The folks who make the "distraction-free" text editor iA Writer have added a second typeface to the options available for writing in iA Writer. It's a modified version of IBM Plex Mono called iA Writer Duospace. The blog post detailing the thought behind it is here:
I too have been on the search for the perfect writing font! But that's a broader topic.
iA Writer Duospace's raison d'être seems to be the innovation of introducing 150% widths for m's and w's to keep them from being too squashed. It's an interesting idea but I have to admit that it irritates me. I'm not 100% why.
Any thoughts about this? How does this change the readability? And what makes a face more writeable than readable?
I've long thought that there ought to be almost-monospaced faces with characters with 200% and 300% widths, but I've never gotten off my duff to do anything about it. Specifically I find ligatures and en/em dashes to be terrible in monospaced faces. But there's a big difference: a 200% or 300% width character keeps the letters lined up, and doesn't introduce ragged changes in alignment. 150% is an interesting compromise, but I can't help but feel that if you're compromising there, why not just go with a proportional face?
PS Is this actually the first time this has been done?