Am 29.05.2017 um 22:11 schrieb Mike Horvath:
> I will try Consolas for a while starting now. So far I already miss
> Courier New. :(

I don't at all(*). "Courier" is an old typewriter font, so it was
designed for good looks rather than easy distinguishing of similar
characters (many "Courier" font typewriters did not even have a
dedicated key for the digit "1", and presumably the lowercase letter "l"
was co-opted for this purpose). And while the computer-age
re-incarnations of the font have made sure all the ASCII characters
/can/ be distinguished from each other, the priority seems to have been
on remaining faithful to the original font, as they haven't exactly gone
out of their way to make that distinction at a quick glance.

In contrast, "Consolas" is (to the best of my knowledge) a newly
designed font, and its name alludes that it was created /specifically/
to be used in console windows, where distinguishing similar characters
quickly is of higher importance than good looks. For instance, by adding
a slash to the digit "0" they improved its distinction to the uppercase
letter "O"; and the distinction between the lowercase letter "l" and the
digit "1" was improved not only by increasing the angle of the digit's
top left bar, but also by increasing the height of all the lowercase
letters. In this manner, even a trailing lowercase letter "l" after a
number (e.g. "432l", indicating a "long integer" constant in C/C++)
isn't easily mistaken for another digit "1", even at a casual glance.


(*Besides, I still have "Courier New" on my machine, though I don't
recall whether it came with Windows 10 or MS Office 2016.)

Post a reply to this message