News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by wartywhoa23 on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @05:50AM (#50084940)
Iosevka, my absolutely most loved font for years!

I've been using a custom version - you can customize the font¹ and build your own ttf (or better yet, ttc) using the build system supplied in the repository².

be5invis, the author of the font, deserves a special mention for creating a whole custom DSL called PatEL (Parametric Type Expression Language) to generate the font programmatically!

Renzhi, if you ever come around to read this, thank you so much for Iosevka, man!

¹https://typeof.net/Iosevka/customizer

²https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka/blob/master/doc/custom-b...

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by JdeBP on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @06:28AM (#50085320)
That explains all of the .ptl source files, which I didn't recognize straightaway.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by nextaccountic on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @06:12AM (#50085158)
> ttf (or better yet, ttc)

Why is ttc better?

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by wartywhoa23 on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @06:18AM (#50085235)
It's a package of ttfs, simpler to have all in one file on disk as well as install from one. Customization can generate a lot of font varieties.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by Tommix11 on Thursday October 15, 2026 @05:18AM (#50101188)
I often have difficulties when trying to install .ttc's on Windows 11. I don't know why.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by DiabloD3 on Thursday October 15, 2026 @08:20AM (#50102606)
Weird, because Microsoft invented the ttc. Its usually Mac users that have the problems with it.

Are you sure it isn't an issue where a specific app just doesn't know how to use ttc?

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by brzz on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @09:00AM (#50087072)
Would be curious to see your custom version
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by wartywhoa23 on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @10:37AM (#50088413)
Here you go:

https://pastebin.com/WwYY0QqX

Copy and paste into Import Configuration at https://typeof.net/Iosevka/customizer to preview.

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by z0ltan on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @09:36AM (#50087589)
Testing whether I am shadow-banned. If you see this message, could you just acknowledge the same?
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by wartywhoa23 on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @10:26AM (#50088266)
I see you, my friend!
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by mcbuilder on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @09:36AM (#50087597)
Same, I went from being die hard Terminus fan to this. Been a long time daily driver.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by durdn on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:34AM (#50089303)
oh man I used Terminus for so long till my finger hurt ... recently I was very happy with Cascadia Mono but now I've migrated to (as I was saying in another thread) Pragmasevka (derivative of Iosevka that mimics Pragmata Pro). It's really great.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by ilvez on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @10:21AM (#50088199)
Yep. :waves: to ones on similar path.. Switching off from Terminus was hard, but eventually unavoidable. Switched to Jetbrains Mono when Ghostty came out nearly 2 years ago..
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by goatking on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @10:48AM (#50088542)
I am happy it works for you. I am always surprised how much this font is praised, then I try it, and just completely unreadable for me.

I tried it again, quickly set it up in my terminal the "Iosevka Term" version, switching from Jetbrains Mono, and just don't understand how can people read this.

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by bayindirh on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:04AM (#50088769)
I drove a version of this for a fairly long time, remembering downloading it from GitHub page, not from the customizer. It's not a bad font by any means. I enjoyed Iosevka a lot while I used it.

But, after using Berkeley Mono for three minutes, I switched to it everywhere in a week or so, and never looked back, or looked anywhere else, to be precise.

Yes, it's not free, and yes it's opinionated. I can say that my opinions align with that font pretty much. It's one of the things which I cherish like an expensive hand tool which really does its job very well and makes you happy with its presence.

[0]: https://usgraphics.com/products/berkeley-mono

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by psolidgold on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @12:04PM (#50089841)
Here's an Iosevka config that mimics Berkeley Mono for those who don't want to or can't pay money for it. https://ahatem.github.io/IoskeleyMono/
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by bayindirh on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @12:08PM (#50089919)
Wow. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, indeed.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by BaudouinVH on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @12:43PM (#50090644)
Wow. So Gorgeous ! Thanks for sharing this
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by copperx on Thursday October 15, 2026 @01:03PM (#50106697)
This is even better than Berkeley Mono!
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by winkelmann on Thursday October 15, 2026 @01:24PM (#50107023)
I've had the Berkeley Mono trial on my system for a while now and tried it every so often when I changed up my terminal/editor themes, but it never quite clicked with me. I tried Ioskeley and I personally prefer the way it looks on my code. There are enough differences that I'd call it a bad clone if that were the intention, but a good font if you generally like how Berkeley Mono looks but want something different.

(Note: I have paid for fonts before and wouldn't hesitate to buy a coding font if it fit my preferences)

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by avadodin on Friday October 16, 2026 @04:50AM (#50115860)
It's the first time I see any of these fonts and I'm more of a bitmap font type but one difference is the parentheses are much more readable in the Ioskeley clone than in the rounded-corner–brackets Berkeley.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by astrolx on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:19AM (#50088996)
Funny enough I paid for Berkeley Mono but its italic is just not up to it (and particularly not to the price). Iosevka Mono has very nice glyphs but just way too narrow for my taste. JetBrains Mono, IBM Plex Mono (or Lilex) or Roboto Mono just seem to work much better for my tired eyes !
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by bayindirh on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:25AM (#50089099)
Fair enough. With super-compiler add-on, I believe you can adjust the angle of the italics.

I faintly remember about the though process of italics, but I don't remember it now. They don't look uncomfortable to me, anyway.

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by lemontheme on Thursday October 15, 2026 @02:40AM (#50100068)
Iosevka variant SS14 is a JetBrains Mono-like. Currently my favorite!
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by astrolx on Friday October 16, 2026 @02:29PM (#50122394)
Ok fair point. I usually try a few stylistic alternative. First time i hear a font go to SS14. I will have a look, thanks
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by cdaringe on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:16AM (#50088950)
wow i love it! 225 bucks for a font though is bonkers
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by psolidgold on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @12:01PM (#50089782)
If you like Berkeley Mono but don't want to pay, here's an Iosevka configuration that attempts to mimic it as closely as possible. https://ahatem.github.io/IoskeleyMono/
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by copperx on Thursday October 15, 2026 @01:04PM (#50106721)
It's better than mimicry, Ioskeley is superior to Berkeley Mono.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by bayindirh on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:23AM (#50089043)
I first bought it for $75, then the updates came. I also got them when they came out, but I don't remember the price.

You can start with $75 package and work your way up if you feel like you need them.

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by riedel on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @01:48PM (#50091845)
What am I missing: here it lists as SIL OFL [0]

[0] https://www.programmingfonts.org/#iosevka

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by seanw444 on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @02:19PM (#50092381)
They're referring to Berkeley, not Iosevka.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by riedel on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @02:30PM (#50092620)
Thanks! Should have read more carefully. To make things more confusing there seems to be IoskeleyMono as free alternative btw [0]

[0] https://github.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by ErroneousBosh on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @03:59PM (#50094180)
Looks like the daisywheel typeface that one of the old ACT Sirius Ones at my dad's old work used to use.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by bayindirh on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @04:49PM (#50095011)
It's designed to look like a font from that era, to be honest. It also reminds me some of the older computers I used. Some typewriter, maybe a real VT320 or the older DOS systems I used.

It's a modern yet period correct version of these older fonts, with proper character set support and love for details. It's so perfect for me, it becomes invisible, or as the Berkeley's page says: "It's boring. It's good"*.

Or as I mailed the creator after using it a couple of weeks: "It's so perfect that it transported all my computers to 70s, in a good way".

*: When I was writing this comment, I wondered whether I really set my browser's monospace font to Berkeley. It becomes that transparent after a while.

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by gorgoiler on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @12:07PM (#50089889)
A huge helping of praise gets lumped onto Iosevka, from me, for the way it is defined in a custom S-expression DSL.

https://github.com/be5invis/PatEL

It’s a real hackers typeface.

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by avadodin on Friday October 16, 2026 @05:03AM (#50115951)
IoSevka->IoSif->Stalin->Stallman->emacS->eliSp->S-expression
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by para_parolu on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:05AM (#50088778)
Iosevka is very configurable and have many options for font and individual glyphs. Build supports text file config. At some point I made a config so I can always get preferred setup. It works well for me
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by 16bitvoid on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @10:52AM (#50088601)
I'm also not a fan of the narrow width, but there is an "extended" width version that's more like other mono fonts, which is what I personally use, albeit customized.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by skrebbel on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:13AM (#50088895)
Give it a week
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by nvme0n1p1 on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @12:27PM (#50090321)
The reason it's so popular is it was (one of?) the first fonts to include tons of programming ligatures. So it gained mindshare early, and since font choices are so personal, the more people use a font, the more people will like and post about it.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by JasonSage on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @12:33PM (#50090448)
Once, I also couldn't fathom how people liked this one.

When I asked, somebody said it fits more characters in terminals and code editors. This sounds incredibly obvious, but for whatever reason that was eye-opening for me and helped me appreciate it a lot more when I tried it again. Now I can't use anything else.

Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by Perz1val on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @01:02PM (#50090959)
Truth is it requires getting used to, I don't even notice it's narrow anymore, but it was so painful throughout the first day
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by altairprime on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @01:31PM (#50091528)
To suggest an odd thing, you might try repeating your tests with the customized set to a single weight — either higher or lower than the default 500 that most programs would use. Berkeley for high-PPI displays is at 450 rather than 500 and looks better for it. (I’m on the Berkeley ship and there are flaws in Iosevka that would see me select Monaco over it, but I’m also a fan of For Science™.)
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by wpm on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @11:35PM (#50098810)
Do you have a link for "For Science™"?
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by altairprime on Thursday October 15, 2026 @12:38AM (#50099215)
Use the Iosevka customizer at the page above and it’s the first option listed.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by gjvc on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @05:54PM (#50095934)
Jetbrains Mono Thin and Roboto Condensed make an excellent pair.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by lemontheme on Thursday October 15, 2026 @02:39AM (#50100062)
Its narrower width definitely takes some getting used. It wasn’t until the third revisit that it clicked for me. I realized I could fit more text in my terminal panes while keeping font size the same. Running one or more coding agents in every terminal window also had something to do with it.
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by vbernat on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @02:43PM (#50092846)
I love it as I can customize it to match the metrics and weights of my main font on web pages. See here for me: https://github.com/vincentbernat/vincent.bernat.ch/blob/main....
Re:Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif, mon... by sombragris on Wednesday October 14, 2026 @03:13PM (#50093343)
Iosevka and its family are a true masterpiece. I used it as my main primary monospaced font since it's so clean and pleasing to the eye.

I now switched to Ioskeley Mono, which is an Iosevka configuration made to look similar to Berkeley Mono:

https://github.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono

Either the Iosevka originals or Ioskeley are gorgeous fonts. I'm grateful to its creator.