Configure Hack as default font in .emacs.d/init.el

Question

I would like to configure the default Emacs font in my init.el (as opposed to using M-x customize that a lot of other questions here on Emacs Stack Exchange has already explained).

I have tried the following;

(when (eq system-type 'gnu/linux)
    (set-default-font "-unknown-Hack-normal-normal-normal-*-14-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1"))

This works, the result is what I want, the font size is correct. If I place point on a char and do C-u C-x = I get the following;

position: 171 of 841 (20%), column: 0
character: R (displayed as R) (codepoint 82, #o122, #x52)
preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
code point in charset: 0x52
script: latin
syntax: w   which means: word
category: .:Base, L:Left-to-right (strong), a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
to input: type "C-x 8 RET 52" or "C-x 8 RET LATIN CAPITAL LETTER R"
buffer code: #x52
file code: #x52 (encoded by coding system utf-8-unix)
display: by this font (glyph code)
xft:-unknown-Hack-normal-normal-normal-*-14-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 (#x4E)

But I have a feeling this is a somewhat temporary way of doing this.

Another way I tried was;

(when (eq system-type 'gnu/linux)
  (add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(font . "Hack-10")))

This works so far as to set the font but the font size is just a bit to small;

position: 15130 of 22797 (66%), column: 4
character: d (displayed as d) (codepoint 100, #o144, #x64)
preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
code point in charset: 0x64
script: latin
syntax: w   which means: word
category: .:Base, L:Left-to-right (strong), a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
to input: type "C-x 8 RET 64" or "C-x 8 RET LATIN SMALL LETTER D"
buffer code: #x64
file code: #x64 (encoded by coding system prefer-utf-8-unix)
display: by this font (glyph code)
xft:-unknown-Hack-normal-normal-normal-*-13-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 (#x87)

Now the font size is said to be 13 instead of 14 which is what I want. The numbers used when setting the default font using set-default-font and using default-frame-alist seems to have different meaning, that is the "14" and the "10".

Can I use default-frame-alist to set my default font to Hack with size 14 or is there a better way of doing this in the init file?

Answer 1

I have the following in my custom.el file:

(custom-set-faces
 ;; custom-set-faces was added by Custom.
 ;; If you edit it by hand, you could mess it up, so be careful.
 ;; Your init file should contain only one such instance.
 ;; If there is more than one, they won't work right.
 '(default ((t (:height 100 :family "Hack")))))

It sets up Hack font to be 10pt.

Upd:

This custom.el file is loaded from init.el:

;; Keep 'Customize' stuff separated
(setq custom-file (concat user-emacs-directory "custom.el"))
(load custom-file 'noerror)

Answer 2

Add this to your init.el file: (set-frame-font "Hack-14" nil t)

Answer 3

I doing

(add-to-list 'default-frame-alist '(font . "Hack"))
(set-face-attribute 'default nil
            :family "Hack")

Answer 4

This is what I used in the end, the result is exactly what I want:

(when (eq system-type 'gnu/linux)
  (set-face-attribute 'default nil
              :font "-unknown-Hack-normal-normal-normal-*-14-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1"))

With this I can set the font and font size in my init.el. The result of doing C-u C-x 0 is

position: 15347 of 23078 (66%), column: 30
character: u (displayed as u) (codepoint 117, #o165, #x75)    
preferred charset: ascii (ASCII (ISO646 IRV))
code point in charset: 0x75
           script: latin
           syntax: w    which means: word
         category: .:Base, L:Left-to-right (strong), a:ASCII, l:Latin, r:Roman
         to input: type "C-x 8 RET 75" or "C-x 8 RET LATIN SMALL LETTER U"
      buffer code: #x75
        file code: #x75 (encoded by coding system prefer-utf-8-unix)
          display: by this font (glyph code)
xft:-unknown-Hack-normal-normal-normal-*-14-*-*-*-m-0-iso10646-1 (#xD1)

The size is 14 which is what I want. I came to this conclusion using the answers above and the EmacsWiki.