Very glad to see more “low x height” monospace fonts (x height is the height of lowercase letters relative to capital letters; I haven’t checked to be sure but my eyes tell me this is on the lower side). Source Code Pro has been my go-to for a very long time, and it has always bothered me that Apple opted for higher x-heights in their San Francisco re-design of Helvetica (which already has a high x height to begin with).
It’s interesting that they had high-powered readability consultation and a lot of real-world tests with visually impaired developers and still ended up with low x heights. I had heard higher x heights were preferred for readability.
You nailed it - the reason I've stuck with this font for so long is that I really appreciate the beauty of a proper x-height more than I prefer the supposed readability advantages of tall coding fonts. As long a font gets the basic features right (tails on Iilt etc characters, dot in the 0) I've never struggled with reading in monospace for hours on end.
I thought the point of narrower fonts isn't readability but being able to squeeze longer lines into the same screen area. I find it helpful on 14" laptops as it can make the difference necessary to have two files side by side in a readable font size.
High x heights were considered more legible for low-resolution displays (though I'm not sure if the evidence was there or if it was just something that sounded sensible) but have not been considered good with high resolution ever I think.
Think something like Verdana (invented for low-res computer displays) vs Garamond (staple for a long time and not just because it looks pretty.)
Personally I'm skeptical of their consultation. My vision is not terrible but just on my initial scan the lowercase vwxyz look too similar to their uppercase variants and I have difficulty with the lowercase l and 1. Without my glasses I wouldn't be able to tell those apart at all.
I have no idea about readability really; I have my preferences but I assume the experts know stuff I don’t, or at least know what works for a wide variety of people while I only know what works for me. The fact that IBM also validated their font with actual tests on people who need readability does lend some support to the consultants (assuming the focus group results and the consultant advice were in agreement).
the lowercase vwxyz look too similar to their uppercase variants
Is that likely to cause problems, do you think? You don’t generally need to read one of those characters on their own, they’ll be in context next to other characters. As long as you easily distinguish, say:
v0 V0
"v" "V"
If those are clear then I think it’ll be fine. And the relatively low x-height should help.
I like it a lot! Definitely in the camp of “comic sans is over-hated for poor reasons, and might even have legibility benefits for dyslexia”, and I considered a few comic sans inspired monospaced fonts before settling on Source Code Pro. The leaders were Fantasque (https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans/) and Comic Code (https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code). (Comic Code’s creator actually links to the font you linked, Comic Mono, as an example of a free font with the same spirit!)
Ultimately I found that anything descended from or inspired by comic sans ended up a little too busy for my eyes.
I appreciate how Comic Sans was used by educators to find something that helped people with dyslexia, while also breaking down the serious barrier. SPJ[1] from Haskell would use Comic Sans in his slides, which seems oddly humorous to me.
Below are fonts are designed to minimize the effects of dyslexia.
It’s interesting that they had high-powered readability consultation and a lot of real-world tests with visually impaired developers and still ended up with low x heights. I had heard higher x heights were preferred for readability.