Monaspice look always bold

[Finii]

Is it just me or does Monaspice look like it's always emboldened?

(Monaspice on the left with FiraCode for comparison):

I downloaded Monaspice via the scoop-nerd-fonts Scoop bucket. Haven't used the official non-patched Monaspace so I can't say if this is expected.

The Monaspice font used is MonaspiceNe NFM.

Originally posted by @redactedscribe in https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/issues/1403#issuecomment-1821570917

[redactedscribe]

@Finii Thanks for moving the issue.

[Finii]

Sorry to hear of your problem.

For me it looks like your FiraCode is not Regular?

[Finii]

I'm too stupid ...

[Finii]

So yes, Monaspace Regular seams to be slightly heavier than FiraCode Regular.

[redactedscribe]

I guess you mean to say that this is indeed expected. First impression was that it seems broken, but maybe this really is how it's supposed to look. I guess it's an issue with Monaspace itself.

[Finii]

We patch these:

weights=(Regular Italic Bold BoldItalic Medium MediumItalic)

But there are also

• ExtraLight
• Light
• SemiBold
• ExtraBold

Maybe try the Light weight from https://github.com/githubnext/monaspace/tree/main/fonts/otf. We could add a weight if there is demand.

[Finii]

But of course using Light breaks the RIBBI set, I have no clue what your client uses for bold then, Bold? Not font at all but it does the bold face from the base face arithmetically? With some clients you can select 'normal' and 'embolded' font separately, then you could select Thin and Medium for ex.

[redactedscribe]

Using VS Codium with "editor.fontWeight": "normal". The values which change MonaspiceNe NFM's weight are 400, 500, 600 (or normal, medium, bold).

I just went through a bunch of other fonts to compare to and it seems Monaspace is just a heavier font by default.

Interestingly, it's also heavier compared to what https://monaspace.githubnext.com/ shows. Here are some screenshots comparing the font in VS Code (newly downloaded zip, only font changed) to the font as seen on the Monaspace site using Firefox.

Side-by-side:

Overlaid:

[redactedscribe]

Inspecting the @keyframes word using Firefox shows that they are using a font weight of 300. Strange to showcase your font with something other than the default?

This is either indicative of some issue, or it's as simple as the web designer decided to use a lighter font weight for the showcase. Either way, I guess it helped give me the impression that the font was unusually heavy once installed.

[thewinger]

+1 to adding the Light weight to the font

[Finii]

Ok, I ll add this now but will come only on next release. Can put the prepatched archive here if that helps?

Sent from Nine

---

From: Alejandro Cámara @.***> Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2023 10:49 To: ryanoasis/nerd-fonts Cc: Fini; State change Subject: Re: [ryanoasis/nerd-fonts] Monaspice look always bold (Issue #1433)

+1 to adding the Light weight to the font — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub, or unsubscribe. You are receiving this because you modified the open/close state.Message ID: @.***>

[redactedscribe]

Ok, I ll add this now but will come only on next release. Can put the prepatched archive here if that helps?

I'd be interested to see the result.

[Finii]

Monaspace_only_Light.tar.xz.zip

This is just the Light and LightItalic fonts. Again xz packed because otherwise too big for a comment, afterwards zip packed because Github does not allow xz :roll_eyes:

[redactedscribe]

Thanks @Finii. It is less heavy, only marginally, but it is better. Here's MonaspiceNe NFM normal/400 in VS Codium compared to 300, and Consolas 400 on the far right (opening the images in separate tabs and switching between them helps):

I think 200 (so ExtraLight) for Monaspice would be closest to most other monospace fonts I'm seeing at their regular font size of 400. I will test this now using Monaspace.

(Whilst comparing fonts, I've had to change font size +/- 2 to keep them roughly the same size, not sure how much of a role that plays in my tests. Maybe it would've been better to vary the line spacing instead.)

[Finii]

I just wanted to mention that the weight unit (100-900) is arbitrary units. Although there are 'suggestions' it is not a measure in any way.

One person's fatal error is another person's most common case ;-)

[redactedscribe]

Hmm. Not that knowledgeable about fonts so this is the testing methodology I came up with.

With NF fonts I don't think we can specify something like MonaspiceNe NFM Light as the font instead of MonaspiceNe NFM so editing the font weight is the only way I know how. Whether 300 is exactly "Light", I'm not sure. Shouldn't have assumed that.

So, I just compared Monaspace Neon Light (official OTF) at 400 to MonaspiceNe NFM at 300 and they appear to be identical, so maybe the assumption worked out this time.

As for the official ExtraLight at normal/400, here is its result:

To my eyes, this looks closest to what I'd expect Regular to be, although your patched NFM Light is quite close too, but still looks like it's more on the side of Bold than Regular. It's minor I guess.

[Finii]

Just had to laugh so hard ;-)

• https://github.com/canonical/Ubuntu-fonts/issues/99

[github-actions[bot]]

This issue has been automatically locked since there has not been any recent activity (i.e. last half year) after it was closed. It helps our maintainers focus on the active issues. If you have found a problem that seems similar, please open a new issue, complete the issue template with all the details necessary to reproduce, and mention this issue as reference.