missing Mono variety for Terminus

[laur89]

In the past 3+ years there's been some changes with fonts and the Mono variant of Terminus is no longer included when installing via the included installer script.

Take old installation where fonts are OK:

$ lgrep ~/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/terminess
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.6M Jul 30 13:37 TerminessNerdFont-BoldItalic.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.6M Jul 30 13:37 TerminessNerdFont-Bold.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.6M Jul 30 13:37 TerminessNerdFont-Italic.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.6M Jul 30 13:37 TerminessNerdFont-Regular.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  925K Feb 19  2022 Terminess (TTF) Bold Italic Nerd Font Complete Mono.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.4M Feb 26  2023 Terminess (TTF) Bold Italic Nerd Font Complete.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  911K Feb 19  2022 Terminess (TTF) Bold Nerd Font Complete Mono.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.4M Feb 26  2023 Terminess (TTF) Bold Nerd Font Complete.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  923K Feb 19  2022 Terminess (TTF) Italic Nerd Font Complete Mono.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.4M Feb 26  2023 Terminess (TTF) Italic Nerd Font Complete.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  910K Feb 19  2022 Terminess (TTF) Nerd Font Complete Mono.ttf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.4M Feb 26  2023 Terminess (TTF) Nerd Font Complete.ttf

Versus when installed now:

$ lgrep ~/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/terminess
-rw-rw-r-- 1 laur laur 2.6M Jul 25 14:41 TerminessNerdFont-BoldItalic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 laur laur 2.6M Jul 25 14:41 TerminessNerdFont-Bold.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 laur laur 2.6M Jul 25 14:41 TerminessNerdFont-Italic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 laur laur 2.6M Jul 25 14:41 TerminessNerdFont-Regular.ttf

Is the reason of a licensing variety as stated in the FAQ and we should patch said fonts ourselves, or is something amiss?

[Finii]

The font file naming underwent a change (with Nerd Fonts v3), so that the files

• contain no whitespace
• follow the common pattern <name>-<weightstyle>
• it also sorted out the bad naming where we had <name1>-<weightstyle><name2>
  i.e. Terminess Bold Nerd Font which should have been Terminess Nerd Font Bold
  or rather now TerminessNerdFont-Bold

For that we also drop the (TTF) from the name, because, well, it is just the ttf fonts that we patch 😬

Regarding the (missing) Nerd Font Mono variant, I don't know, it's in the repo:

$ ls -l patched-fonts/Terminus/
total 31628
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow    4570 Apr 23 23:53 LICENSE.txt
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow    2588 Apr 23 23:53 README.md
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2718688 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFont-BoldItalic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2662456 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFont-Bold.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2702092 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFont-Italic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2722076 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontMono-BoldItalic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2665872 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontMono-Bold.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2705492 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontMono-Italic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2665032 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontMono-Regular.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2742164 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontPropo-BoldItalic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2685932 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontPropo-Bold.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2725568 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontPropo-Italic.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2685092 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFontPropo-Regular.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 ujastrow ujastrow 2661616 Mai  5 13:45 TerminessNerdFont-Regular.ttf

lets try...

$ ./install.sh --list Terminus
Nerd Fonts installer -- Version 1.0
                     -- Bash 5.2.37(1)-release

Deprecated tool: Will not work to get newer fonts as they are not inside the repo anymore.
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFont-Italic.ttf
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFont-Regular.ttf
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFont-Bold.ttf
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFont-BoldItalic.ttf

Hmm, that's a bug 😬

[Finii]

Ah, it's a feature not a bug ;-D

If you want the Nerd Font Mono variants installed, there is the --mono flag.

$ ./install.sh --list --mono Terminus
Nerd Fonts installer -- Version 1.0
                     -- Bash 5.2.37(1)-release

Deprecated tool: Will not work to get newer fonts as they are not inside the repo anymore.
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFontMono-Bold.ttf
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFontMono-BoldItalic.ttf
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFontMono-Regular.ttf
/home/ujastrow/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/TerminessNerdFontMono-Italic.ttf

$ ./install.sh --help
Usage: ./install.sh [-q -v -h] [[--copy | --link] --clean | --list | --remove]
                    [--mono] [--use-proportional-glyphs] [--otf | --ttf]
                    [--install-to-user-path | --install-to-system-path ]
                    [FONT...]

