I think there was some backlash about the author of Berkeley Mono at some point. Might be a reason for considering this "copy".
thomascountz 1 days ago [-]
It's not that I believe all HN comments must be fruitful, but contributing the suggestion that there may have been "some backlash" against someone at "some point", could do with a little more help.
jiehong 1 days ago [-]
That's fair.
I only have a vague recollection, but I found [0]. I think there were also deleted posts on twitter from @usgraphics which I can no longer find, so that's limited.
That being said, I'm a happy customer of Berkeley Mono, but I ended up liking Mono Lisa more [1].
Creating such a close match impresses me. Many times, I'll like parts of a font, but can't abide by the line spacing, heights, widths, weights, or whatever.
The ability to more precisely "tune" a typeface would be neat.
altano 1 days ago [-]
What is the point of this? Either buy Berkeley Mono or go use something else.
inigyou 1 days ago [-]
Font piracy by tracing is legal. That's why the creators of the "you wouldn't download a car" ad, which used a traced pirated font, didn't get prosecuted.
konart 1 days ago [-]
This is a weird take. I can as the same in reverse: why buy Berkeley Mono if I can use this?
FacelessJim 1 days ago [-]
Here’s an even wilder take: to support the effort of someone that gave us an incredible font that is now being copied. Crazy right?
konart 1 days ago [-]
Sure, if you absolutely need the original one. Nobody is talking about illegal download of the original here.
Not to mention that you can easily find free fonts similar to the mentioned font even without this chimera.
__patchbit__ 1 days ago [-]
No trust society invades high trust society.
thomascountz 1 days ago [-]
Not OP, but I think the take is similar to: "why market yourself as a rip off of Neil's[1] work?"
[1]: https://usgraphics.com/products/berkeley-mono
[2]: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
[3]: https://neil.computer/
I only have a vague recollection, but I found [0]. I think there were also deleted posts on twitter from @usgraphics which I can no longer find, so that's limited.
That being said, I'm a happy customer of Berkeley Mono, but I ended up liking Mono Lisa more [1].
[0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42550751
[1]: https://www.monolisa.dev/
I posted the situation on Twitter: https://x.com/usgraphics/status/1889932074758578686?s=20
Thanks a ton for Berkeley Mono, and good luck on that Houston Mono project! Kinda looking forward to it, ngl.
But no credit or thanks to Neil the designer of Berkeley Mono?
https://github.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono/blob/main/private-bui...
FWIW, here's screenshot of same code snippet using both original and mimic.
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono/refs/h...
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ahatem/IoskeleyMono/refs/h...
Creating such a close match impresses me. Many times, I'll like parts of a font, but can't abide by the line spacing, heights, widths, weights, or whatever.
The ability to more precisely "tune" a typeface would be neat.
Not to mention that you can easily find free fonts similar to the mentioned font even without this chimera.
[1]: https://neil.computer/