Pragmasevka

Fonts are an endless topic, and programming fonts ain't no different. But it gets easier if you know which qualities you're searching for.

For me, these qualities are:

• Compact, as I want to fit as much as I can on my screen;

• Legible, while being that compact;

• Something that I can further tweak if I need;

For a long time, I was settled on Iosevka, which drew very strong inspiration from PragmataPro. The SS08 stylistic set called "PragmataPro Style" is particularly great, as it tries to copy the divine original very close. But comparing PragmataPro's images on the internet, I asked myself, can we get even closer? To be exact:

• Increase xHeight of the font a bit;

• Decrease line height for compactness;

• Make regular letters a bit bolder;

• Make bold letters significantly bolder;

• Increase boldness of punctuation marks too;

• Use the same ligatures as the original;

And after some months of constant trial and error attempts, I managed to craft the best possible result based on the tools I have on my hands.

And the result is the Pragmasevka font. Check how it compares (PragmataPro is in black, while Pragmasevka is in a red overlay on top of it):

It was built using regular Iosevka approaches that apply to custom builds plus some tiny FontForge scripts to tweak things that otherwise won't be possible.

If PragmataPro excites you by its shape but terrifies you by its price, give Pragmasevka a go!