Top all-time · #2696
Robey
Personal blog · robey.lag.netprogrammingdesign
Robey is a personal blog at robey.lag.net about programming and design. Since 2009, 27 different Hacker News readers have linked it 29 times, most often “A tiny, monospace, bitmap font (2010)”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-04-26, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (15) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link Robey's pages on tiny and monospace programming fonts, especially Mensch and Tom Thumb, plus posts on squashing git commits and the Scarling-to-Kestrel queue. Commenters call the fonts readable and the best available.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 15 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Most-linked posts?
- A tiny, monospace, bitmap font (2010)7 people · 8 mentions · first linked 2020-10-02
- Mensch -- A coding font5 people · 5 mentions · first linked 2010-06-21
- /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2019-01-21
- Kestrel: Twitter's new message queue, written in 1500 lines of Scala3 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2009-02-26
- C++ Quirks, Remembered2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2012-10-09
What Hacker News says?
I think Mensch is missing: https://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
Comment linking /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
on “Programming Fonts – Test Drive”Submitted Mensch -- A coding font as a story · 115 points
HN discussionGiven: http://robey.lag.net/images/no-ff-5.png If we start without M, and start with master=R2, temporary-feature-branch=R5, I expect the following outcomes: "squash" will leave us with master=M, and the graph R1 -> R2 -> M. Once temporary-feature-branch is deleted, R3-R5 are forever lost. "merge" will leave us with master=M, and the graph R1 -> R2 -> M, + R2 -> R3 -> R4 -> R5 -> M "rebase" will leave us with master…
Comment linking /images/no-ff-5.png
on “Squash your commits”Submitted Kestrel: Twitter's new message queue, written in 1500 lines of Scala as a story · 46 points
HN discussionI’m a fan of “Tom Thumb” for small OLED displays. https://robey.lag.net/2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html I wrote a kinda goofy Ada library for it https://github.com/JeremyGrosser/tiny_text
Comment linking /2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
on “Two Slice, a font that's only 2px tall”Submitted Dissolving patterns as a story · 24 points
HN discussionOne answer to that is to ensure that you accept plugged-in font files via some well-known format like FreeBSD's "vt" font file format, BDF, or GNU UniFont's HEX format; and then just let people get on with picking their own fonts. (-: Such as https://robey.lag.net/2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html for example.
Comment linking /2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
on “Show HN: My self-written hobby OS is finally running on my vintage IBM ThinkPad”Submitted A tiny, monospace, bitmap font (2010) as a story · 21 points
HN discussionSince people are sharing their favourite small bitmap fonts, allow me to share Tom Thumb, a tiny 4x6 font: https://robey.lag.net/2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
Comment linking /2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
on “Creep – a pretty sweet 4px wide pixel font”Submitted Bizcat: An 8x16 Bitmap Font as a story · 13 points
HN discussionI've been happy with Mensch: http://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html , A font based of Apple's Menlo.
Comment linking /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
on “Top Programming Fonts”Submitted A very tiny, monospace, bitmap font as a story · 9 points
HN discussionNobody has mentioned mensch! ( http://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html ) Mostly like Menlo except with really big angled brackets and a more conventional l.
Comment linking /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
on “Collection of the best fonts for programming”Submitted C++ Quirks, Remembered as a story · 6 points
HN discussionIf you can spare extra pixels, Tom Thumb (3x5) [1] is more legible. The upper case M and N are somewhat hard to distinguish without context, but it's the only major flaw compared to this one. Tom Thumb is also Public Domain (CC0). [1] https://robey.lag.net/2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
Comment linking /2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
on “Smallest Typeface”Submitted Type safe config in Scala as a story · 6 points
HN discussionRight now I am using Mensch font ( http://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html ). It is very readable and solid. I tried right now this post's font Anonymous Pro, also Envy Code R and Inconsolata but returned back to Mensch. They were not bad but I didn't liked them enough to switch.
Comment linking /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
on “New free monospace programming font by Mark Simonson: Anonymous Pro”Submitted Setting up a CI server for Forgejo as a story · 4 points
HN discussionI have this page bookmarked in my list of bitmap fonts. Allow me to share some more: https://forums.nesdev.com/viewtopic.php?p=87880&sid=bef3cfd8... - A collection of fonts ripped from some NES games http://pelulamu.net/unscii/ - A font meant to look good in ASCII art https://robey.lag.net/2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html - a tiny 3x5 bitmapped font. SFont aren't monochrome, and working with them might take some…
Comment linking /2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
on “Typography in 8 bits: System fonts”Submitted Scarling » Kestrel (Twitter's tiny queue system) as a story · 4 points
HN discussionMensch, an older code/terminal font. http://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
Comment linking /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
on “Show HN: Luculent, a new code/terminal font”Submitted CJC Prime Number Sieve as a story · 2 points
HN discussionMensch presumably is this font: https://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html I’ll have to try it. I’m still using Lucida Console because most newer fonts lack hinting for smaller sizes.
Comment linking /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
on “Department of Public Affairs – BT-002”Submitted A very tiny, monospace, bitmap font as a story · 1 points
HN discussionMore details on the additional features over Starling (big queues, blocking fetches, reliable fetch) are over here: http://robey.lag.net/2008/11/27/scarling-to-kestrel.html
Comment linking /2008/11/27/scarling-to-kestrel.html
on “Kestrel: Twitter's new message queue, written in 1500 lines of Scala”Submitted C++ quirks, remembered (2012) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion>Narrower 4x5 and 3x5 dimensions are possible, but would require sacrificing the M, dotted zero, and reduce U/V/Y distinctiveness. I think 3x5 works well enough: https://robey.lag.net/2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
Comment linking /2010/01/23/tiny-monospace-font.html
on “5x5 Pixel font for tiny screens”Submitted How to add numbers (part 2) as a story · 1 points
HN discussionObligatory mention of Mensch - https://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html Don't know if it counts as "modern" being 13 years old, but it's the best there is.
Comment linking /2010/06/21/mensch-font.html
on “Modern Mono”
