question correctly.

-Amer

[AndydeCleyre]

@AmerM137 Can you share a screenshot and the hook value?

[AmerM137]

Hook = 50 This looks more in line with my geometric "i" and "l" in my opinion. I like it a lot.