I've been using a comic sans based mono font now since the last time I saw it on HN (about a year ago based on my receipt). I use a paid version called Comic Code [1]
I find it very easy to read as well as fun. I had similar feelings about using Monaco in the past. I find it personally makes programming easier on the eyes and enjoyable.
I remember reading the font is similar to the letters that are taught in kindergarten which is a theory of why it's easy on the eyes.
To my eyes, especially at small sizes, Comic Code has way more ‘Courier’ to it than Comic Mono.
If you look at screenshot #5, the text is the same size as the text the page is written in, yet looks very different. No slab serifs on 'r' or 'n', and a less quirky 'y' and 'k'. So now I don't know if the page is written in the font it's talking about, or some other font. Confusing.
According to my browsers dev-tools the text on the page is Dossier[0], which happens to be a font by the same author. I admit I also first thought that it would be set in the font its trying to demonstrate.
The page uses the Dossier font.
Yeah, it's different enough to avoid triggering my Comic Sans allergy, but OTOH at least Comic Sans has a clear purpose (comic-style lettering), while this sits in the middle between Comic Sans and a "typewriter-like" font (Courier), and I somehow can't imagine a typewriter with this font...
> I remember reading the font is similar to the letters that are taught in kindergarten which is a theory of why it's easy on the eyes.
I know some people find it easier to read, but that explanation does not seem right to me. For one thing are kids not taught to read using printed materials? I taught my kids to read using whole words - flash cards and then "look and say" books and those did not use fonts anything like this.
I personally find it hard to read and it slows me down slightly. I wonder whether some people benefit from being slowed down? Maybe making their eye movements more deliberate or efficient?
I believe they mean similar to the fonts when you're learning the alphabet, not when you're learning to read. Like those books where you trace "A" ten times then "a" 10 times then "B" and so on.
Another Comic Code user here, although I only bought it because I didn't know about these free alternatives which look just as good. It seriously reduces eyestrain and makes me more efficient. First thing I install on any new computer!
Comic Code does look significantly better than Comic Mono (which wasn't created by a professional) in my opinion. Just compare i and l (lower case L), for example.
https://fonts.ilovetypography.com/fonts/tabular-type-foundry...
I really like his Codelia font; but I just can't justify spending that much on a font when there's so many free alternatives. Wish the was a cheaper non-commercial license.
$15.50 for something you use every moment of your working life?
It's not that much.
It's fine to use free versions instead, but maybe let's stop asking for freebies from folks who make their living that way, especially from Indy folks. (Badger your average megacorp for free stuff for all you want, they'll find ways to extract money somehow)
You need at the very least 4 of those $15.50 fonts to cover italic and bold.
If I could get the entire font family for $30 or so I would consider it despite all the free alternatives, but $150 is just way too much if you are making a non-US salary.
There is a “Comic Code Coding Essentials“ bundle for $30, licensed for up to 5 users. Unfortunately, it’s at the very bottom of the page so it’s easy to miss.
That's actually insanely cheap for a font as well.
$30 is the bundle that seems minimally useful. Does it work on all OSes?
> Font formats
> .OTF, .TTF, .WOFF, .WOFF2
Hopefully your OS of choice supports one of those.
Font creators once again treating TempleOS users like they don't exist? Color me shocked.
Jokes aside, this is the only font I've ever paid for, and I use it for all my text editing across Linux/MacOS/Windows with no issues.
>$15.50 for something you use every moment of your working life?
$16 to upgrade my life? well worth it. $16 to own something that I'd need to carry around for the rest of my life in a file, or track a download code for, and configure into every new system I boot up, and... nah, that's buying a responsibility
creatives out there: you are using and benefitting from the free open source internet where other creatives gave away their work product free. Stop trying to monetize your tiny contributions.
True. The only ethical way to obtain money is by working for a corporation. Corporations are the only entities that legitimately can sell anything.
As the common saying goes, no ethical consumption without capitalism!
> Stop trying to monetize your tiny contributions.
If you think they're not worth it then just click away.
And syncing a file isn't exactly hard in 2024.
One similarity it has with fonts specifically designed to counter dyslexia is that every character looks different. The handwritten look introduces more cues for the reader to pick up on than a more precise font.
