Propose to change Chinese layer default font

[louy2]

@zilongshanren
Since Spacemacs is promoting Source Code Pro as its default font, I propose Source Han Sans or Noto Han Sans as Chinese layer default to keep things aligned.

[zilongshanren]

@louy2
Source Han Sans and Noto Han Sans is for Chinese only or both ?

[louy2]

Those are actually the same font, Source published by Adobe while Noto published by Google. Chinese only, they contain normal Source Sans glyphs for other things.

[zilongshanren]

@louy2
The default chinese font doesn't enable by default.

;; If the Hiragino Sans GB font is not found in your system, you could call this
;; method in dotspacemacs/config function with a different Chinese font name.
;; If you are using mac, you could put the following code in your dotspacemacs/config function.
;; (when (spacemacs/system-is-mac)
;;   (spacemacs//set-monospaced-font "Source Code Pro" "Hiragino Sans GB" 14 16))

I think you could change it to whatever you want.

[louy2]

I know and I've done exactly that. But what you do you think if we actually enable Source Han Sans by default? I was a bit confused when I installed Chinese layer and still had codepoint glyphs displayed, and had to dig to the document. Source Han Sans is already recommended among font enthusiasts, so I think it is good enough to be made default.

[StreakyCobra]

Any news on this discussion? Are you planing to PR it, or it is an abandoned idea?

[louy2]

If changing the font in Chinese layer still ensures a safe fallback when Source Han Sans is not installed, then I'd like to PR. So question: how does Emacs resolve its fonts?

[StreakyCobra]

I'm not sure to understand your question?

[louy2]

For example in CSS I can specify a number of fonts and have the browser fallback in order. Do I need to write some logic to achieve that in Emacs?

[StreakyCobra]

I looked a little bit and it seems related to fontset:

• https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Fontsets.html
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6083496/how-do-you-specify-a-fallback-font-in-emacs
• https://emacs.stackexchange.com/questions/17205/how-do-i-set-up-font-fallback-in-a-robust-way

[eitazhou]

Use Source Code Pro only , and I can't align Chinese character and English character in a table when I edit under Org mode.

[louy2]

@eitazhou It is possible to set different font sizes for Chinese and English with (spacemacs//set-monospaced-font "Source Code Pro" "Hiragino Sans GB" 14 16). You'd need to find a proper combo to make them align.

[kingFighter]

@louy2 Do you find how to set font fallback in spacemacs just like css?
I tried

  (set-fontset-font t 'unicode "Symbola")
  (set-fontset-font t 'unicode "Symbola" nil)
  (set-fontset-font t 'unicode "Symbola" nil 'append)
  (set-fontset-font t 'unicode "Symbola" nil 'prepend)
 (set-fontset-font "fontset-default" nil 
                  (font-spec :size 20 :name "Symbola"))

with dotspacemacs/user-config.
Not work for me.

[louy2]

@kingFighter
I have not been actively on it. For now you can try (set-fontset-font "fontset-startup" nil "Symbola" nil 'append).

Ref: https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Modifying-Fontsets.html#Modifying-Fontsets

[kingFighter]

@louy2 Thanks. I tried

(set-fontset-font "fontset-startup" 'unicode (font-spec :name "Consolas"
                                                          :size 20
                                                          :width `normal'
                                                          :weight `normal'
                                                          :powerline-scale 1.1) nil 'prepend)
(set-fontset-font "fontset-startup" 'unicode (font-spec :name "Source Code Pro"
                                                          :size 20
                                                          :width `normal'
                                                          :weight `normal'
                                                          :powerline-scale 1.1) nil 'prepend)

with dotspacemacs/user-config. It seems work.But properities like width and weight( normal or 'normal' or ``normal'` not working.

[louy2]

@kingFighter
For :width and :weight properties you need to choose from a list of symbols, which means you need to specify them as :width 'normal and :weight 'normal. Symbol is a special type, not string.

Ref:
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Face-Attributes.html#Face-Attributes
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Creating-Symbols.html#Creating-Symbols
https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/elisp/Quoting.html#Quoting

[kingFighter]

@louy2
Really thanks for your suggestion and refs. It worked now.
Thanks again.

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed if no further activity occurs. Please let us know if this issue is still valid!