Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
Aachen | on: Pareto Front
Misread the title and got excited about a Pareto font, that is, the best possible font (presumably: distinct l/I, O/0, scores within error margins of the top readability and reading speed scores, widely available, etc.)

Maybe in vein but did anyone already figure this one out? The closest I got was PT sans, open-licensed commissioned by the Russian ministry for communication (I found it surprising that a country that doesn't use Latin script made the best font!), but it's not widely shipped so you need to figure out how to include font files whenever you want to use it

gadders | parent | next
I thought it was some sort of Italian activism group.

"The Pareto Front today claimed responsiblity for...."

lucaslazarus | root | parent | next
You mean the People’s front of Pareto!
loading story #49201027
orthoxerox | root | parent
...20% of the attacks causing 80% of the casualties?
mdnahas | root | parent | next
As someone with an Italian grandmother and both a CS and Econ degree, I got a great laugh out of this joke! Bravo!
pphysch | root | parent
No!! That is the Front of Pareto[1], a totally different group. Our Pareto Front only causes 20% of the casualties.

[1] - http://montypython.50webs.com/scripts/Life_of_Brian/8.htm

__s | parent | next
Trouble with fonts is sometimes monospace good, sometimes monodpace bad

Anyways I'll namedrop Iosevka as perfect monospace font for working on 13" laptop

throw-the-towel | root | parent
Seconding Iosevka, it's great for code! And you can get a version without ligatures.
Aachen | root | parent
That looks... swingy! Took a second to get used to it but I think I like the refreshing take for a monospace font :) https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Iosevka+Charon+Mono
airstrike | parent | next
Inter with optional open type features turned on?

https://rsms.me/inter/

Aachen | root | parent
I didn't know fonts can have options. Another learning curve on how to enable that in Latex/Html/Libreoffice/anywhere else I use fonts ^^'. But still helpful to know about!

ss02 disambiguation seems to be the one I'd be wanting to turn on, with tnum for monospace numbers being a good option as well that I hadn't even realised I wanted from a font!

airstrike | root | parent
Yeah, those features are awesome! Sadly support for them is quite lacking in applications...

Tabular numbers are awesome!

notpushkin | root | parent
I feel like there should be a GUI tool to bake in any alternates into the font itself.
loading story #49202777
loading story #49201111
peesem | parent | next
look at Atkinson Hyperlegible? commissioned by the Braille foundation for low-vision readers which means it's very readable
Aachen | root | parent
Huh, I'm positive this was one of the first I considered (or perhaps it was a different dyslexia font) but I can't find the reason why I would have preferred PT Sans over this. Each has some pros and cons: PT Sans has same-width digits; Hyperlegible has a nicer-looking Q (imo); PT Sans has a normal-looking zero (not struck); Hyperlegible has a normal-looking 'fi' combination (no ligature that merges the two characters into a new one); Hyperlegible has a 6 distinct from an inverted 9; PT Sans needs a bit less horizontal space. The font specifically designed for accessibility should be the easy winner if all else is equal anyway

They apparently released Hyperlegible Next in 2025 which, flipping between tabs on Google Fonts (since the original website doesn't show the fonts), is nearly identical but has five new weight settings (nobody should imo ever use thin fonts though, it noticeably harms readability for me and my sight is only the tiniest bit below normal vision, but ok it's an option) and improved kerning (the original font had extremely little space between 'll', for example)

The 2025 version sadly doesn't ship with my version of TexLive, but the original (from 2020) already does so that makes it easy to use as well! Cool stuff, thanks for the tip :)

adornKey | parent | next
I'd also be interested in the Pareto Front of Fonts. That would be the final font collection - to rule them all.
arduanika | parent | next
No, it's far from the best possible font, but to its credit, it gets most aspects of typography right by just focusing on the ~1/5 of the requirements that actually really count.
Aachen | root | parent
What are the 4/5ths that you don't like, and which one(s) would you recommend instead? (I'm mostly interested/focussed on the sans variant but also happy to hear about serif and mono)
loading story #49200643