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diff --git a/build/blog/2015-08-31-after-all-these-years-10pt-non-anti-aliased-monaco-is-still-the-best.html b/build/blog/2015-08-31-after-all-these-years-10pt-non-anti-aliased-monaco-is-still-the-best.html new file mode 100644 index 00000000..99766672 --- /dev/null +++ b/build/blog/2015-08-31-after-all-these-years-10pt-non-anti-aliased-monaco-is-still-the-best.html @@ -0,0 +1,55 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html> +<html> +<head> +<meta charset="utf-8"/> +<meta content="pandoc" name="generator"/> +<meta content="Zhiming Wang" name="author"/> +<meta content="2015-08-31T06:31:03+08:00" name="date"/> +<title>After all these years, 10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco is still the best</title> +<link href="/img/apple-touch-icon-152.png" rel="apple-touch-icon-precomposed"/> +<meta content="#FFFFFF" name="msapplication-TileColor"/> +<meta content="/img/favicon-144.png" name="msapplication-TileImage"/> +<meta content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1" name="viewport"/> +<link href="/css/normalize.min.css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> +<link href="/css/theme.css" media="all" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/> +</head> +<body> +<div id="archival-notice">This blog has been archived.<br/>Visit my home page at <a href="https://zhimingwang.org">zhimingwang.org</a>.</div> +<nav class="nav"> +<a class="nav-icon" href="/" title="Home"><!--blog icon--></a> +<a class="nav-title" href="/"><!--blog title--></a> +<a class="nav-author" href="https://github.com/zmwangx" target="_blank"><!--blog author--></a> +</nav> +<article class="content"> +<header class="article-header"> +<h1 class="article-title">After all these years, 10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco is still the best</h1> +<div class="article-metadata"> +<time class="article-timestamp" datetime="2015-08-31T06:31:03+08:00">August 31, 2015</time> +</div> +</header> +<p>Ars Technica <a href="http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/open-source-typeface-hack-brings-design-to-source-code/">just ran a piece</a> on the open source programming font <a href="https://github.com/chrissimpkins/Hack">Hack</a>. Now I don't really know why this is news-worthy (open source programming fonts aren't a new thing), but I thought I'd give it a try.</p> +<p>The result is unsurprising. I've loved my 10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco for years, beginning with the Pro profile of Terminal.app. In fact, I initially refused to use iTerm2 precisely because I can't reproduce my beloved typeface in it, until I found out the non anti-aliasing trick. This time again, Hack simply can't compete with my favorite font; see the screenshots below. Among other things, it is way too thick for my liking — the same problem that haunts a whole range of programming fonts. Note that Hack is <a href="https://github.com/chrissimpkins/Hack#about">supposed to</a> look good at 8px–12px according to its README, but I tested it at 9pt–12pt in iTerm2 (I know, pt is supposed to be larger than px, but I seriously doubt that anyone would want 8px or 6pt as their daily font size — and for that matter iTerm2 doesn't even allow me to go below 9pt, a pretty reasonable restriction, I'd say).</p> +<p>By the way, it is worth pointing out that the very same Monaco looks horrible at 9pt or 11pt, anti-aliased or not (same goes for 10pt anti-aliased). 10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco is simply a miracle.</p> +<p><strong>09/01/2015 update:</strong> Looks like I was quite confused about pt and px, and they are to be used interchangeably in the current context. I suggest that anyone interested in this subject also read John Gruber's two very informative pieces from 2003, <a href="http://daringfireball.net/2003/03/antialiasing.html"><em>Anti-Aliasing</em></a> and <a href="https://daringfireball.net/2003/03/anti-anti-aliasing"><em>Anti-Anti-Aliasing</em></a>.</p> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="/img/20150831-terminal-app-pro-profile.png" target="_blank"><img alt="Pro profile in Apple's Terminal.app, with 10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco. That says something about the font's quality, especially on a dark background." src="/img/20150831-terminal-app-pro-profile.png"/></a> +<p class="caption">Pro profile in Apple's Terminal.app, with 10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco. That says something about the font's quality, especially on a dark background.</p> +</div> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="/img/20150831-monaco-10pt-non-antialiased.png" target="_blank"><img alt="10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco is life." src="/img/20150831-monaco-10pt-non-antialiased.png"/></a> +<p class="caption">10pt non-anti-aliased Monaco is life.</p> +</div> +<div class="figure"> +<a href="/img/20150831-hack-8,9,10,11pt-antialiased-combined.png" target="_blank"><img alt="Hack, anti-aliased, at 9pt, 10pt, 11pt and 12pt, respectively. Click to enlarge." src="/img/20150831-hack-8,9,10,11pt-antialiased-combined.png"/></a> +<p class="caption">Hack, anti-aliased, at 9pt, 10pt, 11pt and 12pt, respectively. Click to enlarge.</p> +</div> +</article> +<hr class="content-separator"/> +<footer class="footer"> +<span class="rfooter"> +<a class="rss-icon" href="/rss.xml" target="_blank" title="RSS feed"><!--RSS feed icon--></a><a class="atom-icon" href="/atom.xml" target="_blank" title="Atom feed"><!--Atom feed icon--></a><a class="cc-icon" href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/" target="_blank" title="Released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license."><!--CC icon--></a> +<a href="https://github.com/zmwangx" target="_blank">Zhiming Wang</a> +</span> +</footer> +</body> +</html> |