Ask HN: What's your current favorite programming font?
I recently discovered "FiraCode Nerd Font" and I've been using it everywhere as I setup a fresh new laptop.
Which programming font you currently swear to? I'm always interested in knowing cool fonts to use in my IDEs and terminals.
Comments
Started as a joke, ended as a preference: https://github.com/dtinth/comic-mono-font
Inconsolata is my programming font.
Also! This game was mentioned recently here to help the undecided or those looking for something new: https://www.codingfont.com/
That is a great resource! Thanks for sharing. I was looking for a website that helped me compare two different fonts but this works too.
I'm partial to bitmap (or bitmap-like) fonts, esp. those derived from computers I once had or aspired to have. Current favorites are the Tandy2K font from the Ultimate PC Font Pack, the Atari ST 8X16 font, and Amiga Topaz (all variants).
For graphical Emacs, Iosevka.
Seconding Iosevka! It's great font, and I've been meaning to check out the customization available online. (Though o do have a folder of my favorite PC Font Pack fonts, just not for everyday use :p)
Bitmap fonts also look great on low-quality, low resolution monitors (like my 82 DPI crap). Vector fonts give blurry text on medium to low sizes, and are simply unreadable with really small text.
That's the wonderful thing about bitmap fonts: they're designed to be readable even in less than ideal display conditions because they were made for old-school CRTs and some of them even for dot matrix LED signs and the like.
And I don't really mean in the "reading for pleasure" sense, you don't want to curl up with a New Yorker article rendered in Atari ST 8x16. But in the "all characters are visibly obviously distinct" sense, so when you are scrutinizing a piece of code, it's absolutely clear what character is what, so you can find and fix bugs and follow the flow.
In order of preference/reverse chronological order - all patched w/ NerdFont:
- Fira Code Mono
- Inconsolata (This is basically Consolas w/ a permissive license and slightly different spacing)
- Consolas (MS Font so not free per se but easy enough to find floating around)
After all these years, I still find myself preferring NF-patched Consolas to newer code fonts. It has a pleasantly "unoffensive" look that tends to not divert my attention to the font itself --- can't take this quality for granted when it comes to other fonts, IMHO.
Give Inconsolata a try, I moved on to that from Consolas after I got tired of hunting down a copy of the font and manually patching it each time I set up a new workstation.
Hack:
https://sourcefoundry.org/hack/
JetBrains Mono. Previously <=Fira Code <= Fantasque Sans Mono <= Source Code Pro
When I don't have access to these, Dejavu Sans Mono or Ubuntu Mono
Fantasque Sans Mono [0] for vector font, and Cozette [1] for bitmap font.
[0]: https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans [1]: https://github.com/slavfox/Cozette
It’s an oldie but goodie, and still my favorite after trying many different programming typefaces: Adobe Source Code Pro.
https://adobe-fonts.github.io/source-code-pro/
PragmataPro it is paid but it has been great.
https://fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/
I second this, love its narrow width and compact line height, fits quite a bit more info on the terminal and editor than other fonts.
Always, always, always link to things.
https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
SF Mono (https://developer.apple.com/fonts/)
Try Isoveka: https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka It allows you to see more. Everything suddenly starts making sense and every other fonts will feel ..... different .....
Iosevka is my go-to font. I also really like its quasi-proportional style for regular text editing.
https://be5invis.github.io/Iosevka
The Go Programming Language's monospaced TrueType font:
https://go.dev/blog/go-fonts
Best font I've ever used, by a mile.
Recursive Sans Mono, casual or semicasual: https://github.com/arrowtype/recursive
JetBrains Mono
100%. I love this font, I've switched my terminal emulator and GEdit to use it too.
It's available under the SIL Open Font License as well, which is pretty neat — not that I have any use for a monospaced font outside of personal use
Same. It requires least amount of energy to read.
Input - https://input.djr.com/ I use the narrow proportional variant, except when code in Go.
Dank Mono: https://philpl.gumroad.com/l/dank-mono
Totally worth the $40.
Fira Code iScript
https://github.com/kencrocken/FiraCodeiScript
Consolas
I don't know why Microsoft doesn't ship it with Visual Studio Code on all platforms, but on macOS I get it by installing an Office product.
If you use a language that has a bunch of unicode (especially Julia), JuliaMono is really good. It does a lot of very nice symbol alignment.
I also use Julia Mono. Used monospaced san-serif fonts for so long, but just recently found that serifs is just a little bit quicker to read.
I've used Code New Roman for a while now, though I'm unironically looking at that Comic Mono now...
SF Mono even on non Apple machines. I use the Powerline versions do I can use fancy terminals.
Fira Code with ligatures enabled. Mostly because I still like ligatures?
I switch between Fira Code, mononoki and Cascadia Code
It's non-free, but I really love Operator Mono.
SourceCodePro FiraCode Inconsolata, in that order
Monaco, Visual Studio Code's default font.
Source Code Pro
SCP is basically just Consolas with one scan line in the middle dropped.
IBM Plex Mono
Absolutely in love with Iosevka!
Old Topaz as used on the Amiga
Operator Mono SSm
Yes the pirated version lol
Monaco
The one font I keep coming back to. Forever.
Inconsolata, all the way.
Courier.
Before that, VT52/100.
fixed, aka 6x13.
Office Code Pro
Ubuntu Mono
Pica 10.
3270.
Monaco