Question about use_hinted for NerdFont (during custom build)

[matthew-e-brown]

The main readme has a note about the differences between hinted/unhinted fonts. It looks like, for most modern, mid- to high-end displays, unhinted is the way to go.

Now, when doing a custom build locally, there is a use_hinted option at the top of config.json: I'm unsure about if I should enable this setting or not. The reason I'm unsure is because the "default" choice appears to be different in different places:

• The default Download link in the Releases tab for both "NF" and "TTF" are the unhinted files, suggesting this is the "recommended" way to use the font.
• However, the default value for use_hinted in config.json is true: this suggests to me that, even though the non-hinted TTF is the "recommended default," there might be a reason to prefer using the hinted font when used with NerdFonts.
• Finally, there is a second use_hinted setting in config.json, under the cn options, and its default value is false! I don't personally need to use the CN font, but this difference again makes me a bit confused on what the "recommended" option is.

I realize that the choice to use the hinted/unhinted font can be subjective: which version I use depends on the displays that I have¹. But, essentially, what I was wondering is: Are there any reasons to prefer using the hinted font as the base for the NF font, even if my monitor is high-DPI enough to use the unhinted version? Perhaps, does it interact strangely with the icons from NerdFonts? Or maybe that's just the historical default in the file...? The fact that the default in config.json (and in build.py!) uses the hinted version, but the defaults for the standard TTF files were unhinted, got me thinking that there might be a reason... so I thought, "I'll just ask!" 😁

I hope it makes sense what I'm asking. Thank you in advance. 🙂

Footnotes

1. That said, I wouldn't mind a bit of advice on this topic... 😅. I have a laptop with a 13.5-inch 2880x1440 display (the Framework 13), but I frequently use an external 27-inch 2560x1440 monitor in my office. I also use those same monitors on my desktop at home. The unhinted font seems to be the clear choice for my laptop display, but what about for my 1440p monitors? 27 inches is quite large; 1440p certainly isn't enough to count as "retina," but is it high-DPI enough where I can get away with the unhinted font? 🤔. This is not paricularly urgent... but I thought maybe someone with more expertise could weigh-in here. 😁 ↩

[subframe7536]

Note

I feel sorry that most content of this reply is generated by grok, but it really shocked me that it indicate almost all of my thoughts in one shot !

Hi! Thanks for the detailed question and for being interested in building a custom version of Maple Mono 😊

You're right that the defaults can look a bit confusing at first glance — that's mostly historical reasons + the gradual shift toward modern high-DPI displays.

Quick recommendation (as of v7.9 / early 2026)

For your setup (Framework 13 @ ~254 PPI + 27" 1440p @ ~109 PPI), set use_hinted: false when building your custom Nerd Fonts variant.
This matches what most users on similar or better hardware are doing today, and it's what I personally recommend as the default experience in 2026.

The "If you don't want to choose" download link in every recent release points straight to MapleMono-NF-unhinted.zip — that's the clearest signal that unhinted NF is now the go-to choice for the majority of people.

Why the config default is still true (hinted)

It's basically legacy inertia:

• Early versions of the project (and when many users were still on 1080p or lower displays) defaulted to hinted because it helped a lot with alignment, stroke consistency, and clarity on low/mid-DPI screens (especially Windows without great ClearType tuning).
• Over time, as high-DPI laptops, 2K/4K monitors, and better font rendering became the norm, unhinted started looking cleaner and more natural on the vast majority of modern setups → no artificial thickening, no occasional blurriness from over-hinting.
• I haven't changed the use_hinted default in config.json to false yet mostly to avoid breaking existing custom build scripts/workflows for people who do still need hinted (e.g. older office monitors, specific Linux distros with suboptimal fontconfig, etc.). The CLI flag --no-hinted makes it very easy to override anyway.
• JetBrains Mono is released with hinted font.

The separate false default under the cn section is intentional — Chinese users tend to run higher-resolution displays more often, and the wider CN glyphs + unhinted combo just renders more predictably there.

Does hinted interact better with Nerd Font icons?

No, not really — the Nerd Font patching process (glyph mapping, width adjustments, etc.) works identically on both hinted and unhinted bases.
The only difference is how the outlines get rasterized at small sizes:

• On low-DPI → hinted usually wins (sharper, more even)
• On high-DPI → unhinted usually wins (crisper, no weird hinting artifacts)

Some complex ligatures (like the infinite arrows ====>) actually had alignment issues specifically when hinted, which is why they're disabled by default in hinted builds since v7.4 (you can re-enable with --keep-infinite-arrow if you really want them).

Your specific displays

• 13.5" 2880×1440 laptop → definitely unhinted (high PPI, hinted would likely look slightly soft/blurry)
• 27" 2560×1440 → gray area, but unhinted should still be fine for most people.
  At ~109 PPI it's not "Retina", but it's well above the point where unhinted starts looking great in good renderers (macOS, modern Windows, tuned Linux fontconfig).
  Many users happily use the unhinted NF variant on exactly this size/resolution without complaints.
  → Try unhinted first across both screens. If the external monitor ever feels too fuzzy/uneven at small sizes (10–12pt), just rebuild with true and compare — it's a 30-second change.

So in short: start with use_hinted: false for your custom NF build — it aligns with the current release philosophy and what I see most people using successfully on similar hardware.

If you run into any rendering quirks after testing, feel free to open an issue with screenshots (OS + scaling + size + weight), happy to take a look!

Thanks again for the question and support ❤️ Let me know how it looks once you build it! 😄

[matthew-e-brown]

Perfect, thank you! I'll continue using the unhinted version of the font, and I'll open an issue if I see any quirks.

Thanks again for your hard work! I work at a university and so I have other students and professors looking at my screen a lot, and have received several questions about which font I'm using over the last few years I've been using Maple. I always enjoy showing it to people! 😁🍁