
Fira Sans: a Free, Open Source Typeface Commissioned by Mozilla - Boriss
http://www.donotlick.com/2014/05/23/try-out-fira-sans-a-free-open-source-typeface-commissioned-by-mozilla/
======
edwintorok
Fira Sans is also one of the 3 free fonts (along with Charter and Source Code
Pro) recommended by Butterick's Practical Typography:
[http://practicaltypography.com/](http://practicaltypography.com/)

It is also used in Racket's documentation: [http://typographica.org/typeface-
reviews/fira-sans/](http://typographica.org/typeface-reviews/fira-sans/)

And here is how I use it in LaTeX:

    
    
      % Font settings
      \usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
      % Serif body font
      \usepackage{charter}
      % Math font
      \usepackage[charter]{mathdesign}
      % Monospaced font
      \usepackage{sourcecodepro}
      % Sans-serif font
      \usepackage[lf]{FiraSans}

~~~
r0muald
The comments on that review at typographica point out that Fira's quality for
non-Latin scripts is less than perfect. Butterick generally ignores this part
of the Unicode spectrum, to the point where his own fonts completely miss non-
Latin scripts.

~~~
sho_hn
As a recent student of Korean, the state of Hangul typography makes me sad.
There are a few quite food typefaces for Hangul, but nowhere near as many as
for the Latin script.

Now, Latin's had much longer to develop today's movable type design tradition
with gusto (with many typefaces popular today tracing back directly to designs
developed before Hangul saw mass real adoption - Hangul was originally
developed on metal letterpress, but still heavily informed by Chinese
calligraphy), so this isn't necessarily surprising - but I wish it'd tempt
more designers to bring their knowledge and experience to bear on the script,
given the opportunity to make critical contributions.

~~~
meepmorp
> I wish it'd tempt more designers to bring their knowledge and experience to
> bear on the script, given the opportunity to make critical contributions.

I wonder if non-Korean type designers are hesitant to work on Hangul fonts
because they're illiterate in Korean. I could imagine that it would be hard to
have good intuitions about readability and appearance for a writing scheme one
doesn't understand.

~~~
sho_hn
You need to separate writing systems and language there, though. Unlike the
Chinese writing system that it bears superficial resemblance to, Hangul is an
alphabet, and it's more purely and consistently phonographic than most writing
systems in widespread use. Many of the letter shapes are actually based on
things like tongue position and mouth shape when making a particular sound -
and there's only roughly as many of them as there are Latin letters. It was
specifically designed to be fast and easy to learn, to promote mass literacy.
(Both the scientific rigor and the noble motivation that went into it, and the
resulting elegance, give it a lot of geeky appeal really.)

So it's actually quite easy to pick up and be able to read it fluently (you
can have your first successes within 15 minutes, and have it pretty much down
within days). Here, have a comic:
[http://www.ryanestrada.com/learntoreadkoreanin15minutes/inde...](http://www.ryanestrada.com/learntoreadkoreanin15minutes/index.html)

Actually learning _Korean_ OTOH is another matter entirely, though :) (don't I
know it ...).

Anyway, I think even without the ability to understand the words, type
designers have experience and knowledge they could usefully apply to the
Hangul script. I recently read this nice series by William Berkson on a new
revival of Caslon's designs he's been making:

[http://ilovetypography.com/2010/11/02/reviving-caslon-
part-2...](http://ilovetypography.com/2010/11/02/reviving-caslon-
part-2-readability-affability-authority/)

All that stuff he touches on there - rhythm, visualizations of regularity,
avoiding the picket fence effect, etc. - should apply equally to making a good
Hangul typeface. Or if not that, then the same sort of thinking and
methodology could lead to new truths about what makes a good Hangul typeface.

I think what might actually be keeping designers from it though is the
awareness that Hangul design is embedded into a very different typographic
lineage, i.e. Chinese calligraphy and such. Their own Latin designs frequently
pay homage to the past - reviving Caslon is a good example - and it must be a
stark naked feeling to lack the same sort of historical and cultural awareness
when trying to navigate Hangul typography. It definitely takes a lot of ego
for someone from the West to show up and say they can just make a better
Hangul font, I suppose - but I still wish more would be that ballsy.

