thechexican

Q: Monospaced Number Characters in Finder

I'm on a 2012 retina MacBook Pro, running MacOS Sierra (in-place upgrade, not a clean install). In the time that I've been using the new OS, I've been finding myself annoyed with the way files are displayed in Finder. It appears the new font (I don't remember this happening a few weeks ago on El Capitan) doesn't have fixed with spacing for numeric characters, which causes the file list to display directory contents in a wave-like pattern that makes it look rather ugly and gets distracting when trying to quickly scan through the file list.

 

I've read mention a lot about a new monospaced San Francisco font that I think debuted this year, but why it's not implemented as a system font is baffling. Is this the way it's supposed to be, or did something not get properly upgraded during the update process? If there's some sort of terminal command or utility to get Finder to use a proper fixed-width font, I'd love to hear it!

 

Screen Shot 2016-09-26 at 7.15.25 PM.png

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Sierra (10.12), null

Posted on Sep 26, 2016 7:28 PM

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Q: Monospaced Number Characters in Finder

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  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Sep 26, 2016 8:12 PM in response to thechexican
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    Sep 26, 2016 8:12 PM in response to thechexican

    FWIW, I don't believe any version of OSX used a fixed-width/mono-spaced font in the Finder. Even if numeric characters were mono-spaced you would have the same issue with alphabetical characters mixed in. And, even if everything was mono-spaced there would be a ripple on the right because of different length file names.

  • by Tom Gewecke,Helpful

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Sep 27, 2016 10:26 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 9 (79,395 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 10:26 AM in response to dialabrain

    I don't seen any wave in El Capitan on my machine

     

    Screen Shot 2016-09-27 at 8.13.40 AM.png

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Sep 27, 2016 8:23 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 5 (6,440 points)
    Mac App Store
    Sep 27, 2016 8:23 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Well that's good.

    Screen Shot 2016-09-27 at 11.21.47 AM.png

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Sep 27, 2016 8:30 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 9 (79,395 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 8:30 AM in response to dialabrain

    Your example is for letters.  The question is about number characters.  They are monospaced in El Capitan.  0 and 2 have the same width as 1.  In Sierra they do not.  So things are indeed different in that regard.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Sep 27, 2016 8:45 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 5 (6,440 points)
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    Sep 27, 2016 8:45 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    I did think we were taking about Sierra.

  • by Tom Gewecke,Helpful

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Sep 27, 2016 10:27 AM in response to dialabrain
    Level 9 (79,395 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 10:27 AM in response to dialabrain

    dialabrain wrote:

     

    I did think we were taking about Sierra.

     

    Of course.  But you "don't believe any version of OSX used a fixed-width/mono-spaced font in the Finder".  El Capitan at least used fixed-with numbers.  The OP wishes Sierra did the same.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Sep 27, 2016 9:02 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 5 (6,440 points)
    Mac App Store
    Sep 27, 2016 9:02 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Not to nitpick but I don't consider a mixed-spaced font a fixed-width/mono-spaced font.

     

    And yes, I understood what he wanted.

  • by dialabrain,

    dialabrain dialabrain Sep 27, 2016 10:23 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 5 (6,440 points)
    Mac App Store
    Sep 27, 2016 10:23 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Tom,

     

    Just to clarify something. I wouldn't have mentioned monospaced fonts at all except the OP mentioned SF Mono and wondered why Apple didn't make it the system font. Which prompted my reply they've never used a monospaced system font which is true. In my opinion that would look terrible. You can certainly use a monospaced font in Linux very easily but it's not something I could live with. There is a reason books, magazines, pamphlets, flyers etc. aren't printed in monospaced fonts.

     

    okay, I'm done.

  • by thechexican,

    thechexican thechexican Sep 27, 2016 10:35 AM in response to Tom Gewecke
    Level 1 (8 points)
    Mac OS X
    Sep 27, 2016 10:35 AM in response to Tom Gewecke

    Appreciate the comparison/proof to show this is something that was introduced with the Sierra update.

  • by Tom Gewecke,

    Tom Gewecke Tom Gewecke Sep 27, 2016 1:55 PM in response to thechexican
    Level 9 (79,395 points)
    Sep 27, 2016 1:55 PM in response to thechexican

    Of possible interest, some explanation by Apple contained in the transcript of a presentation at the WWDC in 2015

     

    https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2015/804/?time=1688

     

    "But I want to tell you about the spacing of numbers, their widths. By default, on our platforms, numbers are always monospaced, meaning they all have the same width, which is great if you need typeset something like tables, for example. Monospaced numbers are really handy because they make everything align. You can also achieve layouts with, like, multiple columns with them.

     

    However, they are not the only numbers in the San Francisco fonts. We also have what are called proportional numbers, where each number has its own "natural" width. So there are situations where, of course, monospaced numbers are clearly what you want.

     

    For example, like this, when you have proportional numbers, they will actually wiggle around, and monospace numbers actually stay put.

     

    But you may also typeset numbers in static labels, such as when typesetting a date or a phone number or a read count in an inbox or an email address or a URL.

     

    In those cases, really, you want proportional numbers instead. So let's take a -- do a case study with an app like Calendar, which is fairly numbers heavy.

     

    And if you look at how we use numbers in this app and how we typeset them, you will notice that they don't really align with anything else, and they really are in line with other text, meaning they could use -- they should use, and they do use proportional numbers.

     

    So knowing this, we decided to take a big leap here, and change the default of our platforms to actually give you proportional numbers by default and make you opt into monospaced numbers. Now, there is a precedent for this, and that's the Watch, which actually ships with proportional numbers by default.

    But it is a big change, and it may affect layout. So because of that, we have provisions in place. If your app is not linked against iOS 10.11 -- sorry, OS X 10.11 and iOS 9, you still get monospaced numbers by default. The system turns on the monospace feature for you."