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The Font that Saves Eyes
The only monospace font designed to reduce eyestrain for computer programmers
- Office
- United States
- Client
- Intel
Intel’s commitment to accessibility and open-source initiatives led VML’s research team to discover that developer eye strain was a significant issue, with no typefaces specifically addressing it. To strengthen connections with the developer community, VML and Frere-Jones Type collaborated with low-vision and legally blind developers, focusing on legibility and gathering feedback to refine the design. By releasing the typeface as open-source on GitHub, Intel built trust with developers. The project resulted in many awards, positive feedback on inclusivity, reduced eye strain, improved coding accuracy and enhanced brand affinity, with many devs adopting it as their default coding typeface.
The Intel One Mono font is a game-changer in the world of digital typography. Designed for optimal readability on any screen, it marries form and function, setting a new standard for user interfaces. This innovation is not just about looks; it's about enhancing the way we interact with technology daily.
Intel is investing heavily in open-source initiatives and engaging developers to boost brand perception and increase interaction. Monospaced typefaces, crucial for developers, play a role in this strategy. In recent years, Intel has been viewed by many developers as a grandfather of technology, with newer competitors seen as more cutting-edge. To address this, Intel reaffirmed its commitment to the software engineering community. Through a series of initiatives, the company aims to rebuild credibility and solve unmet needs within the developer space, positioning itself as a key partner in fostering innovation and collaboration.
Research illuminated that, while a variety of typeface design projects have tackled issues of accessibility and legibility for general readers, none have explicitly attempted to improve legibility and tackle eyestrain for those who spend hours intensely focused on screen text and need it most: the developer community.
To ensure improved legibility, we designed the Intel One Mono typeface along with a panel of low-vision developers who were asked to use the typeface as their default coding tool and provide feedback at each round of design. Designing for the 1% improves everyone’s experience. Legibility isn’t only glyph design, but every component of a typeface’s context for the user. Character and word-shape differentiation, weight pairing contrasts and leading are some of the levers activated to achieve an effective result for the intensive coding experience of developers.
We made the typeface free and open-source, releasing it on GitHub, the most visited developer site, to gather input for future improvements. It’s also available on Intel.com. The release sparked debates about the design, especially the curly braces, but feedback from our low-vision and legally blind panel was key to design decisions. Post-release opinions focused on functionality. The font’s success is proof that beauty and harmony can’t solely define good design, and quantitative data was and continues to be invaluable to the process.
Subjective ideas about what might be considered beautiful at 160 points on a poster doesn’t mean a whole lot when you’re reading at 13 pixels on screen and can’t tell why your code is throwing an error. Intel One Mono is designed to be at its best in those circumstances.
