From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.io!.POSTED.blaine.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Eli Zaretskii Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.bugs Subject: bug#51405: Set default font on Windows to Consolas-11 Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2021 15:53:24 +0300 Message-ID: <83fssoymkb.fsf@gnu.org> References: Injection-Info: ciao.gmane.io; posting-host="blaine.gmane.org:116.202.254.214"; logging-data="17006"; mail-complaints-to="usenet@ciao.gmane.io" Cc: 51405@debbugs.gnu.org To: Vince Salvino Original-X-From: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Tue Oct 26 14:54:15 2021 Return-path: Envelope-to: geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([209.51.188.17]) by ciao.gmane.io with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.92) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLy2-0004E2-Vv for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 14:54:15 +0200 Original-Received: from localhost ([::1]:35586 helo=lists1p.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLy1-0000Uz-Kb for geb-bug-gnu-emacs@m.gmane-mx.org; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:54:13 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::10]:56336) by lists.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLxq-0000Sc-N5 for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:54:05 -0400 Original-Received: from debbugs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.43]:33838) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_128_GCM_SHA256:128) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLxq-0005ir-Dj for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:54:02 -0400 Original-Received: from Debian-debbugs by debbugs.gnu.org with local (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLxq-0006e6-DA for bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:54:02 -0400 X-Loop: help-debbugs@gnu.org Resent-From: Eli Zaretskii Original-Sender: "Debbugs-submit" Resent-CC: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org Resent-Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2021 12:54:02 +0000 Resent-Message-ID: Resent-Sender: help-debbugs@gnu.org X-GNU-PR-Message: followup 51405 X-GNU-PR-Package: emacs Original-Received: via spool by 51405-submit@debbugs.gnu.org id=B51405.163525281725508 (code B ref 51405); Tue, 26 Oct 2021 12:54:02 +0000 Original-Received: (at 51405) by debbugs.gnu.org; 26 Oct 2021 12:53:37 +0000 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1]:45384 helo=debbugs.gnu.org) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLxR-0006dM-CH for submit@debbugs.gnu.org; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:53:37 -0400 Original-Received: from eggs.gnu.org ([209.51.188.92]:58884) by debbugs.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.84_2) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLxP-0006d7-FP for 51405@debbugs.gnu.org; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:53:35 -0400 Original-Received: from fencepost.gnu.org ([2001:470:142:3::e]:54584) by eggs.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLxJ-0004Ut-Su; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:53:29 -0400 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; q=dns/txt; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gnu.org; s=fencepost-gnu-org; h=References:Subject:In-Reply-To:To:From:Date: mime-version; bh=XUbymnvPK9NXvlNZwQyXTrfH30h6RTu77eXugnp25xQ=; b=J9CxAAyQsVd3 jHLRQscdqEvzFu7BS8ZcwpGFfKhAXZzSmqE1R7pytK7luwnNLX0KuviFefkaJlNv9XANN0Ywm6x+7 jhKNsaVzb1TNoAviPwOwONrrvlXR19EUeAybtzNIjWCtVhFDjck/ZokLBTGVCdUmDNLweWGKkLw+8 +3ajvepOjh0DRU0SWmJi/J2otR1FjIXPOjgfuqkYa/TfZuXHgXtQxGjErMUC5d8ttM2CpofHh2WqM deScZlJ2sO6g1m/MKbfj2XMdiN0eNVtBGVOq3weFYEpILyLrs0E3UUeOXAMoWGuJgLTYC2YWhDl8h /DLGdeNpELzLmULcevaCqQ==; Original-Received: from [87.69.77.57] (port=3871 helo=home-c4e4a596f7) by fencepost.gnu.org with esmtpsa (TLS1.2:ECDHE_RSA_AES_256_GCM_SHA384:256) (Exim 4.90_1) (envelope-from ) id 1mfLxJ-00023w-8Q; Tue, 26 Oct 2021 08:53:29 -0400 In-Reply-To: (message from Vince Salvino on Tue, 26 Oct 2021 06:28:16 +0000) X-BeenThere: debbugs-submit@debbugs.gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18 Precedence: list X-BeenThere: bug-gnu-emacs@gnu.org List-Id: "Bug reports for GNU Emacs, the Swiss army knife of text editors" List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Errors-To: bug-gnu-emacs-bounces+geb-bug-gnu-emacs=m.gmane-mx.org@gnu.org Original-Sender: "bug-gnu-emacs" Xref: news.gmane.io gmane.emacs.bugs:218381 Archived-At: > From: Vince Salvino > Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2021 06:28:16 +0000 > > Courier New generally looks terrible on modern screens, as it has been neglected for decades since its original digitization for use with 640x480 CRT screens in the early 90s. Many of the character glyphs are only 1 pixel wide and look like hairlines on an LCD screen. > > To address this, Windows Vista and later ship with Consolas, the default monospaced font used in Notepad, CMD (terminal), and other built-in programs. It is also used by default in nearly every other text/code editor, web browser, and terminal program when requesting a monospace font. Personally speaking, it is magnitudes more legible and easier to read. Consolas looks similar to DejaVu Mono, which is generally the default in GNU systems. > > This patch changes the default font in MS-Windows to Consolas-11. It will still fall back to the previous default (Courier New-10) on older systems where the font is not available. I want to be clear that this is not a change for the sake of choosing a fashionable font... Consolas has been the default monospace font in Windows for 15 years! I'm sorry, but this is a non-starter. Selecting a default font on Windows that will work reasonably well on all the supported Windows versions (i.e. Windows 9X to Windows 11) is a delicate and tricky business. Courier New, with all its deficiencies, is not a bad font (I use it on many Windows system, up to and including Windows 10, and cannot agree that it "looks terrible"), and it satisfies the non-trivial requirements we have: support for many scripts and availability on all the Windows versions. (AFAICT, Consolas still supports fewer Unicode blocks that Courier new, even on Windows 10.) Moreover, replacing the default font will inevitably open a Pandora box of the need to change the settings of some other faces we use in Emacs (like fixed-pitch and variable-pitch, for example), which need to be compatible with (i.e. reasonably similar to) the default font, in order to avoid ugly displays where we mix these two (for example, in Info buffers). People who don't like the default font can easily customize their Emacs to use Consolas (or any other font). We have several ways of doing that: . Invoke Emacs with "emacs -fn Consolas-11" . Put (set-face-font 'default "Consolas-11") in your init file . Put "Emacs.font" with the value "Consolas-11" in the Registry, under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\GNU\Emacs key (The latter method emulates the X resources on Posix platforms.) So, given that it is so easy to customize the default font, and OTOH given the non-trivial issues that will be caused by changing the default, I think we should not change the default, not in the observable future. In any case, a proposal to change the default font must be accompanied by suitable changes to the basic faces that request different font families, and we must also carefully consider the coverage of the candidate font vs that of Courier new, because any Unicode block covered by Courier New but not the contender would mean potential display problems due to font size/pitch mismatches, which usually results in user complaints. Thanks.