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From: mcw@titan.rice.edu (Michael Wirth)
Newsgroups: comp.fonts
Subject: Best font for LISP listings?
Message-ID: <1990Oct10.195501.26157@rice.edu>
Date: 10 Oct 90 19:55:01 GMT
Sender: news@rice.edu (News)
Organization: Rice University, Houston
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Originator: mcw@titan.rice.edu

What's the best (Adobe or other source) Type 1 PS font for source code
listings, specifically LISP code?

A "good looking" monospace font (an oxymoron?) would be best, but I could
give up monospace for better legibility in small point sizes.  Specific issues:

1.  Courier is too light weight.
2.  Other monospace fonts are also too light weight, especially in small point
sizes, and are similarly "ugly" (Look at the even gray tone of a page of most
reasonable fonts, and the "blotchy" uneven appearance of a page of Courier.)
3.  Standard proportional width fonts, e.g., Helvetica, have too much variation
in character widths.  Look at a string of semicolons, ";;;;;;;;;;;;;;;"
(a common comment delimiter in LISP).  It looks like a Volvo test crash.
So I don't need monospace, just "semi-monospace".

Mike Wirth
GeoQuest International, Inc.
Houston