Activitate

North Carolina-based developer Idrees Hassan loves Minecraft so much that he recently created a monospaced font for programming based on the typeface found in the hugely popular video game. Monocraft gives programmers the feel of being in Minecraft, without having to use any assets from the game.

“To be honest, I created this font because I thought it would be interesting to understand how fonts work,” Hassan told Ars. “Existing Minecraft fonts were missing many tiny details, such as proper kerning and the size of the pixels which is why I decided that I’d make my own. I was able make it a ‘proper programming font’ after that was done. I can now write Minecraft plugins using a Minecraft font!

Hassan designed the Minecraft font that can be used for development purposes. He added some serifs that make letters like “i” and ‘l easier to identify, created new programming characters, and improved the arrow characters to make it easier to read. Although ligature characters incorporate the most popular operational character strings “!=” into one character, they are not often popular among developers.

Monocraft can be downloaded from GitHub free of charge (get Monocraft.otf on the Releases Page). Monocraft is not officially endorsed by Microsoft or Mojang and should be considered a fan project. It’s compatible with Windows, Mac, and Linux as an OpenType font. To install it on Windows, right-click the font file, and then select “Install.” On an Mac double-click the font file and choose “Install Font” in the Font Book window that appears.

Hassan previously created a faithful replica of the Minecraft font that utilizes variable spacing similar to the font used in Minecraft. It’s available on GitHub as well.

Minecraft creator Markus “Notch” Persson originally created the Minecraft font for an earlier game called Legend of the Chambered, circa 2008. The Minecraft typeface features retro pixel art that is inspired by 16 and 8 bit console games. It was a perfect match for Notch’s minimalist style. Now , it has gained a new function as a fun font for developers all over the world. ROOF INFO