# Technical Documentation: tonsky/FiraCode > ℹ️ **Provenance:** Multi-Tier Ingestion · [CodeWiki Reference](https://codewiki.google/github.com/tonsky/FiraCode) ### Overview (`README.md`) ## Fira Code: free monospaced font with programming ligatures Read in [Español](./LEEME.md) | [简体中文](./README_CN.md) | [日本語](./README_JA.md) | [Português brasileiro](./LEIAME.md) ### Problem Programmers use a lot of symbols, often encoded with several characters. For the human brain, sequences like `->`, `<=`, or `:=` are single logical tokens, even if they take two or three characters on the screen. Your eye spends a non-zero amount of energy to scan, parse and join multiple characters into a single logical one. Ideally, all programming languages should be designed with full-fledged Unicode symbols for operators, but that’s not the case yet. ### Solution Fira Code is a free monospaced font containing ligatures for common programming multi-character combinations. This is just a font rendering feature: underlying code remains ASCII-compatible. This helps to read and understand code faster. For some frequent sequences like `..` or `//`, ligatures allow us to correct spacing. ### Download & Install Fira_Code_v6.2.zip - December 6, 2021 - 2.5 MB Then: - [How to Install](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki) - [Troubleshooting](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki#troubleshooting) - [News & Updates](https://twitter.com/FiraCode) ### What’s in the box? Left: ligatures as rendered in Fira Code. Right: same character sequences without ligatures. Fira Code comes with a huge variety of arrows. Even better: you can make them as long as you like and combine start/middle/end fragments however you want! Fira Code is not only about ligatures. Some fine-tuning is done for punctuation and frequent letter pairs. Fira Code comes with a few different character variants (`cv01`, `cv02`, etc), stylistic sets (`ss01`, `ss02`, etc), and other font features (`zero`, `onum`, `calt`, etc), so that everyone can choose what’s best for them. [How to enable](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/How-to-enable-stylistic-sets) Some ligatures can be altered or enabled using stylistic sets/character variants: Being a programming font, Fira Code has fantastic support for ASCII/box drawing, powerline, and other forms of console UIs: Fira Code is the first programming font to offer dedicated glyphs to render progress bars: In action: We hope more programming fonts will adopt this convention and ship their own versions. Implementation detail: there is no way for programs to detect whether a font has progress bar glyphs at U+EE00, so they need to decide what to output without knowing if it will be rendered properly or not. We propose a new environment variable, `UNICODE_PROGRESS_BAR=true`, to use as a heuristic. If present, it’s safe to assume U+EE00..EE0B will be rendered properly. Unicode coverage makes Fira Code a great choice for mathematical writing: ### How does it look? ### Editor compatibility list | Works | Doesn’t work | |-------|----------------| | **Arduino IDE** (2.0+,same instructions as [vscode](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/VS-Code-Instructions)) | **Adobe Dreamweaver** | | **Abricotine** | **Delphi IDE** | | **Android Studio** (2.3+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | Standalone **Emacs** ([workaround](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/Emacs-instructions)) | | **Anjuta** (unless at the EOF) | **IDLE** | | **AppCode** (2016.2+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | **KDevelop 4** | | **Atom** 1.1 or newer ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/Atom-instructions)) | **Monkey Studio IDE** | | **BBEdit** (14.6+ [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/BBEdit-instructions)) | **UltraEdit** (Windows) | | **Brackets** (with [this plugin](https://github.com/polo2ro/firacode-in-brackets)) | | **Chocolat** | | **CLion** (2016.2+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | | **Cloud9** ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/Cloud9-Instructions)) | | **Coda 2** | | **CodeLite** | | **CodeRunner** | | **Comma** (Under: Preferences > Editor > Font) | | **CotEditor** | | **Eclipse** | | **EditPad** | | **elementary Code** | | **Geany** (1.37+) | | **gEdit / Pluma** | | **GNOME Builder** | | **Godot** | | **GoormIDE** ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/GoormIDE-Instructions)) | | **gVim** ([Windows](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/issues/462), [GTK](https://vimhelp.org/options.txt.html#%27guiligatures%27)) | | **IntelliJ IDEA** (2016.2+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | | **Kate, KWrite** | | **KDevelop 5+** | | **Komodo** | | **Leafpad** | | **LibreOffice** | | **LightTable** ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/LightTable-instructions)) | | **LINQPad** | | **MacVim** 7.4 or newer ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/MacVim-instructions)) | | **Mancy** | | **MATLAB** ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/MATLAB-for-Windows-Instructions)) | | **Meld** | | **Mousepad** | | **NeoVim-gtk** | | **NetBeans** | | **Notepad** (Windows) | | **Notepad++** ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/issues/1555)) | | **Notepad3** ([instructions](https://github.com/rizonesoft/Notepad3/issues/361#issuecomment-365977420))| | **Nova** | | **PhpStorm** (2016.2+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | | **PyCharm** (2016.2+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | | **QOwnNotes** (21.16.6+) | | **QtCreator** | | **Rider** | | **RStudio** ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/RStudio-instructions)) | | **RubyMine** (2016.2+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | | **Scratch** | | **Scribus** (1.5.3+) | | **SublimeText** (3146+) | | **Spyder IDE** (only with Qt5) | | **SuperCollider 3** | | **TeXShop**| | **TextAdept** (Linux, macOS) | | **TextEdit** | | **TextMate 2** | | **UltraEdit (UEX)** (Linux) | | **VimR** ([instructions](https://github.com/qvacua/vimr/wiki#ligatures)) | | **Visual Studio** (2015+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/Visual-Studio-Instructions)) | | **Visual Studio Code** ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/VS-Code-Instructions)) | | **WebStorm** (2016.2+, [instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/IntelliJ-products-instructions)) | | **Xamarin Studio/Monodevelop** | | **Xcode** (8.0+, otherwise [with plugin](https://github.com/robertvojta/LigatureXcodePlugin)) | | **Xi** | | Probably work: **Smultron, Vico** | Under question: **Code::Blocks IDE** | | **Zed** ([instructions](https://zed.dev/docs/reference/all-settings#buffer-font-family)) | | ### Terminal compatibility list | Works | Doesn’t work | |-------|--------------| | crosh ([instructions](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/ChromeOS-Terminal)) | Alacritty | | Ghostty | Asbru Connection Manager | | Hyper (see [#3607](https://github.com/vercel/hyper/issues/3607)) | Cmder | | iTerm 2 | ConEmu | | Kitty | GNOME Terminal ([ticket](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/192)) | | Konsole | gtkterm ([ticket](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/1661)) | | Mintty | guake ([ticket](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/1661)) | | QTerminal | LXTerminal ([ticket](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/1661)) | | st ([patch](https://st.suckless.org/patches/ligatures/)) | mate-terminal | | Tabby | PuTTY | | Terminal.app | rxvt | | Termux | sakura ([ticket](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/1661)) | | Token2Shell | SecureCRT | Wez’s terminal | Terminator ([ticket](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/1661)) | | Windows Terminal | terminology | | ZOC (macOS) | Tilix | | | Windows Console | | | xfce4-terminal ([ticket](https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/vte/-/issues/1661)) | | | xterm | | | ZOC (Windows) | ### Browser support ```html ``` ```css /* CSS */ @import url(https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/firacode@6.2.0/distr/fira_code.css); ``` ```css /* Specify in CSS */ code { font-family: 'Fira Code', monospace; } @supports (font-variation-settings: normal) { code { font-family: 'Fira Code VF', monospace; } } ``` - IE 10+, Edge Legacy: enable with `font-feature-settings: "calt";` - Firefox - Safari - Chromium-based browsers (Chrome, Opera) - ACE - CodeMirror (enable with `font-variant-ligatures: contextual;`) ### Projects using Fira Code - [CodePen](https://codepen.io/) - [Blink Shell](http://www.blink.sh/) - [Klipse](http://app.klipse.tech/) - [IlyaBirman.net](http://ilyabirman.net/) - [EvilMartians.com](https://evilmartians.com/) - [FromScratch](https://fromscratch.rocks/) - [PEP20.org](https://pep20.org/) ### Alternatives Free monospaced fonts with ligatures: - [Hasklig](https://github.com/i-tu/Hasklig) - [Monoid](http://larsenwork.com/monoid/) - [Fixedsys Excelsior](https://github.com/kika/fixedsys) - [Iosevka](https://be5invis.github.io/Iosevka/) - [DejaVu Sans Code](https://github.com/SSNikolaevich/DejaVuSansCode) - [Victor Mono](https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/) - [Cascadia Code](https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code) - [JetBrains Mono](https://github.com/JetBrains/JetBrainsMono) Paid monospaced fonts with ligatures: - [PragmataPro](http://www.fsd.it/fonts/pragmatapro.htm) - [Mono Lisa](https://www.monolisa.dev/) ### Building Fira Code locally In case you want to alter FiraCode.glyphs and build OTF/TTF/WOFF files yourself, this is the setup I use on macOS: ```bash # install all required build tools ./script/bootstrap_macos.sh # build the font files ./script/build.sh # install OTFs to ~/Library/Fonts cp distr/otf/*.otf ~/Library/Fonts ``` Alternatively, you can build Fira Code using Docker: ```bash # install dependencies in a container and build the font files make # package the font files from dist/ into a zip make package ``` If you want to *permanently enable* certain style sets or character variations, maybe because your editor of choice does not allow you to toggle these individually, you can provide the desired features as a comma separated list to the build script via the `-f / --features` flag.
Default: none. To separate different versions of your font you can specify the desired font family name with the `-n / --family-name` flag. The special value 'features' will append a sorted, space separated list of enabled features to the default family name.
Default: "Fira Code" You can also limit the font weights that will be created with the `-w / --weights` option.
