Embed monospaced font #79

hebasto · 2020-08-28T18:11:06Z

Qt does not guarantee that the actual applied font matches to the requested one.
It was noted (bitcoin/bitcoin#16432 (comment)):

the monospace font looks a bit weird no macOS

... because it is not monospaced.
Also some discrepancies I've noted on Windows while testing Qt 5.15 (#19716).

Of course, we could check the actual font with QFontInfo, and try to choose another font.
But this PR suggests to just embed a monospaced font, and get the GUI look (partially) independent from a platform.

Roboto Mono was chosen after discussion with Bitcoin Design community, and due to its Apache License, Version 2.0.

Changes are scoped to the Overview page only.

Screenshots on macOS 10.15.6 (images are simulated by code patching):

master (ca30d34)
this PR (3fdd5b6)

More screenshots added after #79 (comment):

Linux Mint 20.1 + Cinnamon DE

Windows 10 (with depends)

macOS Big Sur (with depends)

hebasto · 2020-08-28T18:11:38Z

Many thanks to @GBKS !

Sjors · 2020-08-30T12:05:22Z

Before and after screenshots on various OS's would be nice.

I'm generally not a fan of messing with the default font choices of operating systems / desktop environments. However, if upstream QT doesn't use a proper monospaced font for macOS, then it makes sense for at least that platform.

hebasto · 2020-08-30T17:26:58Z

Just for record: another PR that embeds a font is bitcoin/bitcoin#16883.

RandyMcMillan · 2020-09-03T06:25:54Z

There have been concerns about OFL Licensing in the past...

bitcoin/bitcoin#17311 (comment)

But if OFL isn't an issue - then fonts-liberation is a good candidate as well because
we can stay in one family of fonts and remain consistent across different presentations.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts

michaelfolkson · 2020-09-03T07:15:29Z

Looking for Concept (N)ACKs (plus comments if you have them) from designers cc @GBKS @Bosch-0 @johnsBeharry

Bosch-0 · 2020-09-03T08:09:45Z

Concept ACK

Though using Roboto Mono would be a better alternative:

IBM Plex Mono uses a OFL license which as pointed out in build: macOS fix background.svg bitcoin/bitcoin#17311 (comment) has some concerns about its 'free' status. Roboto mono uses Apache Licence, Version 2.0 which as far as I'm concerned isn't an issue.
Roboto Mono is a variable font which allows it to have its properties changed (weight, width etc.) without needing a separate font file. This will keep the overall font file size down.
This may be a subjective take but I think Roboto Mono is also slightly more readable.

IBM Plex Mono

Roboto Mono

hebasto · 2020-09-03T10:45:52Z

About font sizes:

$ ls -go
total 380
-rw-rw-r-- 1 111532 Mar 11  2018 IBMPlexMono-Medium.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1  86820 May 13  2015 RobotoMono-Medium.ttf
-rw-rw-r-- 1 182172 May 13  2015 RobotoMono-VariableFont_wght.ttf

hebasto · 2020-09-03T11:48:47Z

It appears that Qt (at least 5.12.8) cannot work with variable fonts.
At least QFont::setWeight() (<weight>..</weight> in *.ui file) is noop for RobotoMono-VariableFont_wght.ttf.

Bosch-0 · 2020-09-03T11:59:38Z

Ahh that's a shame, not a huge issue though, as the mono font is only going to be used in a few places the benefits of using a variable font is negligible. The static medium Roboto Mono font style should be all we need to use.

I think the licensing issue with OFL still makes Roboto Mono a more suitable option than IBM Plex Mono.

hebasto · 2020-09-03T12:23:00Z

Updated 15f37db -> 3fdd5b6 (pr79.01 -> pr79.02, diff):

used Roboto Mono instead of IBM Plex Mono as requested by @Bosch-0
changes are scoped only the Overview page as it is a clear visual bug fix

~~Going to update OP soon.~~ OP updated.

hebasto · 2020-09-03T12:53:14Z

@Sjors

Before and after screenshots on various OS's would be nice.

Done.

I'm generally not a fan of messing with the default font choices of operating systems / desktop environments. However, if upstream QT doesn't use a proper monospaced font for macOS, then it makes sense for at least that platform.

This is under discussion now in Bitcoin Design Community (https://github.com/BitcoinDesign, https://bitcoindesign.slack.com). Please join the discussion :)

luke-jr · 2020-09-03T13:58:00Z

Concept NACK to overriding the platform. If users don't like their platform's font choices, they should change it there.

