The Best coding typeface? Comic Code Font ✨
Friitig,21 Januar, 2022

I was just browsing through My HN Clone (which is the only way to read it for me as the original site is set in an incredibly annoying and small font) and I came across an article about a new open-source typeface for coding called Iosevka.

This is certainly a great effort which I applaud. You can have a coding font that can be customised to your needs and is entirely free, so what more can you ask for?

There are certainly plenty of monospaced, open-source typefaces like Victor Mono, Jetbrains Mono , IBM Flex Mono and just many others.

This article reminded me of a recent email newsletter I received just a few days ago from myfonts. It was about a coding font with a twist: Comic Code. Not an open-source font, but to me it is well worth the 12$ - 30$ for the license.

Here it is in all its beauty:

Really not your usual coding font!

Casual, nice, and inspiring

The font was designed from scratch by Toshi Omagari of Tabular Type Foundry

All images and rights myfonts.com

Comic Code is available for purchase on Myfonts.com. I am not affiliated to myfonts but I thought I would recommend it as a valid alternative to the various open-source or not programming typefaces. All have a very technical feel. Nothing wrong with that but I agree with the designer, Toshi Omgarai that stated Code —machine-like rows of characters — looks scary to many people. I want to change that.

This is a great philosphy so I went on and bought it. Now it is my go-to font for everything related to coding including XCode default font, terminal etc.

It is now also the default font for any code snipped in this site and here you can see it in action:

import Foundation
import Saga
import PathKit
import SagaParsleyMarkdownReader
import SagaSwimRenderer

struct ArticleMetadata: Metadata {
  let tags: [String]
  var summary: String?
  let `public`: Bool?
}

struct AppMetadata: Metadata {
  let url: URL?
  let images: [String]?
}

// SiteMetadata is given to every template.
// You can put whatever you want in here, as long as it's Decodable.
struct SiteMetadata: Metadata {
  let url: URL
  let name: String
}

let siteMetadata = SiteMetadata(
  url: URL(string: "http://www.example.com")!,
  name: "Example website"
)

// An easy way to only get public articles, since ArticleMetadata.public is optional
extension Item where M == ArticleMetadata {
  var `public`: Bool {
    return metadata.public ?? true
  }
}

// An example of a simple page processor that takes files such as "2021-01-27-post-with-date-in-filename"
// and uses the date within the filename as the publication date.
func itemProcessor(item: Item<ArticleMetadata>) async {
  // If the filename starts with a valid date, use that as the Page's date and strip it from the destination path
  let first10 = String(item.relativeSource.lastComponentWithoutExtension.prefix(10))
  guard first10.count == 10, let date = Run.pageProcessorDateFormatter.date(from: first10) else {
    return
  }

  // Set the date
  item.date = date

I love the casual look and feel. It is very readable and it has the right 0! My previous coding font was APL 385. It was not as austere as other coding fonts but I like comic code much more!

There are indeed many open-source, free options so why invest in a typeface? I think the typefaces you use are extremely important. It can enhance your productivity and, in the case of a web font, can make your voice more distinct, clear and pleasant.

computer back home