The font used in the text of the linked piece is different (significantly worse) from the one in the picture at the top.
This is cool. I unironically use comic mono as my daily driver. It helps me remember to have fun.
I first saw this when I was on a screen sharing session with a client, and couldn't help but ask – is that... is that comic sans?
Turns out he was also using Comic Code, and he basically had the same feelings as you towards it. I thought what the heck why not, and gave it a go. Now I'm hooked as well, for the very same reasons.
Coding, somehow, is just more fun and enjoyable now. Moreover, it's probably one of the more legible fonts I've ever used. Didn't expect that!
Ligatures! Or not! Nice.
While we're in this thread suggesting comic-style monospaced fonts, I can recommend Monaspace Radon:
https://monaspace.githubnext.com/ (go down to variants, it's 4th)
It actually works!
I actually really like Comic Sans and that style of font. Don't understand the haters!
My two problems with it were/are:
1. Gratuitous overuse often in inappropriate places (bad news from work, invitation to a funeral, etc.)
2. The fact that it was optimised in its hinting for low resolution screens common around the time of its creation (and its initial target, via MS Bob) making it not optimal for higher resolutions (in print, or on more modern higher resolution screens with or without sub-pixel rendering). If you are going to use that sort of font, I think there are better choices than Comic Sans itself (unless CS has had updates over the years, which, come to think of it, is not unlikely).
If you really want to wind up people who care too much about what fonts you use, try combining the two most overuses and disliked with Comic Papyrus: https://creativemarket.com/blog/designer-combines-papyrus-an... (since renamed Comic Parchment due to litigious arseholery).
Funeral invitation in comic sans (or your combo punch of comic sans + papyrus) is absolutely my vibe, brb gotta update my will to stipulate this
Jokes aside, I see a lot of either font on local small businesses' branding and it definitely makes an impression, for better or (usually) worse. I'm probably missing out on some great local businesses because I've written them off without really thinking about it until now because of using either font.
> inappropriate places
You're begging the question. Why is it inappropriate?
Well, I gave two examples of many possibilities. To go into a bit more detail on them:
Bad news from work in a jovial friendly font like comic sans would be inappropriate from the view of entirely failing to show empathy and read the room. A typeface like that on a 0% pay rise, redundancy notice, or news that the team had lost a significant contract would be an extra slap in the face. I have seen this sort of thing. The level of incredulity that could be read into your reply begs a question or two back: do you really think it might be appropriate?, and if so: why?
The funeral notice is more of a grey area as it depends on the person being funed. I don't think many would want comic sans used in that context, I know I wouldn't, but of course some might, and may even request it. Heck, if they requested bright rainbow striped Ransom Note Extra Bold with added porn windings, darn well use that. It is their funeral, after all.
Begging the question? It appears to be an opinion, and it is definitely not an argument.
Start of thread:
> I actually really like Comic Sans and that style of font. Don't understand the haters!
Then you replied saying among other things that its use is inappropriate in many contexts.
But that’s circular. why is it deemed inappropriate?
You can't spell funeral without fun.
With or without the apparent misidentification of authorship, it is not clear to me what could be seen as circular here.
You seem to be talking to three posters as if we are all the same person…
I don't know if I'm unique or something, but Radon is extremely painful for me to look at and makes everything harder to read. It makes me feel like I'm dyslexic or something. I currently use Fira Code and find that very easy to read and look at.
It’s not just you. A few weeks ago I saw the “noble gas” fonts here on HN and gave them a try, ended up going back to JetBrains Mono. Still haven’t found one that can reliably displace it—even my prior daily driver, Fira Code!
I've taken the Coding Font blind test tournament a couple of times the last years, and I somehow always end up with Fira Code as the winner.
awesome page, thanks for linking that!
Try Hack. I've tried many including Jetbrains Mono and Fira Code. Both are really good but I drifted back to Hack. It just hits a comfortable place for me.
Maybe I just need more time getting used to them, but I just tried installing JetBrains Mono and Hack and switched between them + Fira Code a bunch and I still prefer Fira Code.
