On 8/19/23, Andreas Rönnquist <mailingli...@gusnan.se> wrote: > On Sat, 19 Aug 2023 21:19:48 +0200, > Christoph K.<christ...@kobenetz.de> wrote: >> >>I'm unsatisfied with the default sans font in debian for use in the >>graphical user interface (in my case XFCE). >> >>My main concern with the default sans font (I guess it's Bitsream Vera, >>but that doesn't really matter) is the the small 'L' and the capital 'i' >>look the same (mostly). >> >>Everyone who has tried to read unknown characters (e.g. a password >>generated automatically oder base64 encoded data) knows what pain it is to >>distinguish these characters. >> >>Could you please recommend a "suitable" sans-serif font that >>a) has "proper" 'l' and 'I' characters >> > > I'm probably not the right person to answer, but doesn't the > _sans_-serif requirement pretty much make this impossible? It means > _without_ serifs, which are (according to wikipedia) "small line or > stroke regularly attached to the end of a larger stroke in a letter or > symbol within a particular font or family of fonts." > > Which to me seems like pretty much only way to separate a small 'l' > from a big 'i', > > To me, without the serifs, both those characters are simply a line from > top to bottom.
My own mind went to the place of thinking sans serif was about those very lines. I just didn't make it to thinking that would make it hard to find any alternate in that family. My long time preference is developer-weary-eye-friendly fonts-anonymous-pro for whatever applications will accept it. Found it accidentally a few years ago. Its differences are noticeable enough that I instantly miss it on new operating system installs. The "apt-cache show" description for fonts-anonymous-pro specifically references both 0 v. O and I v. l v. 1: "Description-en: fixed width font designed for coders This package contains two Font Families. - Anonymous Pro - Anonomous Pro Minus . 'Anonymous Pro' is a family of four fixed-width fonts designed especially with coding in mind. Characters that could be mistaken for one another (O, 0, I, l, 1, etc.) have distinct shapes to make them easier to tell apart in the context of source code. Apparently my Firefox is using sans serif because I just typed that "l v. I", and I can't tell them apart! Found a new toy because of this thread. It's a presumably massive online database that shows how fonts display in elaborate use cases. I used their search feature to (hopefully) focus on sans serif: https://fontsinuse.com/search/advanced?v=2&match0=all&keyword0=sans%20serif Disclaimer: I dropped their categories down to perform CTRL+F for "sans serif" and came up empty so maybe their search is focusing on only sans. That reminded me to reinstall font-manager before also mentioning it (needed to make sure it was the right program). It's developed for GNOME/Gtk+ but/and is working well on the LXQt desktop environment. Font-manager is not just a font viewer. It presents a lot of information that can make it a little overwhelming for a first time visit into a program like it. There's an option to install fonts through font-manager's GUI. I don't have a test case to try first, but I do remember using it successfully in the past, most likely while focused on typeface in GIMP. An afterthought just came to mind. Fonts are being created to specifically aid persons with dyslexia. Maybe a search on that will land a desired user-friendly font.. Cindy :) -- Talking Rock, Pickens County, Georgia, USA * runs with birdseed *
