Poll: What is your favorite programming font?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5988477

by gnosis • 13 years ago

41 68 13 years ago

news.ycombinator.com

anigbrowl• 13 years ago

Lucida Console, but I secretly long to use Ransom Note.

yan• 13 years ago

Pragmata Pro

sjm2• 13 years ago

I used this for a while, but found it packed a little too tight horizontally. With widescreen monitors and languages where keeping to 80 columns is still standard, I found it was wasting too much space. There's only so much code I want on my screen at any one time before it's more overwhelming than actually useful.

mistercow2• 13 years ago

I use it and typically have my font size set fairly large. One advantage of this is that it encourages short code blocks.

Then, if I'm dealing with code that is massively indented, like HTML, or JS with deeply nested callbacks, I can shrink down to a normal font size and still be able to read while also being able to see everything.

joaoyc• 13 years ago

Definitely Envy Code R.

awnird• 13 years ago

Source Code Pro

mundizzle• 13 years ago

most definitely Source Code Pro

paul_f• 13 years ago

yes, most definitely Source Code Pro.

The fact this wasn't even an option makes this poll ridiculous.

sjm2• 13 years ago

Also my current favourite — the light version specifically, with semibold as the bold variation.

jamesrom• 13 years ago

Lack of italics is a deal breaker for me.

arh68• 13 years ago

Courier Prime [1] is a comparable font and features bold+/italic. Serifs vs sans-serif they differ, but I find their quality to both be top notch.

1 http://www.quoteunquoteapps.com/courierprime/

dccoolgai• 13 years ago

glaring omission

wusher• 13 years ago

Ubuntu Mono http://font.ubuntu.com/#charset-mono-regular

rbanffy2• 13 years ago

IBM 3278 terminal font. Found no scalable version, so I had to make my own: https://github.com/rbanffy/3270font

homosaur2• 13 years ago

that's a great job reproducing the font, although I'm having too much trouble with the l1I on that to use it regularly

rbanffy2• 13 years ago

Thanks. You can always play with FontForge and make your own version. Just fork it.

elektronaut• 13 years ago

TheSansMono Condensed at 13pt, with slightly increased line spacing.

You'll probably balk at the price (as did I), but you can buy single weights.

isaacb• 13 years ago

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono is the only smooth font I've been able to find that still looks good at smaller sizes, which means more lines of code on the screen. Combined with Solarized (usually light), my eyes have been really really spoiled.

st3fan• 13 years ago

I prefer Adobe's Source Code Pro Light on a Retina screen. The Retina part is important, I don't think this is a nice font on a low-dpi screen :-)

presty• 13 years ago

I don't know AKA the default on sublime/eclipse/etc in the OS that I'm using

icodestuff• 13 years ago

Kinda odd to not include Menlo, the default font in Xcode.

Not sure that's my favorite (and I've gotten a lot less picky about programming fonts over the years) but it seems an odd omission.

msbarnett• 13 years ago

Menlo is definitely my favorite.

mproud• 13 years ago

I like Menlo too.

ek• 13 years ago

Monaco actually ships as the default in iTerm (although Terminal.app has been Menlo for a while), and I always switch it to Menlo.

bradleyland• 13 years ago

I use a variant called Meslo, which gives you better control over the line spacing:

https://github.com/andreberg/Meslo-Font

zachlatta• 13 years ago

Yup. Menlo is awesome.

intrazoo2• 13 years ago

I like my deja vu sans but I wish it had a slashed zero.

jjs• 13 years ago

Try the Droid Sans Mono variant with slashed zero.

http://blog.cosmix.org/2009/10/27/a-slashed-zero-droid-sans-...

gnosis• 13 years ago

Thank you for this. I think this variant might tear me away from my long-time favorite, Inconsolata. It seems very close, yet even more readable. I love it.

intrazoo2• 13 years ago

I have (and I just did again). Maybe I should give it more time to warm up to it? If I can't get a slashed zero deja vu sans mono, I will just have to buy a hi-res screen so the zero dot is less ugly (should do anyway).

So, before submitting, I found a slashed version (saved) and I am now happy! I forget source, but can email to people who want.

dgesang• 13 years ago

Ah, it's "What's your favorite X?" time again! +1 for Source Code Pro.

mmphosis• 13 years ago

Font: Print Char 21

Size: 8

spaznode• 13 years ago

Who cares? The best font is consolas. No debate, just is.

mistercow2• 13 years ago

I find the 1 and l in Consolas to be far too similar.

_xhok• 13 years ago

Consolas has too much of a Microsoft flavor for my tastes. That, and I find its less angular competitor Inconsolata to be much cleaner and more elegant.

sliverstorm• 13 years ago

I used Consolas a lot, but eventually switched to fixed. Fixed just lets me pack a lot more text on my screen, which is very important for my functions.

homosaur2• 13 years ago

If you want a more educational overview than this list which is kind of poor for discoverability (not to mention some egregious oversights), Slant has an awesome topic and there are lots of type samples. http://www.slant.co/topics/67/~what-are-the-best-programming...

I'd vote Source Code Pro and Inconsolata-g

xn• 13 years ago

6x13

to3m• 13 years ago

I do agree. The aspect ratio is perfect, and it's very readable for its size.