I just don't like it as a comic handwriting font. Something about its character, or lack of character. It should feel lively and impish, but instead it feels lame and half-dead, to me. There's all these attempts at quirkiness like the 'C' with its irregular curve and little hook, but they all fall flat, they don't seem natural, they don't have rhythm. It gives me a feeling like I've been handed a weak joke and I'm expected to read it aloud.
My daily driver for the last year or so. But it really is an acquired taste. Some colleagues love it and now use it as well, some hate looking at it and comment on it every time I share my screen.
The 'l' looks like a 'Z' to me, have you just got used to this?
I find the Radon font to make the l and i characters look too much like an oblique z character.
All of the Monaspace fonts are really well done.
But Krypton is the best :P
The "texture healing" feature is really clever, I hope that catches on in more mono fonts.
Obviously this stuff is personal, so if you like, awesome. For me, my first thought was "what about italics"?
I wanted to hate this, but it's actually not horrible at all? Looks nice just as a regular sans-serif font even - turns out the issue with comic sans is the letter spacing?
I've tried Operator Mono, SF Mono, Ubuntu, Roboto, Consolas etc. Switched daily, weekly, monthly..
But I've been using Comic Mono for 2 years now (SW developer) and forgot all about it. The mark of a truly great font.
I was ready to laugh, but instead I felt peacefull. There's a remarkable serenity to this font.
Does anyone else remember when the OpenBSD people were releasing research slides and other material in MS comic sans? The LibreSSL logo still has it on their site and if you scroll far enough here [1] they go off about 'weaponizing' it, something about the license actually being free enough to piss off linux nerds while being what it is enough to piss off design nerds
https://www.openbsd.org/papers/bsdcan14-libressl/mgp00001.ht...
I use fantasque sans. I forget what made me choose it over Comic Shanns. It's worth a look if you like this style.
It is quite readable, has a certain softness along with some uniformity to it without all the comedy. I used it for quite a while before settling on Iosevka.
Fantasque Sans Mono has those fancy "a" which I quite like.
IBM Plex (which I'm currently using) also has the double-story (or Roman) 'a', I like how distinct it is from 'o' and 'q' compared to single-story (or Italic) 'a'.
There is a fork of this[1] that includes programming ligatures, which might make this a more viable FOSS alternative to Comic-Code mentioned elsewhere.
Related: the SeriousShanns fork: https://kabeech.github.io/serious-shanns/
If nothing else, Serious adds the lambda symbol, which is a useful shorthand to use with Emacs' pretty symbols mode.
I have a thing for monospaced fonts and sans-serif.
What they all have in common is slab-like serifs on the i and j. It is not an easy problem to solve to make these two fit harmonically in their allotted space but does anyone know a monospace font that solved this issue in a different way?
Pointfree does it right by giving i and l friendly curves.
I'm working on a fork of it [1], because the original didn't have diacritics (á,ã,etc.), the metrics were a bit off for me and the "f" has a line at the bottom which I didn't like; and I'm also trying to adjust parameters because some IDEs (Eclipse on Windows) are have problems with it. I've also made it work with Python 3 and put the source fonts in submodules so you don't need to search for them manually to build it yourself. Work in progress.
Huh, I’m pretty sure the version I use is the one from the post and it does have diacritics. (I’m not on my computer now but will check later.)
One thing that bothers me, though, is that “í” is oddly positioned and almost makes it look like there’s an extra space between it and the following character.
I've been using a similar font called Maple Mono [1] for around a year now, and it's amazing. I personally find it more readable for code.
Ironically the strict spacing makes this much better legible than the original, at least for me.
I use APL386 as my daily font, has some comic sans vibe but has a simpler and cleaner look imo
Looks more "gappy" than comic mono.
Wow, this is weirdly lovely. I don't think I would code with it (probably!) but it would look great for sort of blackboard-ish code samples in teaching materials.
As I said a year ago, the i, l, and f serifs feel extremely non-comic. It's not right if it's not sans. IMO https://www.dafont.com/pointfree.font is still the best monospace comic font. All the others try to uncomic themselves with smoother more regular letterforms as though the goal for some reason is to become more mechanical and less lovingly human. No! I reject it! Pointfree retains the purity of the original beauty without sacrifice.
