Font with Built-In Syntax Highlighting (2024) (opens in new tab)

(blog.glyphdrawing.club)

153 pointscalifornia-og3mo ago37 comments

37 comments

I view stuff like this kind of like code that fits into a bootloader or whatever. It’s really more of the technical challenge than to actually solve a problem. The result is much better if you just run a script on your hand-coded file to add syntax highlighting as DOM elements. Still, love seeing stuff like this.

balou233mo ago

In a similar vein: font with integrated story-telling LLM [1]

[1] https://fuglede.github.io/llama.ttf/

michaelsshaw3mo ago

For blogs, I like the site to stay static. This is a neat way to keep it that way. Having your generator do it is better in my opinion though.

vbezhenar3mo ago

So script inside web page is bad, but script inside font is good? That's interesting definition of bloat. I'd prefer ordinary webpage using locally installed fonts with explicit JavaScript snippet to highlight keywords.

benrutter3mo ago

Unless I missed it, the OP doesn't quote reducing bloat as a motivation- more just working without javascript.

I took it to be along the lines of an "easier to work with" type motivation, rather than reducing package sizes.

blauditore3mo ago

Is it really a script though? IIUC it's more like contextual declaration (e.g. of previous char is X, then use style Y), no?

WesolyKubeczek3mo ago

Remember llama.otf?

zappchance3mo ago

llama.ttf

https://fuglede.github.io/llama.ttf

mg3mo ago

This is interesting.

I have yet to see a good web based text editor with syntax highlighting. They all mess with the native search functionality of the browser. Because they can't just use a textarea for the edit area. With this approach, it would be possible.

I wonder how usable a Python version of this would be?

onion2k3mo ago

I have yet to see a good web based text editor with syntax highlighting.

I slightly expect you to pull a "no true Scotsman" here and suggest it's actually no good because it doesn't really support mobile browsers very well, but Microsoft's Monaco editor that's driven from VS Code is quite good. https://microsoft.github.io/monaco-editor/

mg3mo ago

It seems to have the same problems all of the web based editors I have seen have. Either they capture ctrl+f and take away the native search experience. Or they have a broken search experience. This one is in the latter category.

When I hit ctrl+f on that page and type "export":

First it says "1 of 4 matches" but nothing is highlighted.

When I hit enter, it says "2 of 4 matches" and again, nothing is highlighted.

When I hit enter again, it says "3 of 4 matches" and the first match is highlighted.

When I hit enter again, it says "4 of 4 matches" and the second match is highlighted.

gethly3mo ago

FYI, IDEs and editors too don't use "textarea". Contenteditable essentially makes the web browser work like editor does.

mg3mo ago

Contenteditable plus the CSS Custom Highlight API (which highlights ranges instead of elements) might indeed allow for a good solution. But I have not yet seen an editor that does that.

1 more reply

eichin2mo ago

Hmm, is there a simple way to force chrome to use this for view source and/or Inspect? (didn't see anything in the earlier thread either, but those are the two really obvious places that a font would be a reasonable approach...)

mock-possum3mo ago

> Works in <textarea> and <input>! Syntax highlighting inside <textarea> has been previously impossible, because textareas and inputs can only contain plain text. This is where the interesting

Interesting indeed! This bit feels like a neat bit of hackery to keep in my back pocket for sure.

spockz3mo ago

Has anyone tried this with PowerPoint yet? Our org is very PowerPoint centric and always struggle a bit with the workflow for code.

Copy pasting from IntelliJ does give colours but none of the other niceties such as kerning or litigation. Screenshots are nice visually but a pain to maintain.

Sayrus3mo ago

From the article cons section:

> It only works where OpenType is supported. Fortunately, that's all major browsers and most modern programs. However, something like PowerPoint doesn't support OpenType.

spockz3mo ago

Thank you, I missed that third sentence.

layer83mo ago

*ligatures

Is kerning a thing for monospace fonts?

spockz3mo ago

Yes, ligatures. No idea where “litigations” came from.

I think there is still some kerning going on where the individual letters are placed closer together and the entire word has the same width so more spacing in between words.

exasperaited3mo ago

This is a curious sort of hazy modern mirror image of the world of Sinclair computers, that embedded their BASIC parsing in the keyboard driver — that is to say, it essentially wasn't possible to type a syntactically incorrect BASIC program.

jasonjmcghee3mo ago

Large discussion from the last time it was posted:

665 points | 137 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41245159

zX41ZdbW3mo ago

> it breaks when your code goes to a newline. there's no way to keep context line to line...

This is a blocker for my applications.

TheRealPomax3mo ago

> The colors in the HTML snippet above comes from within the font itself, the code is plain text, and requires no JavaScript.

But then why does the color disappear if I disallow scripts on this page? Instead of your font, now it uses Consolas.

Are you using JS to load the font in? (if so... web fonts don't need JS to load =)

california-ogOP3mo ago

Most likely because your JS blocker also blocks custom fonts. It works fine without JS.

TheRealPomax3mo ago

It does not: with JS blocked, the stylesheet for the webfont never gets injected. Even though it shouldn't need injecting in the first place.

