GNU bug report logs - #28338
25.2; Default fonts for Info

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From: Eli Zaretskii <eliz <at> gnu.org>
To: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
Cc: 28338 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: bug#28338: 25.2; Default fonts for Info
Date: Sun, 03 Sep 2017 18:42:35 +0300

> Date: Sun, 3 Sep 2017 08:23:26 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Drew Adams <drew.adams <at> oracle.com>
> 
> The default font for most Info text is apparently this:
> 
> -outline-Courier New-normal-normal-normal-mono-17-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1
>  (#x48)
> 
> The face used for face `Info-quoted' is apparently this:
> 
> -outline-Consolas-normal-normal-normal-mono-17-*-*-*-c-*-iso8859-1
>  (#x97)

Yes, that's true.

> This is backward from what most technical doc uses.  It is typical to
> use a font such as Courier (or Courier New) for code.  It is typical to
> use a proportional font for ordinary text.  The Consolas font used for
> `Info-quoted' is not proportional, but it looks much more like a font
> that one would see used for text than a font that is used for code.
> 
> Would Emacs Info be more readable out of the box if the fonts were
> swapped?  Seems like using a font such as Courier for function and
> variable names, keys, etc. might make more sense.

Courier New is the default font on Windows, selected both for its
wide-spread availability and its very good support for many scripts.
Consolas has significantly smaller coverage, so swapping is not an
option, at least not at this time.

Since Courier New is the default, the face used for code needs to find
another font, which is also wide-spread, monospaced, and looks
reasonably well in this context.  Consolas is about the only candidate
that satisfies these requirements.

So maybe this is sub-optimal wrt ideal typefaces, but the harsh
reality leaves us no choice.

> Personally, I'd prefer that the default font families be the same:
> Courier (New) - as has always been the case before Emacs 25.2.  (Was
> this change in default behavior even discussed on emacs-devel <at> gnu.org?)

There was no change, Courier New was and remains the default font.
The only change is that Info-quoted is a new face introduced
relatively recently.  (It took us a few iterations to find a good font
for that face.)

> (I'd also prefer that a color be used by default to distinguish face
> `Info-quoted', but I don't expect that suggestion to fly.)

You can always customize the face to fit your taste, of course.

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