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Hack typeface 2.0 presents a robust font for programmers, UI design
In the world of the web, mobile and app user interfaces (UIs), nobody really notices fonts—until something goes wrong. Bad antialiasing, too small to read, or if a font is just too complex for the eyes to rapidly make out characters. While an elegant font can make a app looks stylized or interesting, in the long run it may turn off users who must spend too much time to decipher “Options” or “Open.”
Hack, developed by programmer Chris Simpkins and other contributors, is designed to be a highly legible font for programming, but it has features that make it worthwhile for almost any computing interface. This week, Simpkins debut the 2.0 version of Hack at SourceFoundry.org, a website dedicated largely to the release of open source projects.
Hack is currently available via a GitHub repository, and it is a fully open source font. It comes in TrueType format (TTF), OpenType format (OTF) and WebFonts format. The font face contains 1,534 glyphs (individual characters, punctuation, symbols, etc.) and was worked up by 22 contributors.
A specimen of the Hack 2.0 typeface being used for JavaScript programming.
As for its features, Hack places an oval fill inside the zero (to distinguish it from the letter ‘O’), uses rounded square alphabetic points, uses a semi-bold punctuation weight, and widely set punctuation. The font is also monospaced, which means that letters will not squeeze up against one another and will tend to line up vertically.
According to the creator, “Hack has deep roots in the libre, open source typeface community and includes the contributions of the Bitstream Vera [and] DejaVu projects. The face has been re-designed with an expanded glyph set, modifications of the original glyph shapes, and meticulous attention to metrics.”
In fact, Hack looks very similar to another font named DejaVu Sans Mono, which is amid several suggested fonts for programmers to bring readable clarity to source code. Other alternative fonts include Consolas, Inconsolata, Lucida Console, Droid Sans, and Anonymous Pro. Possibly for those who don’t just use a font such as Courier or Terminal.
Featured image credit: Hack 2.0 typeface, via Featured image credit: Hack 2.0 typeface, via SourceFoundry.org/hack
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