1 more reply

cluckindan3mo ago

Using a variable font with r, g, b axes for each alt would maybe make it possible to change the colors?

eviks3mo ago

> I want to keep things as simple as possible.

The whole post proves the opposite is true!

Gracana3mo ago

Perhaps you could add this technology to Z80 sans, to get syntax highlighted Z80 disassembly.

https://github.com/nevesnunes/z80-sans

koct9i3mo ago

And add Z80 emulator as well. Just in case.

ErroneousBosh3mo ago

Well someone else mentioned llama.ttf which is a font that embeds an llm, using Harfbuzz's WASM engine.

So, you could absolutely write a WASM Z80 emulator and embed it in a font. Whether or not you could make it do anything useful, or how strong your grip on reality would remain after? I don't know.

But it wasn't like you were doing anything else on the days between Christmas and New Year, right?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

37 comments

cyanmagenta3mo ago

balou233mo ago

In a similar vein: font with integrated story-telling LLM [1]

[1] https://fuglede.github.io/llama.ttf/

michaelsshaw3mo ago

For blogs, I like the site to stay static. This is a neat way to keep it that way. Having your generator do it is better in my opinion though.

vbezhenar3mo ago

benrutter3mo ago

Unless I missed it, the OP doesn't quote reducing bloat as a motivation- more just working without javascript.

I took it to be along the lines of an "easier to work with" type motivation, rather than reducing package sizes.

blauditore3mo ago

Is it really a script though? IIUC it's more like contextual declaration (e.g. of previous char is X, then use style Y), no?

WesolyKubeczek3mo ago

Remember llama.otf?

zappchance3mo ago

llama.ttf

https://fuglede.github.io/llama.ttf

mg3mo ago

This is interesting.

I wonder how usable a Python version of this would be?

onion2k3mo ago

I have yet to see a good web based text editor with syntax highlighting.

mg3mo ago

When I hit ctrl+f on that page and type "export":

First it says "1 of 4 matches" but nothing is highlighted.

When I hit enter, it says "2 of 4 matches" and again, nothing is highlighted.

When I hit enter again, it says "3 of 4 matches" and the first match is highlighted.

When I hit enter again, it says "4 of 4 matches" and the second match is highlighted.

gethly3mo ago

FYI, IDEs and editors too don't use "textarea". Contenteditable essentially makes the web browser work like editor does.

mg3mo ago

Contenteditable plus the CSS Custom Highlight API (which highlights ranges instead of elements) might indeed allow for a good solution. But I have not yet seen an editor that does that.

1 more reply

eichin2mo ago

mock-possum3mo ago

> Works in <textarea> and <input>! Syntax highlighting inside <textarea> has been previously impossible, because textareas and inputs can only contain plain text. This is where the interesting

Interesting indeed! This bit feels like a neat bit of hackery to keep in my back pocket for sure.

spockz3mo ago

Has anyone tried this with PowerPoint yet? Our org is very PowerPoint centric and always struggle a bit with the workflow for code.

Copy pasting from IntelliJ does give colours but none of the other niceties such as kerning or litigation. Screenshots are nice visually but a pain to maintain.

Sayrus3mo ago

From the article cons section:

> It only works where OpenType is supported. Fortunately, that's all major browsers and most modern programs. However, something like PowerPoint doesn't support OpenType.

spockz3mo ago

Thank you, I missed that third sentence.

layer83mo ago

*ligatures

Is kerning a thing for monospace fonts?

spockz3mo ago

Yes, ligatures. No idea where “litigations” came from.

I think there is still some kerning going on where the individual letters are placed closer together and the entire word has the same width so more spacing in between words.

exasperaited3mo ago

jasonjmcghee3mo ago

Large discussion from the last time it was posted:

665 points | 137 comments

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41245159

zX41ZdbW3mo ago

> it breaks when your code goes to a newline. there's no way to keep context line to line...

This is a blocker for my applications.

TheRealPomax3mo ago

> The colors in the HTML snippet above comes from within the font itself, the code is plain text, and requires no JavaScript.

But then why does the color disappear if I disallow scripts on this page? Instead of your font, now it uses Consolas.

Are you using JS to load the font in? (if so... web fonts don't need JS to load =)

california-ogOP3mo ago

Most likely because your JS blocker also blocks custom fonts. It works fine without JS.

TheRealPomax3mo ago

It does not: with JS blocked, the stylesheet for the webfont never gets injected. Even though it shouldn't need injecting in the first place.

1 more reply

cluckindan3mo ago

Using a variable font with r, g, b axes for each alt would maybe make it possible to change the colors?

eviks3mo ago

> I want to keep things as simple as possible.

The whole post proves the opposite is true!

Gracana3mo ago

Perhaps you could add this technology to Z80 sans, to get syntax highlighted Z80 disassembly.

https://github.com/nevesnunes/z80-sans

koct9i3mo ago

And add Z80 emulator as well. Just in case.

ErroneousBosh3mo ago

Well someone else mentioned llama.ttf which is a font that embeds an llm, using Harfbuzz's WASM engine.

So, you could absolutely write a WASM Z80 emulator and embed it in a font. Whether or not you could make it do anything useful, or how strong your grip on reality would remain after? I don't know.

But it wasn't like you were doing anything else on the days between Christmas and New Year, right?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse