Comment by bayindirh

5 days ago

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

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/

  • 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)

  • 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.

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 !

  • 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.

  • Iosevka variant SS14 is a JetBrains Mono-like. Currently my favorite!

    • 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

Looks like the daisywheel typeface that one of the old ACT Sirius Ones at my dad's old work used to use.

  • 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.

wow i love it! 225 bucks for a font though is bonkers