- What it actually looks like: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/B612
- This seems as good a thread as any to post this in:
If you're fond of aviation aesthetics, I was recently looking for a workshop cart to occupy a 60x40 cm space and couldn't find any, until I realized that (a) standard issue half-size ATLAS airplane galley trolleys are 30x40 cm and (b) they can be bought by regular people and are very price-competitive with professional grade workshop and office furniture.
Now I own these and they're amazing:
https://mero.ng/i/xnZNqouw.jpg
I especially like the little pull-out tables at the top (they're right next to https://eikehein.com/assets/images/makercorner.jpg).
It's also nice to have a constant reminder to stow them in case I take off or land my office.
by biohazard2
1 subcomments
- Two articles providing more information about the creation of this font:
https://lii.enac.fr/projects/definition-and-validation-of-an...
https://www.enac.fr/fr/une-police-realisee-par-les-chercheur...
In particular, a screen of an Airbus screen and a video showing parts of the creation are provided.
- Designed for ease and efficiency of reading and to make letters unambiguous by "maximising the distances between forms to allow for easy, clear identification of each character" [0, p. 7]. Compare FE-Schrift [1], which is designed for number plates to make letters unambiguous in the sense of hard to convert one into another by masking or adding parts:
[0] https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/docs/B612-Leafl...
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FE-Schrift
- There's also B612 Mono, for use in your text editor or terminal.
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/B612+Mono
by croisillon
1 subcomments
- Just in case anyone is wondering about the name: B612 is Saint-Exupery's "Little Prince"'s planet (asteroid). A real-life asteroid has then been named B612, but its number is actually 46610.
- It's interesting to me that those fonts seem to include ink traps: curious if this has anything to do with the display tech that's used in the cockpit
- Sample:
https://github.com/polarsys/b612/blob/master/docs/sample.png
by ApolloFortyNine
0 subcomment
- In my opinion, the newer Atkinson Hyperlegible (Next) looks easier to read long term. Maybe B612 is 'better' when you have to read just a few words on a screen, but I've switched to Hyperlegible recently for ebooks and have enjoyed it.
[1] https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Atkinson+Hyperlegible+Next
- I don't understand why 0 and O look nearly identical.
by _fat_santa
0 subcomment
- I've been using B612 as my main font in Obsidian for years and it's been awesome. Very legible and easy to pickup on a note just with a glance.
- Biggest problem with AirBus font is 1|ilL7 oO0@ ,.
The best font for programming is Source Code Pro.
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro?preview.te...,.
Second best is IBM Flex Sans
https://fonts.google.com/specimen/IBM+Plex+Sans?preview.text...,.
- Something I have never been able to find an explanation for with B612: why is the final sigma character (ς) vertically offset downward from every other Greek character? It makes for very jarring text, and there doesn't seem to be any explanation anywhere.
- Sadly, Airbus' web shop won't sell you any watch that uses it as the typeface.
https://airbus-shop.com/en/52-watches
- B612 is the of the asteroid in The Little Prince from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. Seemed strange that they used a name starting with B for an Airbus ;)
- > Apparently, the link to Intactile DESIGN - intactile[dot]com - in the README file is now redirecting to a gambling site, probably due to Intactile going out of business?
https://github.com/polarsys/b612/issues/37
- I want to love B612 more than I do, but the ohs and zeroes look identical, which ruins it as a terminal/editor font.
by kraussvonespy
0 subcomment
- I put B612 on my kindles a few months ago and it's my favorite reading font. Very legible from tiny to huge, no serifs to slow things down.
I'm not sure I'd use it for written documents, although the monospace version is a very welcome replacement for courier.
- Needs a tweak for programming: () looks like []. Otherwise, I like it.
by ChrisArchitect
0 subcomment
- At one time there was a whole promo website for this, https://web.archive.org/web/20200222091737/https://b612-font...
Some previous discussions:
2019: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18946601
2023: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37517567
- While this font looks kind of weird up close, I found it great for creating plots. It’s my default choice in matplotlib rcParams.
by shellwizard
0 subcomment
- It looks similar to Carlito, which is an OFI font similar to MS Calibri
by whalesalad
0 subcomment
- Looks like a worse version of Fira Sans
- How about the flight manuals?
by fortran77
1 subcomments
- The cockpit? What is it?
- Does the font change based on what the aircraft is doing?
I kid …