I have used Monaco for all my fixed-width text needs since I can remember. I do everything in Monaco – write emails, use terminal, TextMate, everything. I remember I used to use IRC in Monaco in fricking 1994. I love Monaco. “That awesome font on the Mac”, I used to think of it as.
But lately my eyes have been tiring while staring at TextMate all day so I’ve been tweaking a bit to try and reduce eyestrain. Changing syntax colouring, reducing contrast here, increasing it there – that kind of thing. Seems to work, a bit, I guess. But as part of that I also decided to check out what other fonts people thought were good and by that route I came across Inconsolata, perhaps the first monospace font I’ve ever thought was even comparable to wonderful, wonderful Monaco.
The problem is the serifs on Monaco. The lower-case “i”, for example, looks fantastic without its left bottom serif at 10 points. I maintain to this day that 10 pt Monaco is the single best way to represent text ever fucking invented, but at 14pt (the size I use it at in TextMate) the serifs that look so kewl at 10pt start to work against it a little.
Inconsolata is basically Monaco with a few tweaks that make a surprising amount of difference. I am not some kind of beret-wearing font expert, so I have no idea how to describe it, but at 14-16pt I find Inconsolata slightly easier to read than Monaco. My terminology is probably completely wrong, but it feels like Inconsolata is “hinted” slightly better – one doesn’t need to stare at a word quite so hard to discern its composition. The lower-case “i” is a good example – the serifs at the bottom, and slightly different spacing, make it more obviously a lower-case i at a glance. It’s subtle, but when you stare at something for 6+ hours per day even a subtle improvement becomes more than worthwhile.
Anyway, it’s a free & open source font and an easy install for OSX – download the OpenType file and just double click – so if fixed-width fonts are a big part of your day, I recommend giving it a shot and seeing what you think.
Tags: bem's fontz, inconsolata
April 9th, 2008 at 3:19 am
Wow, I am seriously surprised that you use a 14pt font in TextMate. I use Monaco 10pt font (no anti-aliasing, of course) in both TM and the Terminal. On my screen it’s the difference between 50 lines on screen at once and only 34.
For me by far the biggest change that has helped me to reduce eyestrain is changing the colors: black text on a yellow background (that’s a “dull” yellow, not a vivid “yellow”). I can basically look at it all day without feeling any strain at all.
Was also curious to see that Inconsolata is actually designed for print, not screen. But obviously, whatever floats your boat. I’m off to watch my copy of Helvetica: The Director’s Cut now.
April 9th, 2008 at 3:52 am
Well, that’s because you’ve got perfect eyes! You know my eyes, they’re fucked and always have been.
Well, admittedly I tend to change font size quite a bit according to need and mood. I was in 14pt at the time I wrote this post but looking now it’s 12pt (I had to look it up both times, I hardly have a “standard” size – I change up and down all the time). It’s a simple command + in TM as you’d know – I do it in Safari too, actually. So, if I’m trying to view some large method all at once, I’d probably change the font down a bit. Perhaps it’s also related to screen size – 10pt is fucking tiny on this thing, and I sit about a meter back. My eyes would get very tired if I ran on 10pt all day.
The real solution to this is a bigger fucking monitor so I could have the best of both worlds. A 15″ screen is just inadequate for development, no matter how you look at it. Coming soon, I hope.
April 9th, 2008 at 7:14 pm
Funnily enough this just came up on Slashdot (well, the topic of color at least).
As for Command-+ and Command– I use them often in Safari (and Firefox), but basically never in TextMate. I’d actually noticed that you’d changed some of the fonts on this weblog lately. The article bodies look bigger, for example, as does the page title.
You’re right that a nice large monitor would be a panacea. I’ve been on a 17″ for about two years now. Looking forward to the day when I can get a 30″.
April 12th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
That font looks really good!
by the way, those 22′ LCD screens are really good for programming.
I got myself an HP 22′ and it has a stunning resolution of 1680 x 1050 wide screen, just 270 USD on amazon.
works with Macbook Pro out of the box (included DVI cable).
April 24th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Just to follow up, I’ve been using Inconsolata for almost a month now and am really happy with it.
I don’t want to go on about those lower-case “i”s too much but that’s the most visible improvement. It *does* make a difference, to me at least.
I heartily recommend checking it out. If your experience is anything like mine, you’ll 1. be thinking about changing font in TextMate 2. change font 3. realise you’ve gone a month without thinking about the font again – a good sign that the problem is solved.