Also concept NACK to moving discussion to a private proprietary platform.

moneyball · 2020-09-03T16:38:06Z

I agree with @luke-jr that the bitcoin design community should not require Core contributors to join Slack in order to debate changes to the Core GUI (although developers are more than welcome to join the conversation there!). I think it is fine if there is discussion on Slack or video calls or any medium, but for any kind of formal proposal or discussion or debate, it should occur on GitHub as that is the existing process for the project.

flack · 2020-09-20T09:21:41Z

Just my two cents for the screenshot in the OP: Using monospace for the balance numbers seems like a weird workaround (weird because you have two different fonts for the same line of information, the label in the normal UI font and then the number & unit in the monospace one). It would be much nicer to use a non-monospace font throughout that supports tabular figures (see https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-3/numbers/proportional-vs-tabular-figures). Or doesn't that work in Qt?

hebasto · 2020-09-20T09:37:55Z

@flack

Just my two cents for the screenshot in the OP: Using monospace for the balance numbers seems like a weird workaround (weird because you have two different fonts for the same line of information, the label in the normal UI font and then the number & unit in the monospace one). It would be much nicer to use a non-monospace font throughout that supports tabular figures (see https://www.fonts.com/content/learning/fontology/level-3/numbers/proportional-vs-tabular-figures). Or doesn't that work in Qt?

Thanks! TIL. I didn't know about "tabular figures".

RandyMcMillan · 2020-12-08T05:18:54Z

@hebasto -

The Roboto Family is an excellent choice as an embedded font (imo).
I believe we should be proactive and embed the entire family.
It would eliminate this unknown factor in Gui design moving forward.

Keep in mind - fonts do pose a security issue.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/google-open-sources-internal-tool-for-finding-font-related-security-bugs/
https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/91347/how-can-a-font-be-used-for-privilege-escalation

In essence - embedding fonts explicitly enhances determinism.

hebasto · 2021-02-01T11:38:10Z

@luke-jr

Concept NACK to overriding the platform. If users don't like their platform's font choices, they should change it there.

Being a financial application the Bitcoin Core requires a monospaced/fixed-pitch font (or, at least, tabular figures font).

The Qt's font matching algorithm does not guarantee that:

the monospaced font will be chosen at all (see qt: Add privacy to the Overview page bitcoin/bitcoin#16432 (comment))
the chosen monospaced font has expected style and weight (see Choose monospaced font in C++ code rather in *.ui file #87 (comment))
an upgrade of the system or Qt won't change the Bitcoin Core look unexpectedly

A agree that user's ability to customize fonts is good. The question is how users could customize the monospaced font for Qt application now?

I'm not aware of such possibilities on Windows 10 and macOS 11.1. On Linux I used the qt5ct package, but it fails to customize the monospaced font.

If there are no ways to customize the monospaced font for Qt application, are you going to insist on your point?

laanwj · 2021-02-01T11:51:22Z

The Roboto Family is an excellent choice as an embedded font (imo). I believe we should be proactive and embed the entire family.

Agree. Despite really disliking it on a conceptual level, I think 'ship your own fonts' is the modern way. The less assumptions we have to make about the operating system, platform, and what is already installed, the better.
This will also help in making fully static binaries. E.g. bitcoin/bitcoin#18110

(That is, for the distributed binaries. When building from source you can do whatever you like.)

michaelfolkson · 2021-02-01T11:54:07Z

Concept NACK to overriding the platform. If users don't like their platform's font choices, they should change it there.

If this is purely a design choice (there are no negative side effects to this change) I'm happy to leave to the designers. If the designers are a Concept ACK I'm a Concept ACK.

laanwj · 2021-02-02T18:17:09Z

Code review and license review ACK 3fdd5b6
Please do update contrib/debian/copyright to explitily list the apache license for the embedded font files.

Changes are scoped to the Overview page only.

I think we have to replace all fixed-width fonts with this one, not just the overview page (not necessarily in thie PR ofcourse).

jonasschnelli · 2021-02-04T07:37:08Z

Concept ACK 3fdd5b6 - please add the license attribution

luke-jr · 2021-02-04T17:56:55Z

The Qt's font matching algorithm does not guarantee that:

the monospaced font will be chosen at all (see bitcoin/bitcoin#16432 (comment))
the chosen monospaced font has expected style and weight (see #87 (comment))

We already have functional workarounds for these.

an upgrade of the system or Qt won't change the Bitcoin Core look unexpectedly

That's desirable and expected behaviour.

I'm not aware of such possibilities on Windows 10 and macOS 11.1.

Crazy. It looks like Windows 10 removed the ability for users to configure their fonts. But that's a Windows problem, not necessarily ours...

I'm not surprised Apple denies users choice.

Note that your suggestions here do NOT restore user choice, but instead make it even harder for them to configure it!

On Linux I used the qt5ct package, but it fails to customize the monospaced font.

It's right there in System Settings for me, as a "Fixed width" font choice.

