3 ms·

Ask HN: What programming font do you use and why?

8 points by j_baker 17y ago

Title says it all. I'm just curious as to what fonts other hackers like to use.

j_baker 17y ago
I use anonymous pro: http://www.ms-studio.com/FontSales/anonymouspro.html http://www.ms-studio.com/FontSales/anonymouspro.html Admittedly, I use it because it's pretty. Hence why I started a question to find out more about what makes a good programming font.
sidmitra 17y ago
Consolas at 10pt.
nailer 17y ago
Any sans-serif monospaced font with good 'eye' and 'el' / 'zero' and 'oh' distinction. - Microsoft's Consolas is generally quite good on Windows - Bitstream Vera Sans Mono on Linux - Whatever OS X comes with by default (yaay, no need to change anything) are all good.
seegate 17y ago
I just read this article: http://nickgravgaard.com/cgi-bin/elastictabstopsnews/blosxom.cgi/2009/12/22#programming-fonts http://nickgravgaard.com/cgi-bin/elastictabstopsnews/blosxom... He compares proportional fonts with monospaced fonts for programming, and after looking at his screenshots I think I'm going to have to try it for myself.
dthakur 17y ago
I love CodingFontTobi (http://www.proggyfonts.com/ http://www.proggyfonts.com/). It's all over my system (Visual Studio, vim, cmd/cygwin etc).
grayrest 17y ago
Monaco at 11pt on windows Droid Sans Mono at 11pt with a dotted 0: http://www.cosmix.org/software/ http://www.cosmix.org/software/
nek4life 17y ago
Here's a pretty nice list of programming fonts. http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts/ http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts/ I like DejaVu sans and Monaco
andrewcooke 17y ago
schumacher clean. fixed width. easy to read. and the "a" looks like an "a" should.
keefe 17y ago
eclipse default because I don't particularly care
adamzochowski 17y ago
For code and console I love pixel fonts, so: Terminal 6px (included with all Windows) Envy Code A 7px http://damieng.com/creative/typography/envy-code-a http://damieng.com/creative/typography/envy-code-a I can't stand blurry fonts for code (especially since, at small sizes, text looks a blotch of blur). So, if I want small fonts (such as 6pixels by 8pixels) it better be pixel crystal clear hand tweaked. A font can do anti-aliasing or LCD based sub-pixeling, but that is more towards book reading / open office, than coding.
c_allison 17y ago
I use Proggy Clean (Slashed Zero) 12pt from: http://www.proggyfonts.com/ http://www.proggyfonts.com/
- tom_b 17y ago
  second proggy fonts here
artagnon0 17y ago
Emacs23 XFT default. They're very pretty as it is imho.
geeksam 17y ago
TextMate is currently set to Inconsolata at 15pt. Comparing screenshots of that vs. Monaco 13, it looks like the anti-aliasing adds a lot of bulk to the characters in Monaco -- Inconsolata's characters seem a little clearer to me. But thanks for the link, seegate -- maybe I'll try a proportional font for a few days and see what I think. (=
- geeksam 17y ago
  ...except that TextMate seems not to support proportionally-spaced fonts. Never mind...
parbo 17y ago
DejaVu Sans Mono for me. It looks great and it's freely available for all platforms I use.
r11t 17y ago
I recently started using Inconsolata which looks fantastic at both large and small sizes http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html and also made the "Top 10 Programming Fonts" list here : http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts
hga 17y ago
Since 1993 it's been Lucida Sans Typewriter or Lucida Console; I've not found anything better to my eyes, although I'll check out this discussion. The only issues I've found with this font family are that the differences between l and 1 and . and , can be subtle.

8 points by j_baker 17y ago

Title says it all. I'm just curious as to what fonts other hackers like to use.

I use anonymous pro: http://www.ms-studio.com/FontSales/anonymouspro.html http://www.ms-studio.com/FontSales/anonymouspro.html Admittedly, I use it because it's pretty. Hence why I started a question to find out more about what makes a good programming font.

sidmitra 17y ago

Consolas at 10pt.

nailer 17y ago

Any sans-serif monospaced font with good 'eye' and 'el' / 'zero' and 'oh' distinction. - Microsoft's Consolas is generally quite good on Windows - Bitstream Vera Sans Mono on Linux - Whatever OS X comes with by default (yaay, no need to change anything) are all good.

seegate 17y ago

I just read this article: http://nickgravgaard.com/cgi-bin/elastictabstopsnews/blosxom.cgi/2009/12/22#programming-fonts http://nickgravgaard.com/cgi-bin/elastictabstopsnews/blosxom... He compares proportional fonts with monospaced fonts for programming, and after looking at his screenshots I think I'm going to have to try it for myself.

dthakur 17y ago

I love CodingFontTobi (http://www.proggyfonts.com/ http://www.proggyfonts.com/). It's all over my system (Visual Studio, vim, cmd/cygwin etc).

grayrest 17y ago

Monaco at 11pt on windows Droid Sans Mono at 11pt with a dotted 0: http://www.cosmix.org/software/ http://www.cosmix.org/software/

nek4life 17y ago

Here's a pretty nice list of programming fonts. http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts/ http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts/ I like DejaVu sans and Monaco

andrewcooke 17y ago

schumacher clean. fixed width. easy to read. and the "a" looks like an "a" should.

keefe 17y ago

eclipse default because I don't particularly care

adamzochowski 17y ago

For code and console I love pixel fonts, so: Terminal 6px (included with all Windows) Envy Code A 7px http://damieng.com/creative/typography/envy-code-a http://damieng.com/creative/typography/envy-code-a I can't stand blurry fonts for code (especially since, at small sizes, text looks a blotch of blur). So, if I want small fonts (such as 6pixels by 8pixels) it better be pixel crystal clear hand tweaked. A font can do anti-aliasing or LCD based sub-pixeling, but that is more towards book reading / open office, than coding.

c_allison 17y ago

I use Proggy Clean (Slashed Zero) 12pt from: http://www.proggyfonts.com/ http://www.proggyfonts.com/

tom_b 17y ago
second proggy fonts here

artagnon0 17y ago

Emacs23 XFT default. They're very pretty as it is imho.

geeksam 17y ago

TextMate is currently set to Inconsolata at 15pt. Comparing screenshots of that vs. Monaco 13, it looks like the anti-aliasing adds a lot of bulk to the characters in Monaco -- Inconsolata's characters seem a little clearer to me. But thanks for the link, seegate -- maybe I'll try a proportional font for a few days and see what I think. (=

geeksam 17y ago
...except that TextMate seems not to support proportionally-spaced fonts. Never mind...

parbo 17y ago

DejaVu Sans Mono for me. It looks great and it's freely available for all platforms I use.

r11t 17y ago

I recently started using Inconsolata which looks fantastic at both large and small sizes http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html and also made the "Top 10 Programming Fonts" list here : http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts

hga 17y ago

Since 1993 it's been Lucida Sans Typewriter or Lucida Console; I've not found anything better to my eyes, although I'll check out this discussion. The only issues I've found with this font family are that the differences between l and 1 and . and , can be subtle.