Default: "Light,Regular,Retina,Medium,SemiBold,Bold" ```bash # locally in your shell ./script/build.sh --features "ss02,ss08,ss10,cv03,cv07,cv14" --family-name "Fira Code straight" --weights "Regular,Bold" # or via a docker container (creates the family name 'Fira Code cv01 cv02 cv06 cv31 onum ss01 ss03 ss04 zero') docker run --rm -v "${PWD}":/opt tonsky/firacode:latest ./script/build.sh -f "cv01,cv02,cv06,ss01,zero,onum,ss03,ss04,cv31" -n "features" # in Git Bash from Git for Windows, or any other MSYS2 based shell, you might need to disable path conversion MSYS2_ARG_CONV_EXCL="*" docker run --rm -v "${PWD}":/opt tonsky/firacode:latest ./script/build.sh -f "ss02,ss03,ss04,ss05,ss06,ss07" ``` ### Credits - Author: Nikita Prokopov [@nikitonsky](https://twitter.com/nikitonsky) - Based on: [Fira Mono](https://github.com/mozilla/Fira) - Inspired by: [Hasklig](https://github.com/i-tu/Hasklig) --- ### Overview (`googlefonts-qa/README.md`) # Onboarding to Google Fonts This directory is made to run a Google Fonts onboarding process for Fira Code. The `build.sh` script builds variable and static font files as required by Google Fonts. The `move-check.sh` script does a few things: - Fixes a few pieces of font metadata to align them to Google Fonts standards - Moves font files into a google/fonts directory, to prep/update a PR to [the official google/fonts repo](https://github.com/google/fonts) - Runs [FontBakery](https://github.com/googlefonts/fontbakery) to check the fonts against Google Fonts standards, and saves results to the [checks](checks) subfolder. This process must be run multiple times, tweaking source files and rebuilding output fonts to solve issues flagged by FontBakery. ## USAGE ### First, setup prerequisites If you haven't already done so, open a terminal, clone this repo, and move to the `qa` branch: ``` git clone git@github.com:thundernixon/firacode.git cd firacode git checkout qa ``` FontBakery checks are made to be run on fonts within the folder structure of the [google/fonts repo](https://github.com/google/fonts). Therefore, you must have a local copy of this repo on your computer to run this QA procedure. If you don't yet have a local google/fonts repo, open a new terminal session, navigate to a parent folder for this (e.g. `cd ~/yourusername/type_repos`, but use whatever location makes sense), and clone the repo: ``` git clone git@github.com:google/fonts.git ``` ### Second, set up your testing environment Create a Python 3 virtual environment: ``` virtualenv -p python3 build/venv ``` Then, activate the new virtual environment: ``` source venv/bin/activate ``` Now, install the QA dependencies: ``` pip install -U -r googlefonts-qa/scripts/requirements.txt ``` Give the build and move-check scripts permission to run: ``` chmod +x googlefonts-qa/scripts/build.sh chmod +x googlefonts-qa/scripts/move-check.sh ``` ### Third, use scripts to build fonts, then move and check With your terminal at the top level of your Fira Code directory, build fresh copies of the relevant fonts by running: ``` googlefonts-qa/scripts/build.sh ``` When that completes, run the move-check script (using the path to your local `google/fonts` repo as an argument): ``` move-check /fonts ``` If all goes well, you will have created a local `firacode` branch in your google fonts directory, moved the fresh fonts there, and run QA checks which will create new markdown documents at `googlefonts-qa/scripts/checks`. If following this guide doesn't work, please file an issue at `thundernixon/firacode`. --- ### Calt Performance (`docs/calt_performance.md`) # Time to shape text with different calt code Baseline: ``` sub 1 2 3 4 by 1_2_3_4.liga; ``` Spacers: ``` sub 1.spacer 2.spacer 3.spacer 4' by 1_2_3_4.liga; sub 1.spacer 2.spacer 3' 4 by 3.spacer; sub 1.spacer 2' 3 4 by 2.spacer; sub 1' 2 3 4 by 1.spacer; ``` Lookups: ``` lookup 1_2_3_4 { sub 1.spacer 2.spacer 3.spacer 4' by 1_2_3_4.liga; sub 1.spacer 2.spacer 3' 4 by 3.spacer; sub 1.spacer 2' 3 4 by 2.spacer; sub 1' 2 3 4 by 1.spacer; } 1_2_3_4; ``` Ignores: ``` lookup 1_2_3_4 { ignore sub 1 1' 2 3 4; ignore sub 1' 2 3 4 4; sub 1.spacer 2.spacer 3.spacer 4' by 1_2_3_4.liga; sub 1.spacer 2.spacer 3' 4 by 3.spacer; sub 1.spacer 2' 3 4 by 2.spacer; sub 1' 2 3 4 by 1.spacer; } 1_2_3_4; ``` Benchmark: ``` time hb-shape -n 100000 distr/ttf/FiraCode-Regular.ttf "Hello +++ /// !== <-> world" ``` Setup: ``` HarfBuzz 2.6.4 3,2 GHz 6-Core Intel Core i7 MacOS 10.15.3 ``` Results: ``` Baseline 0.407s Spacers 1.415s Lookups 2.080s Ignores 2.656s ``` --- --- METRICS --- - Files Extracted: 3 - Estimated Token Budget: ~4063 tokens - Canonical Reference: https://codewiki.google/github.com/tonsky/FiraCode