After all, eyeballs and computer screens work the same everywhere.

~~~
neltnerb
I mean, yes this is true, but I think the point was that if someone isn't
fluent in Korean, and isn't familiar enough with the alphabet, they'll not
feel qualified to say if to a native Korean it would look good.

I studied Japanese for many years, and know the two phonographic alphabets
quite well, yet I'd still defer to my native Japanese speaking friends when it
came to determining if something was legible. I've found that things that are
legible to me are sometimes not to them, and vice versa enough that I suspect
a font designer with any humility would be quite uncomfortable designing a
font with characters they weren't very familiar with.

------
broodbucket
I wandered the internet for years looking for the perfect monospace font for
me. There was never anything that fit; Ubuntu Mono was nice but a bit too
"unprofessional", Liberation/Droid too boring, Microsoft/Apple fonts didn't
fit either. I looked through so many font comparison sites, tried a whole
bunch, just ended up sticking with the defaults.

Then I found Fira Mono. I use it everywhere. It looks great; it's very clear
and easy to read, it has a nice style. Fonts are a very personal thing so
thanks to Mozilla for finally letting me have one that was "mine".

~~~
hornetblack
I'm still comparing Fira Mono and Source Code Pro. They are both very nice.

[https://github.com/adobe/source-code-pro](https://github.com/adobe/source-
code-pro)

~~~
temporary_art
I'm a huge fan of Anonymous Pro... If you want to compare with something else.

[http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-
pro](http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro)

------
gioele
> So great, in fact, that we’ll be using it in Firefox’s in-content pages such
> as Preferences and the Add-ons Manager.

I prefer applications to use the default fonts provided by the operating
system. Consistency before aesthetics.

~~~
Boriss
True, but using a built-in font does mean _Firefox_ is consistent across
operating systems. Unfortunately, it's tough to be consistent across both OSes
and applications within an OS!

~~~
teacup50
That's not what I want. I don't use the other operating systems, and _I_ don't
care if _Firefox_ is consistent across them.

 _You_ care if Firefox is consistent, and that's just arrogance, because _you_
are not the platform. If everyone did what you're doing, then the platform
would have no common consistency at all.

Put away your designer arrogance; _my_ Mac isn't _your_ canvas on which to
ruin platform consistency.

~~~
jasonlotito
> my Mac isn't your canvas on which to ruin platform consistency.

So, you already have the solution: Safari. That is the the platform
recommended, platform consistent solution you seek. It exists. With that being
the case, what harm is there in other software accepting that just because
Apple does it doesn't mean it's always the right solution? Even Apple can't
settle on a standard font to use across all it's solutions. And using Apple as
the gold standard assumes they never make or don't still have glaring UI/UX
problems to overcome.

Put away your arrogance. Not all software needs to meet your exacting
standards. Heck, even Apple disagrees with you!

~~~
teacup50
It has nothing to do with a "gold standard", or "just because Apple does it".
It also has nothing to do with _Safari_ , or using an application solely
written by Apple.

On the platform, we contribute to the ecosystem by respecting the value of the
whole.

It's about _humility_ : Understanding that you're operating as part of a
larger whole, and that larger whole is _more valuable_ to your customer if it
is _consistent_ and _interoperable_.

The only reason to diverge from the common platform standards is if your
divergence provides more value to the _user_ in a way that doesn't detract
from platform consistency. Sometimes, people come up with novel new ways to do
things that genuinely fit right in to the established platform norms.

Using a non-standard[1] user interface font to achieve cross-platform
consistency isn't one of those cases.

Diverging for the sake of your UX designer's ego or your "brand identity"
_does not_ provide value to the user. In fact, it's robs the user of value to
the sole benefit of your product/brand concerns.

 _Heck, even Apple disagrees with you!_

No, they really, really don't.

[1]
[https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserEx...](https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/AppleHIGuidelines/Intro/Intro.html)

~~~
jasonlotito
> No, they really, really don't.

Yes, yes they do. They've made many changes that violate your next statement:

> The only reason to diverge from the common platform standards is if your
> divergence provides more value to the user...

I'm sorry if you feel that there should be only standard font used for UI
elements (there isn't in Apple products), or that other users values aren't
equally valuable.