General options:

  -q, --quiet                   Suppress output.
  -v, --version                 Print version number and exit.
  -h, --help                    Display this help and exit.

  -c, --copy                    Copy the font files [default].
  -l, --link                    Symlink the font files.
  -L, --list                    List the font files to be installed (dry run).

  -C, --clean                   Recreate the root Nerd Fonts target directory
                                (clean out all previous copies or symlinks).

  --remove                      Remove all Nerd Fonts (that have been installed
                                with this script).
                                Can be combined with -L for a dry run.

  -s, --mono                    Install single-width glyphs variants.
  -p, --use-proportional-glyphs Install proportional glyphs variants.

  -U, --install-to-user-path    Install fonts to users home font path [default].
  -S, --install-to-system-path  Install fonts to global system path for all users, requires root.

  -O, --otf                     Prefer OTF font files [default].
  -T, --ttf                     Prefer TTF font files.

The --mono or -s flag has been introduced in 2016 (2cf5f12).

The script has been renovated after Nerd Fonts v3 (da651cf), maybe the feature had a bug before that has been fixed then?

[laur89]

The font file naming underwent a change (with Nerd Fonts v3), so that the files

What about DroidSansMono? On my old system:

$ lgrep ~/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/droid
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  2.3M Aug  1 12:08 DroidSansMNerdFont-Regular.otf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  3.3M Feb 19  2022 Droid Sans Mono Nerd Font Complete Mono.otf
-rw-r--r-- 1 laur laur  4.4M Feb 26  2023 Droid Sans Mono Nerd Font Complete.otf

New installation will have only the very first listed file.
Yet fc-list will show us
/home/laur89/.local/share/fonts/NerdFonts/DroidSansMNerdFont-Regular.otf: DroidSansM Nerd Font:style=Regular

Note the family name is DroidSansM Nerd Font as opposed to old ones DroidSansMono Nerd Font & DroidSansMono Nerd Font Mono. Is the M suffix of new variant standard or also part of some tech debt?

[laur89]

The timestamps suggest change went into effect between Feb '22 and Feb '23 -- in 2022 the install.sh Terminus would've still installed both single-width and normal variants by default. Never noticed it as the previously installed files remained and nothing visibly broke.

But this explains it, thanks!

Understandable if it's too much cruft to add, but would love something like --with-mono (or perhaps --include-mono?) to include both default and mono installation with a single command.

[Finii]

👍 added to #1902

[laur89]

Again I'm veering off course here, but how come some (and only some) fonts are separated into different entities such as Ubuntu and UbuntuMono? Because they're separate already upstream?

[Finii]

Is it not the other way around? Only few fonts have different styles in one entity? Only MPlus, Meslo, and iA writer come to my mind.

Ah, and the very unfortunate gigantum Noto 😒

Noto is just too big, too unwieldy, not selective enough.

The problem I see with the big entities is that people can not select what they want and need but have to install megabytes of fonts to have the one style they are about to use. Because most ppl install 'by entity' because of package managers. I guess. And font selection dialoges are filled with non interesting fonts making choice hard.
I am a font nerd and I have lots of fonts, but not installed, selecting a font i you have 500 Noto variants installed is just a mess.

Also the patching in the CI is a nightmare for esp Noto. Takes too long and too many resources.

I would break Noto apart in its 4 styles, but some would complain, breaks used to behavior.

As for Ubuntu and Ubunto Mono, they are not even related apart from the name / fact that they were once used by Ubuntu.

Ubuntu Sans otoh has Sans and Mono in one entity because that is really one font family designed together.

Hmm. So I guess there is no truth here. Its just arbitrary, decided in the moment.
I like to keep packages small, though. Better need to install 3 packages than to suffer innumerable unused fonts that come along unwanted.

🤷‍♀️

[laur89]

Is it not the other way around?

Turns out it is, was looking at a small subset of the ones I insteall.

I am a font nerd

I see what you did there.

Better need to install 3 packages than to suffer innumerable unused fonts that come along unwanted.

Think most would agree here.

So in short, the answer is it's complicated.