[Bug] Icons on modeline lack sufficient padding

[judemille]

Thank you for the bug report

• [X] I am using the latest version of doom-modeline related packages.
• [X] I checked FAQ.
• [ ] You may also try reproduce the issue using clean environment and minimal configurations with the command emacs -Q.

Bug description

I am using doom-emacs, with Fira Code, 12pt. The major mode and checker icons do not have any padding to the right of them, which looks very bad.

Steps to reproduce

Install doom-emacs, enable icons in modeline

Expected behavior

Major mode and checker icons have spacing to the right of them.

OS

Linux

Emacs Version

29 (gccemacs)

Emacs Configurations

Doom Emacs

Error callstack

No response

Anything else

The issue can be seen here:

This issue goes away if uses of doom-modeline-vspc in doom-modeline-segments.el are replaced with doom-modeline-spc.

It is unclear to me why the vspc is used anyway -- from all of my experience, the nerd-icons need a full-width space to gain sufficient padding.

[seagle0128]

I think it's related to Fira Code and your nerd fonts. I am using "Cascadia Code" and "Symbol Nerd Fonts". What nerd fonts are you using?

vspc is a half-width space, and is used between a group of an icon and texts. The screenshot is below

My suggestion is:

1. Try emacs -Q with doom-modeline and your font configurations.
2. Try other fonts, including default font and nerd font.

[judemille]

I'm using Fira Code. I have :ui unicode enabled in Doom, and Symbols Nerd Font installed and enabled.

The issue occurs with Cascadia Code and JetBrains Mono, too.

[judemille]

Here is the appearance with emacs -Q:

I added MELPA, installed doom-modeline, set the font to FiraCode Nerd Font, and enabled doom-modeline-mode. The gaps between the icons and the text are still uncomfortably small.

[seagle0128]

I tested on macOS, Windows and Ubuntu, and no issues were observed. I think it may be related to your WM?

[judemille]

I'm running Arch Linux rolling, with KDE 5.27.10.

The issue exists on my laptop too, also Arch, with sway (have not checked version)

[seagle0128]

Well, I didn't test with KDE. I'm sure there is no issue with GTK, according to my tests.

[judemille]

On my laptop, I'm using the emacs-wayland package, which has PGTK enabled. I don't think this is toolkit-specific.

Out of curiosity, how does it look for you if you change all vspc occurrences to just spc?

[seagle0128]

No idea why vspc is so narrow in your env. Can you please try this?

(defsubst doom-modeline-vspc ()
  "Thin whitespace."
  (propertize " " 'face 'variable-pitch))

[judemille]

Changing that did nothing. Replacing all occurrences of doom-modeline-vspc with doom-modeline-spc does this:

I have no clue why changing what vspc is doesn't do anything, but not using it does.

[seagle0128]

Re-evaluate doom-modeline-segment.el or compile doom-modeline-core.el and restart Emacs after changing.

Are you sure the both are spc?

Try:

(defsubst doom-modeline-vspc ()
  "Thin whitespace."
  (propertize " " 'face 'variable-pitch))

[judemille]

Both are spc, yes. This is known behavior of nerd-icons -- if you put a space after an icon, it will become wider into that space, but still leaving a slight space.

[seagle0128]

Both are spc, yes. This is known behavior of nerd-icons -- if you put a space after an icon, it will become wider into that space, but still leaving a slight space.

Obviously the behavior is different in my env.

vspc=spc

vspc=1/2 spc

[judemille]

That's fascinating. The only possibly explanation I can come up with is that something about the fontconfig on Arch is different from your Ubuntu install.

[judemille]

I've just realized what's going on. It's Symbols Nerd Font vs Symbols Nerd Font Mono.

I didn't have the mono variant installed. Going to install it and see the behavior.

E: That was indeed it. Might be worth a note somewhere in the FAQ or something, to remind people that they should have the mono variant of Symbols Nerd Font installed.