Hey, Berkeley Mono supports most Western European languages, can you tell me what's missing? I can add it. Btw, the tagline is about the aesthetics. :)
Hi Neil, I'm not that person you replied to but in my projects I require Cyrillic glyphs for Russian and Ukrainian texts. Also when checking out your website just now, I wasn't able to add a Berkeley Mono App License module in your ordering system. I assume I need a App License to embed the font in my app? But I also can't seem to find any information about the app license itself on your site as well.
Cyrillic is not supported so Berkeley Mono might not be suitable for your application. Are you building a Web app (Webfonts) or a Desktop/Mobile app (App license)? Please email me.
Your website is absolutely beautiful and so well laid out. The examples given really sell the font.
For someone who has never really been a font nerd and has never bought a font—yet: all the add on choices are confusing. Ligatures, I get, but the other options feel overwhelming. Perhaps I'm not quite the market.
Is it a mistake, on page 4 of the linked datasheet, that "SemiBold" is shown for two different weights? I can't help but think that something like "DemiBold" was what the lighter weight was supposed to be labeled.
Yes, that's a typo. Need to redo the entire datasheet and possibly find a way to automate it using reportlab or some other PDF library. Right now, it is in InDesign and it is a pain to keep updating it.
I also write Z and z with a stroke. And then someone on Twitter suggested we should add it as an option. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it despite of writing it that way! It’s coming.
I saw this, and the comment below asking why there are different versions of e.g. 0 and 7. Saw the variant picker on your site, and I can't help but wonder:
Do you have any plans to add the different variants in as stylistic alternates (SALTn tables)? This is how FontFont encoded two styles of numbers and other various symbols into a single OpenType font. With FF Zwo I like some of the alternates but not others and this lets me choose.
They already are part of stylistic sets. So, for example, if you download a combination of 0 and 7 (regardless of which one), there are ss01-ss06 stylistic sets that encode other options in it.
The reason why we have a "font configurator" is because lot of terminals/IDEs/tools/OS, etc haven't got a full support for OpenType features. So we let users configure it as they like and it just works.
Oh that's good to know. Admittedly I didn't look too hard but I didn't see any indication that the salt tables were populated. Judging by the comments I may not be the only one.
Fair criticism about samples, launching new update and it'll have better samples. Also, you're welcome to download the trial—best way to see how it looks in your specific setup.
I don't agree with your take on flourishes (in better terms, artistry). Every typeface has it. The process of designing a typeface is full of subjectivity and artistry.
Berkeley Mono is plain gorgeous. I bought it after five minutes of looking at the trial. Everything made so much sense when I saw the inspirations you listed - Eurostile, OCR-B and DIN 1451 all have a special place in my heart.
But what's more, your site in its entirety is a work of art, in form and function. So many details, from the one-click newsletter signup when logged in to the plain-English license intros. It makes me want to build a site for myself again, something I haven't done in over a decade.
To my own surprise I've even signed up for the newsletter, something I haven't done anywhere for even longer.
Thank you! Website is going to get doubly refined soon. I’d like to develop a UI framework one day, but one that never ever changes in its core design. It just gets refined over time. I must say, it’s a real pleasure to design websites. Not just frontend, but database, all the Django stuff, domain models, I love the whole thing.
The font needs work, especially Bold cut. I completely redesigned all glyphs from scratch and trying to get to release it. It's been a learning experience. Also condensed version is coming with it. All upgrades will be free to existing customers.
Btw, I agree with OP about good samples. It also bothers me a little bit when I see huge zoomed in shots of typefaces: Good for grabbing attention, but bad functionally unless it’s a display typeface specifically for billboard/headline use. So I will go to town with samples in 12 point size. We have a few but clearly not enough.
A UI framework would be a real treat, no doubt about it. And I know what you mean — I've always done full stack too, and love it. People who are serious about frontends should do their own backends, to horribly butcher Alan Kay.
As for the samples - for what its worth, what did it for me were the sections _Box drawing characters_ and _Exceptional legibility_. Just the telephone directory told me enough to download the trial.
It pains me that I will never be able to get my employer to spring for a commercial license - it would be a treat to rewrite our internal API documentation "Machine MX-4000"-style.
Woahhh, I've never played around with APL before. Such an interesting language: https://tryapl.org/
I think most of the glyphs are straightforward, the ones that would take time are the greek symbols. Unable to commit at this time, we're already behind with Berkeley v2 release by 6 months! :-(
To be sure APL is a niche (BQN even more so), and I personally am unlikely to be a customer regardless (it looks worth $75, i just don't program enough) so no pressure but it is one of the oldest programming languages and if you want to talk golden era...
RIP. As an ex-Intel employee, this one stings. He was a godly figure internally and even during Intel's deteriorating years, engineers and technologists looked up to him as a constant north star of inspiration and engineering culture. Hope his demise gives a long pause to Intel's leadership and bring back some of good parts of the engineering culture from the 80's and 90's.
Personally, I generally agree with you - ligatures add a layer of ambiguity. Toyed around with the idea of "precision ligatures", but it only works a subset of ligatures.
It's important to keep in mind that ligatures are at the presentation layer, i.e. when the glyphs are drawn. You can still copy and paste the text, underlying representation is still individual chars. Also, ligatures are optional, so why not; a lot of people love them.
Slightly off-topic, but why does your site not work in Russia? I'm currently in Russia visiting family, and need to turn a VPN on just for you, as anything else I use works perfectly fine. I sure hope it's not politics, because the last thing I need is fonts to be politically charged.