Setting the "Monospace" font family in a `*.ui` file does not work on macOS, at least on Big Sur with Qt 5.15 (neither via the "font" property nor via the "styleSheet" property). Qt chooses the ".AppleSystemUIFont" instead of ".AppleSystemUIFontMonospaced". This change makes macOS choose the correct monospaced font.

hebasto · 2021-02-21T19:10:34Z

Updated 3fdd5b6 -> 67f2631 (pr79.02 -> pr79.04):

rebased due to the conflict with Replace "Hide tray icon" option with positive "Show tray icon" one #115
added the license attribution as requested by @laanwj and @jonasschnelli
added an option to opt-out embedded monospaced font in Menu -> Options-> Display as requested by @luke-jr (as I understand his idea)

luke-jr · 2021-02-21T19:15:25Z

added an option to opt-out embedded monospaced font in Menu -> Options-> Display as requested by @luke-jr (as I understand his idea)

That seems like a reasonable compromise.

Can you also not add the font to the repo, make it optional at build time (perhaps configurable?), and bundle it via depends?

hebasto · 2021-02-21T19:33:19Z

Can you also not add the font to the repo, make it optional at build time (perhaps configurable?), and bundle it via depends?

What reasons do you see for that?

luke-jr · 2021-02-21T19:40:11Z

So that people who don't want this can build without it...

laanwj · 2021-02-22T12:00:49Z

Tested ACK 67f2631

The option in the configuration dialog is really nicely done.

A configure option to build without internal fonts can be added later. IMO adding the font to the repository itself is fine. It's only 87kB, not worth the overhead of an external depends download.

rebroad · 2021-05-01T22:55:54Z

I'm a little confused, what version is the "before" picture from? I'm running 0.21 and it's already a fixed font.

hebasto · 2021-05-02T07:35:47Z

@rebroad

I'm a little confused, what version is the "before" picture from? I'm running 0.21 and it's already a fixed font.

I suppose your system is not macOS, right?

19d51a2 qt: Avoid unnecessary translations (Hennadii Stepanov) Pull request description: Working on translation, I found these translations introduced in #79, that are unnecessary (assuming the universal nature of the "BTC" string). ACKs for top commit: jarolrod: ACK 19d51a2 Tree-SHA512: b45551a54a323c5ba3779f4c1d7c8e7ec4d19a2e95fe70153f48234393bf1449a08e6bd24519ec035ebd4a98080a56af45e7a21546b47152e493b8e1b8f4345e

hebasto changed the title ~~gui: Add IBM Plex Mono font~~ Add IBM Plex Mono font Aug 28, 2020

hebasto mentioned this pull request Aug 29, 2020

Bitcoin Core GUI call #2 BitcoinDesign/Meta#12

Closed

hebasto changed the title ~~Add IBM Plex Mono font~~ Embed monospaced font Sep 3, 2020

Bosch-0 mentioned this pull request Sep 3, 2020

Fix visual quality of text in QR image #71

Merged

hebasto force-pushed the 200828-mono branch from 15f37db to 3fdd5b6 Compare September 3, 2020 12:14

hebasto mentioned this pull request Sep 10, 2020

Choose monospaced font in C++ code rather in *.ui file #87

Closed

RandyMcMillan mentioned this pull request Dec 12, 2020

[Discussion] Bitcoin Core logo #89

Open

hebasto mentioned this pull request Feb 1, 2021

scripted-diff: Use Courier New as tabular figures font in Overview page #207

Closed

hebasto force-pushed the 200828-mono branch from 3fdd5b6 to 12741b9 Compare February 21, 2021 18:59

DrahtBot added the Needs rebase label Feb 21, 2021

hebasto added 4 commits February 21, 2021 21:01

gui: Add Roboto Mono font

89e4219

qt: Make GUIUtil::fixedPitchFont aware of embedded font

623de12

gui: Add monospaced font settings

67f2631

hebasto force-pushed the 200828-mono branch from 12741b9 to 67f2631 Compare February 21, 2021 19:03

DrahtBot removed the Needs rebase label Feb 21, 2021

laanwj merged commit 7fca189 into bitcoin-core:master Feb 22, 2021

hebasto deleted the 200828-mono branch February 22, 2021 12:31

jarolrod mentioned this pull request Mar 5, 2021

Send/Transactions Tab Font Inconsistencies on macOS #131

Open

jarolrod mentioned this pull request Mar 29, 2021

Display node address in peer table with monospace font for clean alignment #261

Closed

ghost mentioned this pull request Apr 2, 2021

Embedded "Roboto Mono" font is really "Roboto Mono Bold" #265

Open

hebasto mentioned this pull request Apr 10, 2021

Consistent Usage of Monospace Figures #267

Open

This was referenced Apr 25, 2021

doc: Naming convention for new QSettings setting names #295

Open

Avoid unnecessary translations #297

Merged

bitcoin-core locked as resolved and limited conversation to collaborators Aug 16, 2022

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Embed monospaced font #79

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Embed monospaced font #79

Embed monospaced font #79

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