
Show HN: Glean, a tiny bitmap font for programming - benwr
https://github.com/benwr/glean
======
jstimpfle
> This monitor has a lot of pixels by decade-ago standards, but its pixel
> density leaves much to be desired by today standards. I have accidentally
> become accustomed to crisp, small fonts by a couple of years of using an old
> Retina Macbook. Bitmap fonts are better at this than scalable fonts,
> especially on screens with low pixel density.

IMO these are all the right reasons. I also suffer from a bad purchase: 27"
FullHD Monitor, which means 82dpi (if I remember correctly). But even at more
common resolutions like 90-100dpi, vector fonts totally suck at small sizes.
So bitmap fonts it is for coding work.

However this font clearly suffers from being only 5x10 size. The characters
look similar to vector fonts without antialiasing: Random disproportions --
the same line is 1px here, 2px over there.

What's not to like about the default font that comes with xterm (6x13 size)?
[http://jstimpfle.de/dateisalat/2016-10-xterm-
screenshot/](http://jstimpfle.de/dateisalat/2016-10-xterm-screenshot/)

~~~
userbinator
_What 's not to like about the default font that comes with xterm (6x13
size)?_

That's one of my favourites too --- the only "what's not to like" about it is
the nonslashed zero, but that's easily fixed with a suitable font or even hex
editor.

There is a 5x7 in the same family, but I find it too small for regular use; on
the other hand, it looks much like the standard font on embedded systems'
character LCDs, which are much lower DPI.

~~~
benwr
I confess that I did not know about the 5x7 variant - I'll check it out.

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itomato
Nice work, but I'll take SGI's "Screen" font over this one any time.

~~~
benwr
Wow, that's an awesome one I hadn't seen! The best way to get recommendations
on HN seems to be "make an approximation of the thing you want - others will
point you to the version that you should have made"

~~~
spdustin
This has got to be one of the most refreshingly positive responses to a
backhanded compliment I've ever seen. Well done!

No offense to GP. I know "backhanded compliment" seems like a loaded phrase,
but I use it for the sake of expediency.

~~~
itomato
Make no mistake, this was no compliment of the product, but for the effort.

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kbd
I find this font pretty hard to read, judging by the screenshots.

If you want bitmap fonts, I'd recommend taking a look at the Proggy set of
fonts at
[http://upperbounds.net/index.php?menu=download](http://upperbounds.net/index.php?menu=download)

~~~
benwr
Yeah! I was actually using progsole before making this - I'm primarily
interested in squeezing legible characters into pixels, and progsole is
sliiiightly wider. Even the difference between 5 and 6 pixels can be
substantial if you're trying to keep 6 files in your head at once.

~~~
arnarbi
I use these [http://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-
fonts/fontlist/](http://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/fontlist/)

------
herbertsherbet
> My company has been very generous in giving me two monitors

That's a terribly low standard for generosity that you have there. Basic
equipment to get your job done.

------
stuaxo
Now we just need an IDE that runs in mode 0x13 320x200 VGA.

~~~
cyphar
Another bitmap, programming font I really like is Dina[1]. It's MIT licensed
(though this isn't mentioned on the home page).

[1]:
[https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/](https://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/)

~~~
userbinator
I can see the point of licenses on vector fonts containing nontrivial
characters with many complex shapes etc., but at these small pixel sizes it
seems like a bit of a fool's errand to talk about licensing/IP at all --- e.g.
there's only so many ways to put pixels on a 6x13 grid and make it look
recognisable as the letter 'M'. Hence all these small bitmapped fonts are
extremely similar, with only slight variations in things like serifs/lack
thereof, slashed zero/plain zero/rounded zero/etc. --- which are themselves a
handful of pixels' difference. They all look almost like xterm6x13, which is
public domain.

~~~
cyphar
All works should have a free license. It's better to be safe (I'll just add a
licence anyway) than sorry (I didn't add a license and now users are
technically violating copyright). If a court decides otherwise, that's a
separate issue. But until that court case, I will continue to license
everything I make under free licenses.

~~~
apotheon
Good. You're doing it right.

I'm going to try out Dina in XTerm, by the way.

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taneq
I don't understand what the employer thinks they're gaining by making you work
with two small monitors. I mean they're saving, what, $500? They'd recoup that
amount in productivity gains within a week, tops.

Forcing your employees to use blunt saws when sharp saws are cheap is the most
shortsighted of false economies.

~~~
benwr
There's no force involved - the gains of a slightly higher-res monitor aren't
worth the $500, even just to me personally. It was worth the time and the
(negative cost of) learning, though!

------
lobster_johnson
Font Book says the dfont file fails "System Validation", whatever that means,
and warns they might cause system disruption. Anyone know what this means?
Ignorable?

~~~
hxegon
I ignored it and it works fine. It's even powerline patched!

~~~
lobster_johnson
Thanks.

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nightcracker
5x10 without subpixel support is super limiting, and the result reflects that.
I assume you'd get used to it, but I really have to work hard to read this
font.

~~~
Semiapies
Yeah, that's _save up for eyeglasses or your next prescription_ territory.
I'll cheerfully continue to use 16pt Inconsolata.

~~~
StavrosK
Why would exercising your eyes make them need glasses?

~~~
carterehsmith
Exercise involves muscles contracting and relaxing; this looks like just the
contracting part, as you squint at too-small things on the screen.

------
cyphar
> Glean is released under version 3 of the GNU GPL, or any later version.

While I love the GPL (and commend you for using it on a non-software work) I
would recommend that you add the font exception to the licence (allowing
embedding of the font in documents without licencing the document under GPL).

~~~
benwr
I'm not sure I can - Neep was released under the GPLv2 or later. IANAL
though...

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Something1234
What kind of format is BDF? It seems that it isn't readable by any of the font
tools on my computer.

~~~
rjsw
It is the original source format for fonts for X11 [1]. There are several
command line tools that will work with it.

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph_Bitmap_Distribution_Form...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glyph_Bitmap_Distribution_Format).

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imtringued
For some reason I like the 6x8 font of the windows command prompt.

[http://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/243590/command_pro...](http://fontstruct.com/fontstructions/show/243590/command_prompt_06x08)

Click on the pixel button to see it unscaled.

------
white-flame
I use a standard vector font in small size, around 5x8 pixels. The inherent
antialiasing can give far more visual information cues than just pure binary
bitmaps. The high-frequency edges of small bitmap characters are also much
harsher, making AA vector fonts easier to look at.

[https://i.imgur.com/51qOPv4.png](https://i.imgur.com/51qOPv4.png)

(Liberation Mono, 6pt, greyscale antialiasing, no hinting, default 96dpi
setting)

Explore your available fonts to see which happens to scale down reasonably.
Make sure to disable font hinting when using vector fonts at small sizes.
Hinting absolutely destroys the shapes at those sizes, as the ~1 pixel fudging
that lines get is massive relative to the glyph size of just a handful of
pixels.

~~~
benwr
I understand this position, but I don't agree that that screenshot is easier
to read than a bitmap font - the fuzziness really bothers my eyes.

------
StavrosK
Hmm, does anyone know how I can import this font on Ubuntu? Nothing recognizes
it.

~~~
benwr
Oh, Ubuntu has weird rules that prevent you from using bitmapped fonts.
There's some configuration file in /etc/fontsomethingorother that you need to
delete. I forget the specifics. After that you should be able to drop the bdf
files into ~/.local/share/fonts (preferred) or ~/.fonts, run fc-cache, and see
it show up in applications.

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tonetheman
too hard to read... i am old... :(

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znpy
I still prefer the Hermit font.

