I learned about the new typeface via the Macstories website. Duospace doesn’t do much for me, but I like the font it was derived from, IBM’s new freeware corporate typeface, IBM Plex. It’s intended to be a Helvetica replacement and includes monospace and proportional serif and sans serif fonts.
As nice as Plex is, I’m sticking with my Courier Prime. It makes me feel at home.
Just in case any screenwriters are reading this, you need to use a 12-point, 10-pitch mono font for screenplays. Otherwise, your page count will be off.
Another to check out is the Mac system font SF Mono located at: Applications/Utilities/Terminal.app/Show Package Contents/Resources/Fonts/
Drag out a copy or use copy and paste, then import into Font Book.
Italic also available in the three bold font-weights.
Thank you! BTW for those not used to mucking around in hidden folders, you get to the ‘Show Package Contents’ command via the little gear symbol at the top of the Finder window when selecting Terminal.app, or by right-clicking on Terminal.app.
I do love Courier Prime, which I discovered via this forum, but I’ll give SF a try. Makes a sweet system font already. Thanks again!
After using Cousine for a while, I came to the conclusion that I could live with hyphens/dashes not being super-distinct—but I was spending far too much time squinting at the screen trying to tell which way English typographic quotes were pointing. Now I waver between Source Code Pro and Ubuntu Mono. Ubuntu Mono has everything I want in a writing font–except it’s too narrow and therefore doesn’t match the Courier size (old typewriter Pica.) Source Code Pro is the right size, but its hyphens/dashes are not as nicely distinct as Ubuntu Mono.
And the "r"s in IBM Plex Mono are just as crummy as the ones in iAWriter Duospaced.
Just to add to your extensive comparison, I’ve fallen in love with this very quirky programming mono for use in my Terminal, not sure what you think of it as a writing font?
Test it here: fontlibrary.org/en/font/fantasque-sans-mono
Download: github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans
Probably the hyphens will fail your requirements?
Yes, the hyphens/dashes fail but otherwise it’s spot on. Nice curly quotes. I’d looked at it back when hyphens/dashes were a higher priority for me than they are now. It is quirky–Source Code Pro is more a traditional programmers’ font. I do like the Fantasque “k” though, and the curving ends of vertical strokes are pleasing. So yes, I’l consider it when I next get bored with my writing font. Thanks for reminding me of it!
Right now I have Ubuntu Mono back in as my default writing font. At 14.5 point size, it matches Courier Prime at 12 points precisely in width. No problem telling whether a given thingie is a hyphen, an en dash or an em dash; slashed zeros; easy to tell the difference among a capital eye, lowercase el, numeral one, and vertical bar; and English curly quotes that actually curl. OK, so I display it at 14.5 points instead of 12, and it’s a little heavier than Source Code Pro. So few monospace font designers share my obsession with hyphens/dashes that I’ll deal. 
I submitted an issue about dashes to github for Fantasque: github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans/issues/93
Thank you!
Just ran my standard comparison check, & Fantasque is almost as narrow as Ubuntu Mono. (It equals the width of Courier Prime 12 when Fantasque is displayed at 13.9 points.) Not that width would keep me from using it. Just saying.
Absolutely right. The ONLY fonts I’ve found that work to this very narrow specification are the Courier Prime family. Even though I’ve found other fonts that match the 10-pitch requirement at 12 point font size, ONLY the Courier Prime family have the line height set at exactly 12 points for a 12 point font—not even other Courier variants.
Fortunately for me, I write ordinary fiction (with a programming accent 
) so I don’t need to stress about line height. Even though I do.
I’ve been Times New Roman, and switched to Cousine, just to try something different. (And because all of the cool kids here seem to be using it. )
Cousine does look less polished. Takes me back to my typewriter days. Which I’m finding is totally appropriate for the first draft I’m in the middle of.
The only challenge is that italics are harder to discern. For you folks using these Courier-based fonts, do you bold italics or do something else to make them stand out?
I’ve set up a character attribute style, Emphasis, to italicise, colour the text, and give it a coordinating highlight. I could probably do without the text colour. 
What I don’t use is the “Draw highlight box around text” checkbox, because that won’t show up on iOS. Nope, just garden-variety text attribute highlight. The colour and highlight are easily stripped in Compile. I also switched my keyboard shortcuts so that cmd-I applies Emphasis.
Ah, too bad. That sounds useful, but currently seems to be Mac-only. 
Looking forward to Win v3…
You could still do a preset, but it’s not as neat as a style, I grant you. Maybe not TOO much longer on the Windows 3 version…
I set up a preset in Windows, thanks for the suggestion.
But over in iOS, I can see no way to change the Emphasis style. How do you apply the formatting when you are working in iOS - by hand?
I checked this out in the iOS Tech Support forum, and–you’re right, there’s no way to save Windows Scriv 1.9.7 formatting presets so they can be used in iOS. That stinks, as there was such a way in Mac Scriv 2.8. But it was described as something L&L would have to do as an interim Windows solution which would soon-ish be replaced by true Scriv cross-platfom styles. So evidently you’ll have to keep waiting for Windows Scriv 3.
So far as I know, there is no way to change either preset OR style within iOS Scrivener. That’s gotta hurt for the folks who want to go iOS-only.
Hi Silverdragon,
Very kind of you to confirm that (lack of) functionality, even if I didn’t get the answer I wanted to hear.
Your feedback upthread on how you set up Emphasis was helpful. I’ve set up a Win preset that italicises and colors the text with the same blue as the iOS color picker, so I can quickly simulate the Emphasis style by hand when working on the iPad.
That’ll work until v3 rolls out!
Jim
Many years ago I read some of the research about reading comprehension and speed as related to font selection, kerning, and line justification. It probably was in the 80s as computers were replacing typewriters. The conclusions: mono spaced, serif font, with no justification, always hit the highest scores.
Recently, because of learning about screenplay formatting, and playing with Fade-In Pro, I have installed Courier Screenplay for all programs I use for writing.
I also follow advice from William Shunn because the editors at Analog recommend his approach to story submission formatting.
Proper Manuscript Format : Short Story Format
https://www.shunn.net/format/story.html
Silverdragon, a belated thank you for not only these posts (and that graphic) but also your blog article about the fonts in general and, in particular, the iA Writer Duospace font. I’d used that font in Scrivener on macOS (and other apps) without trouble, but was frustrated in getting my iOS devices to run it with stability in Scrivener; so finding your comments — especially regarding the em dashes, en dashes, and curly quotation marks — was extremely helpful. Now using Ubuntu Mono at 14-point size and liking it a lot. Again, thanks!
