Show HN: Xenia – A monospaced font built with a custom Python engine

fimdomeio | a month ago

I would suggest making the screenshot with the font at different sizes. They first thing I want is to have an approximation of how it will look at small sizes.

xandrius | a month ago

I find the "i" quite excruciating to look at.

Also would like to see more examples, say including this deep math.

TehCorwiz | a month ago

It's just letting you dot your Ts and cross your Is. ;)

EDIT: The joke wasn't that bad. :(

Conscat | a month ago

I liked it :3 thought it was funny

LoganDark | a month ago

:3

Y_Y | a month ago

It's like a dotted version of the false/bottom symbol from logic: ⊥̇

grilledchickenw | a month ago

Could you share more information on this custom python procedural engine?

ako | a month ago

Is this related: https://www.paratype.com/fonts/pt/xenia ?

lemontheme | a month ago

The 'a' and the 'o' are a bit similar, but all in all I can see myself trying this out. Reminds me a bit of Comic Code and Maple Mono. Thanks for sharing!

There are a few odd things about this post though. Take this as well-intentioned feedback.

- New account. No previous submissions or comments.

- New Github account. No previous activity.

- Mentions custom engine (cool!), but omits any details.

- Calls other mono fonts 'fugly'; refuses to elaborate.

- Releasing based on interest feels like engagement farming. Let me know when it's done. Then I'll judge whether I'm interested.

- Regular weights are free. Implication is that other weights will be paid. That's fine. I'm happy to pay for fonts. But I'm unlikely to try a font in earnest without bold and italics.

Sorry if this comes off as harsh. I wish you the best with this!

WillAdams | a month ago

Why do this rather than just using METAFONT/METAPOST/METATYPE1?

gucci-on-fleek | a month ago

It's not very easy to use Metafont and its derivatives to produce a modern TrueType/OpenType font. Even the TeX Gyre fonts use FontForge [0] rather than Metafont.

[0]: https://ctan.org/tex-archive/fonts/tex-gyre/source

gknightbro | a month ago

I tried this font out but had issues with the terminal in VS code.

Dwedit | a month ago

Does it emulate an XBOX 360?

toyg | a month ago

"a" and "o" are way too similar, sorry. It's a pet peeve of mine.

blittle | a month ago

It calls out O and 0 as unambiguous. I never find an ever so slightly more narrow ellipse to be less ambiguous.

zvr | a month ago

Nice work!

Your documentation should definitely list the Unicode code points / glyphs covered, for people to get an idea which scripts are supported.

Also, the repository has a LICENSE file with the MIT license text, but the actual font file (.ttf) embeds the information that it's licensed under SIL Open Font License 1.1. One of these two pieces of information needs to be corrected.

throwaway85825 | a month ago

There is a name collision with the Xenia emulator for the Xbox 360. https://xenia.jp/

seized | a month ago

Calla the "a" in other fonts fugly, does that with the lowercase "i"... Something about living in glass houses maybe.

nine_k | a month ago

I'm not a particular fan of this font. But I highly appreciate the systemic approach, the uniform aesthetics, and, most of all, the attitude: if something is unsatisfactory, build your own. Additionally, share with the world.

_blk | a month ago

Nice variant to the otherwise sharper or edgier mono fonts (pardon my ignorance for terminology). Personally it feels too "girly" for my taste. Nothing wrong with that - just a personal preference. I'm sure others will like it. Reminds me of wwii-era typewriter fonts and it also has a touch of "comic sans" to it. Thanks for sharing.

codezero | a month ago

I love it, just switched my terminal over to it from Monaco.

binary132 | a month ago

is this bait?

Minor49er | a month ago

I'm not sure but I thought it was funny that the "buy me a coffee" banner is the most prominent visual on the page, dwarfing the (typo'd) example text. At least that's how it appears to me on mobile.

gschizas | a month ago

There's no Greek in there, so that's unfortunately another skip for me. I know most people won't care, but at least try for a WGL4 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Glyph_List_4) charset! All Greek-derived alphabets (Greek, Latin, Cyrillic) have very similar characteristics (unlike other writing systems such as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese or Korean), and it should be much easier to expand your system to cover those.

EDIT: As many people have said, the "custom Python engine" would be far more interesting than the font itself.