Comic sans is great for dyslexia, b's and d's are not mirror images.
I have used Comic Code for years for this reason, and get the occasional giggle when pair programming.
we need to stop pushing that narrative, Comic Sans is merely ONE OF the fonts that are better for people with dyslexia
Some previous discussion:
If you want this style but balanced slightly more utility, I love Codelia [1]. It's my main coding font. It is, however, a paid font.
There is also Comic Code by the same author: https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code. Feels like a more polished version of Comic Mono (but it is paid, too).
you gotta pay for them italics
This font looks so nice, but so expensive! Wish there was a cheaper personal use option.
$15 is expensive? Just wait until you find out how much a professional design font costs!
It is all relative, if you want the set of normal, italic, bold and bold italic you need the 80$ package.
A lot of people seems to use a coding font, wear off a bit of it or want a new one just to make a small change and have diversity. It an expense you might not be ready to spend for something you may not be 100% sure you will want to use for more than a couple of months.
He has a set of demo fonts but from what I understand this would swap random characters to rectangle so you can't really try it working on an actual code. This is only useful to check quickly how it looks on your IDE or terminal but I usually spend a few hours working on a font before deciding to commit using it for more or swapping back to my previous preferred one.
30$ for the 12 most common variants.
Only for Comic Code. Codelia's cheapest bundle is 80$
I'd need the bundle which is $150 and doesn't include nerd font characters
I get Panic! Studios vibes from this font.
I love the idea. But a quick test tells me it is not appropriate for anyone who uses any non-ascii characters. A shame.
Loved all the recommendations in this thread. I have been thinking about getting away from Source Code Pro for a while.
This has been my coding and terminal font for about three years now.
I really like it. I find it really easy to read, and it's fun to see people's reactions when they suddenly realize that they've been staring at Comic Sans on my computer.
I need to try out Comic Code at some point, but it's hard for me to justify when Comic Mono is free.
Reminds me it’s about time I ditch my .pe script in my 3270 font and turn it into Python. There’s a number of things I can do to improve it that are just too unwieldy with FontForge’s built-in language (mostly for the lack of good docs).
I tried it in PuTTY on Windows.
I ran into two problems.
1. Poor coverage of non-ASCII characters (it won't display simple accented letters, pound sign, euro sign, etc.).
2. []{} are cut off at the top.
We have a group chat with 20 random people sending just Comic Sans spotted in the wild. Just pictures, nothing else. Its the best thing that ever happened to me.
Surprisingly very comfy and readable
I've been using this for about four years as my daily font. No regrets.
I feel that in "CDN" the C is way too close to D, some uppercase character spacing seem to close, defeating the "readability" purpose
I have used Comic Mono as my coding font for the past 2 years and unironically love it. I installed it as a joke so I could take some screenshots and get funny reactions out of my friends, but found myself genuinely enjoying the readability. These days I frequently forget it's even installed except when someone new joins the team and sees my IDE setup for the first time:
"What font is that??"
"Oh, haha, yeah... It's Comic Sans, but monospaced!"
"Uh huh. Okie dokie then."
Me too! I did it so I wouldn't take the codebase I'm working on so seriously :)
I said in another thread about mono fonts, that I now have used comicMono so long, I automatically just put it into "Courier" and when I see a real Courier font, I do a double-take.
Nice, has any one tried scaling this down to VGA and EGA sizes, yet?
I probably should.
It's different enough from Comic Sans that it doesn't look terrible to me!
edit: drop actually from prev sentence
This is NOT a nerd font and does not support those glyphs.
Slashed zeroes, carry-over from a more civilized time.
How about using Impact for programming? :)
I've yet to find a programming font better than Ubuntu Mono, but I definitely want to try this as it looks really nice. What's the difference between this and Comic Shanns Mono, though? There is a nerd font[0] available for the latter.
I hate it. Absolutely amazing.
Here's an old easter egg for you:
Google: Comic Sans.
Enjoy.
I have been using Monaco for everything. It's perfect.
I don't hate it!
It's really... nice. I feel happy just looking at it. And it's damn legible too.
it really is the dumbest-looking font in history, absolutely iconic and unmistakable