> It's about humility: Understanding that you're operating as part of a larger
> whole, and that larger whole is more valuable to your customer if it is
> consistent and interoperable.

Apple is the biggest violator of this across all their platforms. If they
don't do it, why should anyone else?

~~~
teacup50
You seem to not understand that Apple defines the platform; consistency has to
start somewhere, and it's not going to emerge by committee.

Apple and 3rd-party developers extends conventions by exploring _coherent_ and
_consistent_ extensions to the platform.

Mozilla choosing to use a font that nobody else uses, for the purposes of
consistency across their browser, not the platform, has nothing to do with
what benefits the rest of the ecosystem, or by extension, the users, and
everything to do with what Mozilla wants.

------
cpeterso
Fira's designer Erik Spiekermann says the typeface's original name was
"Feura", but English-speakers pronounced that name as "führer":

[https://twitter.com/espiekermann/status/359353798663221248](https://twitter.com/espiekermann/status/359353798663221248)

~~~
copperx
Führer means leader, not Hitler. What's the problem?

~~~
Svip
If we are going to be pedantic, then „Führer” means someone who leads, whereas
„Leiter” is more close to the English term ‘leader’. ‘Leader’ and „Leiter”
share the same etymology, „Führer” does not. The same difference is present in
Danish as well: »leder« vs »fører«.

Essentially, „ein Führer” is more than just a leader.

~~~
pavlov
Never mind old Adolf -- the bit of pedancy I really admire in your post is
that you consistently and correctly use different typographical quoting
conventions for German, English and Danish.

~~~
Svip
This is a trait I adopted a year ago for own filthy pleasure. I felt it was
wrong to quote sentences and/or words in other languages with quotation marks
meant for another language.

I am confident other people have different views on this. Fortunately for most
people, I don't get to write much on languages. Strangely, while my dyslexia
is somewhat preventing this, it is also the same disorder that is causing me
to become more obsessive about my writing, including the quotation marks.

Edit: To ensure it, I have reconfigured my keymap to have all the symbols
ready as keys.

------
Mithaldu
I'm very impressed by this font, since it is the only font coming out of the
open source community that i can remember which has hinting info, meaning it
will still look good at font size 8 without smoothing.

~~~
calinet6
And it really does, too. One of the first things I noticed was how legible the
small point sizes were. Fantastic.

------
gkoberger
Previous HN comments:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6440962](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6440962)

------
ComputerGuru
OK, so the zip file has 32 OTF files in a subfolder - awesome. But how does
one install the .glyph files in the parent folder on, say, OS X?

I tried installing just the OTF files, but the extra glyphs are apparently
_not_ embedded in them and are inaccessible from (eg) Adobe Illustrator.

I can't find out how to embed the .glyphs (FiraSans_140521.glyphs and
FiraSansItalic_140521.glyphs) into the OTF?

~~~
cristiantincu
The _glyphs_ files are the sources. They can be opened with Glyphs
([http://www.glyphsapp.com/](http://www.glyphsapp.com/)).

------
gojomo
Do I understand the post correctly that the font is bundled in Firefox and
thus usable with no download lag? (If so, does that go equally for all
variants?)

~~~
Boriss
It isn't bundled now, but will be soon

------
thenduks
I've instantly fallen in love with (the mono version of) this font. One thing
that is a bit unfortunate though is it seems to have some odd line-
height/descender thing going on.

In Sublime Text 2/3 I can fix this easily with:

    
    
        "line_padding_top": 0,
        "line_padding_bottom": -2
    

But in iTerm2 all you get is a basic 'vertical character spacing' setting, and
the best I could do looks like this:

[http://ryanfunduk.com/img/scrn/bfada15f2d749c70afcfa94fd0aed...](http://ryanfunduk.com/img/scrn/bfada15f2d749c70afcfa94fd0aed04607ded834.png)

~~~
Watabou
Also using iTerm2, but I don't seem to have that problem:

[http://cl.ly/VhXX](http://cl.ly/VhXX)

I haven't touched any vertical and horizontal spacing settings.

