Change the default font

Ideas
1

Yoinked from the Discord server

What’s the general consensus on changing the default to something a little more friendly, like JetBrains Mono, or Monaspace ? It wouldn’t do a ton in the theming space, but I feel like it’d at least make things a bit friendlier than the current iA-Mono default.

If it’d be helpful, I can grab a couple of screenshots of what both of those fonts look in my space.

I’m sure there’s other fonts out there that would be a great fit as well, I just suggested some of the more modern ones that have open licenses, and have decent features that aid readability while still maintaining their monospace-ness.

2

Some screenshots for comparison I think would be really great. As I mentioned, I’m 100% open to this. If it looks good, the license is MIT compatible I think we can go for it :+1: If it’s controversial maybe we can bundle both fonts and allow switching with SETTINGS.

1 Like
3

I personally have no problem with the current font… but I love JetBrains Mono as it is my daily choice in the terminal.
So I wouldn’t mind changing to it as the default one.

Either are fine for me.

4

Edit: uploaded the right images :stuck_out_tongue:

Current Default (iA-Mono):

Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 3.45.15 PM
Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 3.45.15 PM834×1025 79.5 KB

Jetbrains Mono:

image
image834×1022 77 KB

Monaspace (Neon variant):

Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 3.46.34 PM
Screenshot 2024-03-14 at 3.46.34 PM837×1025 82.1 KB

Monaspace (Argon variant):

image
image836×1022 82.5 KB

5

Is this a trick? The first 3 screenshots seem identical to me, or am I just font blind :smiley:

Edit: ok so apparently you uploaded the wrong images before. I thought I was going crazy.

6

Heh, no, I did a dumb and uploaded the same picture three times… Should be fixed now :stuck_out_tongue:

7

Ok I think the Jetbrains Mono is a clear improvement. Jetbrains Mono compared to the Monaspace one’s I don’t see a big step up there, they just seem a bit wider?

Let me set up a poll:

  • iA-Mono
  • Jetbrains Mono
  • Monaspace (Neon)
  • Monaspace (Argon)
0 voters
1 Like
8

I agree. I was just afraid that I was biased because I use Jetbrains Mono on the daily :stuck_out_tongue:

It is worth noting that the Monaspace ones seem to be a bit larger than the others, even at the same font size. Not sure why that is.

9

I do like JetBrains Mono but default one is not that bad either.
If i have to choose, JetBrains Mono

10

I voted for Jetbrains Mono, but I also like the current font. If it’s not too much hassle I think it would be good to be able to change the font in SETTINGS.

1 Like
11

Yeah, for sure. Currently you can change it with space style (or in settings for versions prior to 0.7.6). The challenge is shipping the font. If the user doesn’t have a font installed on their system, we need to provide the browser a way of fetching it. Currently with iA-Mono, SilverBullet serves it to the client, but that’d be difficult to do with any ad-hoc font.

I wonder if we could provide a way to pick any font from Google fonts? They have quite a few popular monospace fonts (Jetbrains mono, Inconsolata, Roboto Mono, etc.).

12

Votes seem to go towards Jetbrains Mono. Happy to take a PR for this if anybody has time :slight_smile:

13

Ok. Update on this topic: the switch to Jetbrains mono was made about a week ago on Edge. I’ve been living with that for a few days, and other edge users as well. In the end… I didn’t love it. Many others also weren’t enthusiastic so we rolled it back.

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