The folks who make the "distraction-free" text editor iA Writer have added a second typeface to the options available for writing in iA Writer. It's a modified version of
IBM Plex Mono called
iA Writer Duospace. The blog post detailing the thought behind it is here:
I too have been on the search for the perfect writing font! But that's a broader topic.
iA Writer Duospace's raison d'être seems to be the innovation of introducing 150% widths for m's and w's to keep them from being too squashed. It's an interesting idea but I have to admit that it irritates me. I'm not 100% why.
Any thoughts about this? How does this change the readability? And what makes a face more writeable than readable?
I've long thought that there ought to be almost-monospaced faces with characters with 200% and 300% widths, but I've never gotten off my duff to do anything about it. Specifically I find ligatures and en/em dashes to be terrible in monospaced faces. But there's a big difference: a 200% or 300% width character keeps the letters lined up, and doesn't introduce ragged changes in alignment. 150% is an interesting compromise, but I can't help but feel that if you're compromising there, why not just go with a proportional face?
PS Is this actually the first time this has been done?
Comments
I've never started experimenting with it, because I think it will problably look like a bad spaced and kerned proportional font.
Besides that, if you create a duo or triple spaced font, you break one of the core functionalities of a mono spaced font: it's not mono spaced anymore. For design related work this should not be such a problem. But mono spaced fonts are still widely used to generate output from programs. This can be on screen (terminal), or emails (think of a basic invoice in plain-text format) etc.
So I think whe have to stick to mono spaced or proportional fonts. Anything in between is a bad trade off in functionality. But, as an expression of a certain taste (more precise – the love for the rugged and awkward look of mono spaced type), duo or triple spaced font may be viable in limited scenario's.
For me ligatures like 'æ' are a real big issue in a monospaced font. They need to be in the the font, but at the same time there's not enough room for them. In my (semi condensed) mono spaced font in development I've omitted them – until I've found a solution.
That was addressed in the iA posting (and you will note here that I have produced an actual link, like every other Web page you’ve ever looked at, instead of pasting in a bald URL).
Of course they mean “indention.” But they’re German.
Besides, as I said earlier I don't think Plex Mono works well as a programming or terminal face. So it's not really a lot of sacrifice to optimize for writing.
Could you explain to a non-dev why Plex Mono fails at programming code?
Microsoft had it better. Andale Mono was great and superbly hinted, but for an unclear reason never got beyond just one style. They also had Lucida Console, very cool. But most of the code environments defaulted to Courier New, which was just terrible. But then, they made the right choice and had Lucas do Consolas, which is fantastic (still my favorite). One thing that's great about Consolas is that it has a superb monospaced italic — not too simple (oblique) but also not too quirky. Just right.
Today, SF Mono and Consolas are IMO way ahead of the competition, for code fonts.
https://www.isoglosse.de/2018/02/proportionally-spaced-typefaces-with-a-monospaced-appearance/
Friden had split the patents on the original IBM typebar electric typewriter; this was because it had descended from the company that manufactured the electric motor for it. This is why a Flexowriter looks a lot like an IBM electric. There was a proportional-spacing version, the Justowriter, and one I had seen used the exact same spacing system as the IBM Documentary typestyle did. (2, 3, 4, and 5 units.)
I remember reading in Alexander Lawson's Anatomy of a Typeface that Centaur was adapted to this spacing, under the name "Rogers", but I haven't seen the result.
One of the typestyles for the IBM Executive was Secretarial, which had the classic typewriter serif style, so it might fit on that list.
Feel like they’re abandoning the proclaimed “typographic rawness” in iA Writer Duo’s introduction.
I am happy to see their new solution to CJK emphasis though.