~~~
thenduks
Interesting. If I leave the spacing settings closer to the default then it
looks like this:

[http://ryanfunduk.com/img/scrn/14bdd3324070f790b7f1c54b1b343...](http://ryanfunduk.com/img/scrn/14bdd3324070f790b7f1c54b1b343bc0a0f6f3f9.png)

Which looks more like your screenshot, and is no longer lopsided, but IMO
still looks pretty bad. I guess I just like tight lines. The huge cursor block
is... I don't know distracting somehow. My current terminal uses plain old
Menlo and it looks like this:

[http://ryanfunduk.com/img/scrn/827024555adee7d98c3a926c76c4f...](http://ryanfunduk.com/img/scrn/827024555adee7d98c3a926c76c4f18e96cf291b.png)

I don't mind my terminal font being different than my editor, so I'll still
get a lot of use out of Fira.

------
jph
Gorgeous font. I'll donate $50 toward an italic monospace.

------
BorisMelnik
So glad that I found this font I have a project this weekend this will be
perfect for. Have been looking for a new heading font for a while. Have been
having a lot of fun with Campton and Open Sans (my standard) but this one has
such a great style.

------
unethical_ban
As we discuss this, can HN get away from using Verdana? The site looks less
than pleasing when viewing from a FOSS Linux install; to get the HN official
look, I must install ttf third party stuff.

~~~
unethical_ban
It is a courtesy to explain downvoting when there is no controversy evident in
the post.

Let me explain my post: There are myriad open fonts available on the web, and
webfonts is a known, stable feature of web browsers. There is no reason to use
proprietary fonts on a tech website of such a caliber.

------
kator
I find I prefer fonts that I don't have to anti-alias. It seems all of these
look quite horrific in iTerm2 unless you turn on anti-alias which then makes
them feel to soft and fuzzy to me.

~~~
Demiurge
Try Source Code Pro Light with aliasing.

~~~
kator
That's the point I don't want aliasing. It softens things too much. I tried it
in iTerm2 without anti-alias on and it was horrific.

------
BjoernKW
Very cool. Just a few days ago I saw Fira's designer Erik Spiekermann give
talk on 'Type Is Visible Language'

------
mtford
Looks like it's down, and the official links for download don't seem to work
anymore. It's available here on github tho:
[https://github.com/mozilla/Fira](https://github.com/mozilla/Fira)

~~~
FootballMuse
The links are up for me, but Github currently has an older version of the
font.

------
cjensen
The sample on the page looks pretty horrific in terms of kerning.

I'm not very fussy about fonts. Am I the only one seeing this? Does the sample
fairly represent actual use?

~~~
psychometry
It's not great. The "Me" in "Medium" in that PNG is most egregious. I'm not
sure whether it's a problem with the font or if their designer was messing
around with letter spacing in Photoshop.

------
kudu
If you need to load this from a CDN, it's available through Brick
([http://brick.im/](http://brick.im/)).

------
keithpeter
Nice range of weights.

Anyone know a source where I can get the Liberation fonts in a similar range?
My Debian installation just has three weights.

------
blue11
The monospace version of the font has too much vertical spacing to be used for
programming. Everything looks double spaced.

------
jumpwah
More glyphs: [http://mozilla.github.io/Fira/](http://mozilla.github.io/Fira/)

------
azinman2
Looks reasonably nice at middle font sizes but chrome in my Mac renders the
<14pt fonts quite poorly. Wonder why...

------
zatkin
Does anyone have this font in woff format?

~~~
edwintorok
[https://github.com/mozilla/Fira/tree/master/woff](https://github.com/mozilla/Fira/tree/master/woff)

------
userbinator
The title in the sample image looks like "hra sans 3.1", with a really funny-
looking 'h'.

~~~
spopejoy
"hra" \-- sounds like the perfect lapine font!

can change it to "hrair" when they get to version 5

------
SimeVidas
16 weights? What are the corresponding CSS font-weight values?

~~~
igravious
ask, and ye shall receive:

[https://github.com/mozilla/Fira/blob/master/fira.css](https://github.com/mozilla/Fira/blob/master/fira.css)

------
chris_wot
Perhaps I'm blind, but what is the license for Fira Sans?

~~~
andreastt
It's licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1:

[https://github.com/mozilla/Fira/blob/master/LICENSE](https://github.com/mozilla/Fira/blob/master/LICENSE)

------
izietto
M is really ugly, just on my PC or for you too?

------
_random_
It's OK, I guess.

