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November 21, 2011

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi

I've been using the PragmataPro font in Delphi recently and I really like it a lot! Which font do you use in your editor?

I've been using the PragmataPro font in Delphi recently and I really like it a lot. Before I get to the key topic, let me underline that fact that most of you probably spend a lot of time using an editor (either the one in the Delphi IDE, or the editor of in Visual Studio, Eclipse, on any other IDE, as well as stand alone editors). While we spend a lot of time reading and writing source code, we often forget the the readability of what is on the screen depends also on the font we use. When is the last time you change font of your preferred editor?

Of course, your choice of fonts is limited by the fact you need a fixed with font, and not a proportional one, so that words show up in "columns" and indentation works as expected. There aren't many fixed size fonts out there. In the past I often moved from the classic Courier New (the default in Delphi) to Lucida Console (which I prefer to showing code when I do a presentation). I've now moved to PragmataPro. Here you can see these 3 fonts:

   

These iamges show the same text in Courier New, Lucida Consule, and PragmataPro all at size 12. As you can see pragmata is as tall as Courier (Lucida let's you fit more lines in the editor), but Pragmata is more compact horizontally, so you can fit 80 or even 100 characters in the screen, even with all those side panes that Delphi and other IDEs use these days.

This ProgamataPro font is the extension of the older Pragmata font, by the same author, Fabrizio Schiavi, a font designer who made this fixed-size font specifically for programmers. (Disclaimer: the author of PragmataPro is the designer of my book covers and a person I have a business relationship with. he gave me the font for free. Still, I'm not earning anything by promoting his fonts, I think the quality of his work deserves it). Fabrizio was so kind to give me a free license to the font, but I was more than willing to pay for it. Some more text set in Pragmata is below, but I used it also for my recent FireMonkey webinar:

What's interesting, and another reason for blogging, is that PragmataPro is now available as part of an open-source funding project on IndieGogo: http://www.indiegogo.com/PragmataPro-the-ideal-programming-typeface-becomes-open-source. In short, whatever is collected in sales and offers goes into a pool and then this pool is large enough the font will become open source and free for everyone. I think a company like Embarcadero should contribute, or buy a license to include in its editors (not only Delphi). But I might be biased.

Which font do you use in your editor? Do you think it matters?

posted by marcocantu @ 5:44PM | 21 Comments [0 Pending]




 

21 Comments

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

I use Lucida Sans Typewriter.
Comment by Placatan Bugulandia [] on November 21, 17:54

 

How does it compare to Consolas? 
Comment by Anthony Mills [http://amills.net/] on November 21, 18:31

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

Personally I use DejaVu Sans Mono at 8pt. Pragmata looks 
a little too narrow for my taste.

Stuart
Comment by Stuart Clennett [] on November 21, 19:20

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

I use INCONSOLATA because I'd much rather see a
slashed zero in my fixed font:

http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inconsolata

Cesar
Comment by Cesar Marrero [] on November 21, 19:31

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

I'm using Meslo:
https://github.com/andreberg/Meslo-Font

Screenshots here:
https://github.com/andreberg/Meslo-Font/wiki/Meslo-LG-
Examples-%28Windows%29 
Comment by noz on November 21, 19:56

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

I used to use Bitstream Vera Sans Mono but have now switched to the 
DejaVu Sans Mono, which is the same as the Bitstream Vera but with 
additional support for Unicode.  I use 8 pt.

The narrowness of PragmataPro looks odd to me (I'd go so far as to say 
ugly which ime == uncomfortable to read), and I have to say that with 
widescreen monitors, the ability for a font to remain clear at lower point 
sizes, to enable the maximum use of _vertical_ space, is far more 
important than width.

Similarly I now code to a 100 column margin rather than 80 and even on 
that wider "page", having panels open either side of the code editor is no 
problem at all.
Comment by Jolyon Smith [http://www.deltics.co.nz/blog] on November 21, 20:07

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

Anonymous Pro 
http://www.ms-studio.com/FontSales/anonymouspro.html
Comment by Leonel on November 21, 21:10

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

 +1 for Lucida Sans Typewriter
Comment by nix on November 21, 21:17

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

I've tried a lot of fonts and much prefer Dina which 
was also created for programmers. It's limited to 7, 
9 and 10pt though.

http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/
Comment by Alfred E. Newman [] on November 22, 01:18

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

Envy Code R. Great free font. 
Comment by jp on November 22, 05:58

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

 if it allows for longer code *lines*, it's not 
very desirable as a programming font IME.
Long code lines are high amongst recurring 
code readability issues, just like overly long 
procedures, their cousin.
Comment by Eric [http://delphitools.info] on November 22, 06:35

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

 Consolas @ 11pt
Comment by gabr on November 22, 07:15

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

An excellent subject topic. I think you have 
successfully identified a point that nearly everybody 
thinks matters here, to judge from the number of 
comments.

I'm sorry, but I also don't like PragmataPro - it is 
more than condensed, it is positively squished. The 
advantage gained in horizontal space is for me lost in 
aesthetics. And I think my old eyes would struggle to 
read a lot of that font.

I'm another user of Consolas, by the way, a Microsoft 
freebie which just shaves the font width down a 
little, but avoids - in my opinion - the 'squished' 
look.
Comment by Will Watts on November 22, 07:27

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

 Inc(Envy Code R);
Comment by ikaneko on November 22, 07:55

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

Consolas, at a point size approximately given by 
0.2*MyAgeInYears + 3.8  :{
Comment by MikeJ [] on November 22, 09:18

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

 It's interesting how subjective matter this is. Envy 
Code R looks positively disgusting to me, as does 
Pragmata Pro.

A note to Marco - you should also show bitmaps of fonts 
at the "normal" size (12 pt in your case) as they look 
much different when they are smaller. (Interestingly 
enough, I like Envy Code R at larger sizes, it's just 
the small version (11 pt in my case) that I hate.)
Comment by gabr on November 22, 09:26

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

Anonimous Pro 13. Sometimes Envy Code R. Both are
great fonts.
Comment by spry on November 22, 11:17

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

My choice is "Dina" for english only projects and 
"Consolas" when I need cyrillic.
Comment by nedko [http://nedko.bg] on November 22, 14:12

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

 +1 for Consolas @ 11pt
Comment by Carlos Tré [] on November 22, 15:58

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

170 euros for a programming font? No thank you.

I like Consolas just fine.

Warren 
Comment by warren on November 24, 03:36

Using the PragmataPro Font in Delphi  

I'm a lazy guy in these things. I use CourierNew at 10pt. 
Comment by Hubert on November 26, 11:50


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