vim-simple-guifont

The simple and portable way to set guifont on GVim.

🙁 Before

if has('gui_win32') || has('gui_win64') || has('gui_macvim')
  " Complicated syntax and repetition of size
  set guifont=Cascadia\ Code\ PL\:h14,JetBrains\ Mono\:h14,Hack\:h14,Consolas\:h14

elseif has('gui_gtk') " Linux
  " Another syntax and cannot specify more than one
  set guifont=Consolas\ 14
endif

😍 After

silent! call simple_guifont#Set(
  \['Cascadia Code PL', 'JetBrains Mono', 'Hack'], 'Consolas', 14)

Installation

If using vim-plug, add the following to your vimrc or gvimrc:

call plug#begin()
" ...
Plug 'awvalenti/vim-simple-guifont'
" ...
call plug#end()

For other plugin managers, please check their documentation, or take a look at Vim 8's native plugin system.

Usage

Just call this function:

simple_guifont#Set(preferred_fonts, fallback_font, size)

Samples

• Typical usage, on vimrc

  " This check avoids loading plugin when Vim is running on terminal
  if has('gui_running')
    silent! call simple_guifont#Set(
      \['Cascadia Code PL', 'JetBrains Mono', 'Hack'], 'Consolas', 14)
  endif

• Typical usage, on gvimrc

  " No need to check, we're on GVim
  silent! call simple_guifont#Set(
    \['Cascadia Code PL', 'JetBrains Mono', 'Hack'], 'Consolas', 14)

• Debugging: silent! avoids throwing errors. It is useful when the plugin is not yet installed, avoiding prematurely ending your vimrc/gvimrc. If you ommit silent!, any errors will be explicit.

  call simple_guifont#Set(
    \['Cascadia Code PL', 'JetBrains Mono', 'Hack'], 'Consolas', 14)

• Single font

  silent! call simple_guifont#Set([], 'Fira Code Medium', 16)

• Try one; if not available, ask user to pick another one (by using '*')

  silent! call simple_guifont#Set(['Monospace'], '*', 12)

Appreciation

If you find this plugin useful, please leave me a star up there ⭐!

Internals

Operating system is detected and the appropriate measures are taken.

For Windows, it suffices to create a single string and set guifont.

Mac follows the same syntax, but it is uncertain whether it supports a list of fonts like Windows does.

For Linux with GTK, much more is done: shell programs are called to get a list of all installed fonts, then a search for the best match is done. If no match is found, fallback font is chosen, without searching for availability.

To learn more, just browse the source code.

TODO

Contributions are welcome! Main next steps are:

• Support for Mac (may or may not work, hasn't been tested yet)
• Support other platforms
• Support for Windows font options, like Andale_Mono:h7:cANSI:qANTIALIASED