I've used the same version of 6x13 on Windows (http://www.hassings.dk/lars/fonts.html) since forever, pretty much, and before that I used some other version of 6x13. Today, 15 years since I first set eyes on it, it's still my console font and my emacs font.

Unfortunately, modern versions of Visual Studio don't support bitmap fonts, so for that I've had to change to 9 point MS Gothic. This has one unusual feature ('\' appears as a yen symbol, since it's a Japanese font), and the descenders are rather short (presumably Japanese readers are differently sensitive to this stuff), but it's tall like 6x13, pixel-perfect at 9 point size, and perfectly serviceable for programming work.

(There's also a serif equivalent, MS Mincho, which is usable but a bit fussy for my taste. 8 point Gungsuh Che and Gulim Che are also workable, but I found them a bit fussy too. I think they are Korean or Chinese.)

thought_alarm• 13 years ago

I've been using Latin Modern Mono (http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Latin-Modern-Mono) in Xcode for nearly five years, and I'm fairly certain I'm the only one who does that.

ppereira• 13 years ago

I use Latin Modern Mono Light from my TeX installation.

Watabou• 13 years ago

I've loved a variant of Inconsolata called "Inconsolata-dz".

It's a fantastic font.

a0• 13 years ago

Completely in love with "M+ 1mn Light", here's my current Sublime Text setup: http://www.odis.io/rizo/st-1.png.

kephra• 13 years ago

I wonder how many of who voted "None of the above" standard X11 fonts like misc-fixed-medium-r-normal-* ?

At least its good that "None of the above", and it reminds me on an old Yellow Biafra claim:

Every election should offer a "None of them", and the election must be repeated with new canidates, if "None of them" wins.

camus2• 13 years ago

Voting is about choosing the "least worse" candidate, not the best one for the job. Choosing nothing is not a choice. But choosing between 2 parties is not a choice either.

ddoolin• 13 years ago

Ubuntu Mono, usually.

camus2• 13 years ago

Ubuntu Mono / Lucida Console

Adrock• 13 years ago

I generated one programmatic comparisons of a bunch if fixed width fonts a couple years ago:

http://1overn.com/2011/01/31/iterating-on-font-pair-comparis...

I should update it with this list...

pranavrc• 13 years ago

Histogram so far:

http://quickhist.onloop.net/Andale%20Mono=2,Anonymous=6,Aria...

deepakkapoor• 13 years ago

Ubuntu mono

slowernet• 13 years ago

Pragmata non-Pro.

SeanDav• 13 years ago

The only difference I can spot between Bitstream Vera Sans Mono and Deja Vu Sans Mono is the underscore character "_"

Either is my favourite

UIZealot• 13 years ago

I loved the xterm "huge" font, simple and clear, great for high DPI displays. Windows Fixedsys is a passable replacement for low DPI displays.

magnifico_geo• 13 years ago

Wingdings

Apreche• 13 years ago

Used to be Proggy, but now it is Source Code Pro

http://blogs.adobe.com/typblography/2012/09/source-code-pro....

IbJacked• 13 years ago

None of the above - Ubuntu Mono

twiceaday• 13 years ago

I love Panic Sans that comes with Coda. I ripped it out of the package of the trial version and installed it on my system.

halish• 13 years ago

Source Code Pro

schwa• 13 years ago

There are some ugly ass fonts listed in this post.

char101• 13 years ago

M+mn

Sample: http://i.imgur.com/cJaXfe5.png

http://mplus-fonts.sourceforge.jp/

thiagoc• 13 years ago

Nice one. I'm using it right now. You use the regular or light version?

kirang1989• 13 years ago

Ubuntu Mono, Consolas and Inconsolata are some of my favourites for Python Programming

Droid Sans Mono, Consolas for Java programming.

isarat• 13 years ago

Recently I am in to SourceCode Pro. Nothing great but just for a change.

BitSansVera, Inconsolata and Consolas are my other favorites.

dserban• 13 years ago

A font called "Source Code Pro", available here:

https://github.com/adobe/source-code-pro

greyfade• 13 years ago

I really can't stand any of the fonts I've found and tried. Every single one of them has an offensive appearance.

The only font I can find that is both consistently readable at small sizes and doesn't drive me stark raving mad with Lovecraftian shapes is Inconsolata-g. And I hate Inconsolata-g.

Consolas is simply offensive, and Proggy has got to be the ugliest thing I have seen in my life.

Clean is moderately tolerable (and marginally better than Inconsolata-g on most entities) despite being Lovecraftian, but it has so many broken characters and interferes so badly with my graphics driver (terminals on Linux under some versions of the `nvidia` driver behave very badly when using a bitmap font), that I can't use it.

I'm still looking for a font that doesn't make me want to raze several small towns.

malk_zameth• 13 years ago

Dina, by far the best programming font ever, highly lisible even at 8pt, ever char is different, vertical alignement is taken using prog languages into mind, it has it all

chrisdl• 13 years ago

Source Code Pro

Vitaly• 13 years ago

Source Code Pro from Adobe: https://github.com/adobe/source-code-pro

Poll: What is your favorite programming font?

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