6 ms·

Programming Fonts

61 points by mjswensen 11y ago

forrestthewoods 11y ago
Consolas; forever and always. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolas
- Raphmedia 11y ago
  I find CamingoCode pretty good: https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/jan-fromm/camingo-code/ https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/jan-fromm/camingo-code/
twblalock 11y ago
The layout and operation of this page are very frustrating.
- xikrib 11y ago
  Seriously. At least try!
  - kevinwang 11y ago
    It's a tumblr page and I think that's just the way it is
mayoff 11y ago
Curious as to why this site shows a “Registered domain / Geregistreerd domein” page and no content when cookies are disabled. What is it about this page that cries out for persistent client-side storage?
hmottestad 11y ago
I switched to verdana a couple of years ago and am very happy with that. Mono space fonts are hard to read, especially when skimming. So verdana just makes the whole experience of looking at my code more enjoyable and natural.
- aquilaFiera 11y ago
  My first reaction to this was to balk and dismiss it, but nonetheless I went to Sublime and tried it. I have to say, certain aspects of it were fairly nice; it was very readable. That said, I could never switch. Some of my team's code conventions depend on monospaced fonts, for good or for worse.
- Stratoscope 11y ago
  Yeah, I closed the tab as soon as I saw this: Programming Fonts The most complete resource for monospace fonts on the web. (Ironically, that title and sentence are in a proportional font on the page!) I'm sad that so many developers think it's not code if it's not monospaced. Of course, everyone has their own taste in fonts, and I have no beef with anyone who prefers some monospaced font or another. Fonts are a very personal choice. On the flip side, though, there are too many coding standards that essentially prohibit developers from using proportional fonts. The biggest problems are two-space indents and column alignment (that is, alignment to specific columns after the initial indent, to match up text on previous lines). In a proportional font, a two-space indent is like nothing. And column alignment doesn't work when you don't have columns! I love the beauty and readability of proportional fonts, and I won't be going back to monospaced fonts. But I don't try to tell anyone else what to do: I write code in a way that makes it equally readable in monospaced or proportional fonts. That way everyone can view the code in the font they like. I've written at some length about the problems with column alignment, so rather than repeat it, here are a couple of previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10206860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10206860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9469713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9469713 My current favorite programming font is Trebuchet MS. Yes, really. It looks great on high-DPI displays on both Mac and Windows (in the somewhat large font sizes I prefer), and it makes all the confusing groups like O0 and 1l| easily distinguishable. About the only thing I don't like is that it has a really bad ~ glyph. Someday I must patch that.
JoshTriplett 11y ago
I used to use Neep Alt, back when bitmap fonts made sense and screens had relatively low resolution. I found it incredibly readable. These days, I just use the standard DejaVu Sans Mono for everything.
noja 11y ago
I'd like to see all font previews in the same format with mouseover for comparison.
superfunc 11y ago
I've come to really like terminus
CGamesPlay 11y ago
You should definitely add Anonymous Pro to the list! http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro
- twblalock 11y ago
  It's there, near the bottom. You have to keep clicking the down arrow at the bottom of the page to load more posts.
- malkia 11y ago
  That's a beautiful font! Thanks for sharing!
hjek 11y ago
This free clone of the fixedsys is just pixelisiuosly crisp and DOS'y: http://www.fixedsysexcelsior.com/ http://www.fixedsysexcelsior.com/
Watabou 11y ago
I used to use Inconsolata-g pretty much all the time, even had that in my css for the browser so it would always use Inconsolata-g for github/bitbucket code blocks. I've switched to Fira Mono since then and couldn't be happier. It feels like my type of font, very well designed, every letter is distinguishable and very readable. Plus, who doesn't love the "@" and "&" in Fira Mono?! :)
harlanji 11y ago
I've been using "Hack" for monospace across my system since I found it on HN a few months ago. It claims to be "A typeface designed for source code". I use it for terminal with iTerm2+zsh and editing with MacVim and IntelliJ. I'm not particularly sensitive about fonts, but since the moment I dropped it in I've not been annoyed by anything, and it seems to look pretty nice. http://sourcefoundry.org/hack/ http://sourcefoundry.org/hack/
mrcactu5 11y ago
do they show a way to install them on your computer?
- khedoros 11y ago
  In Windows, you right-click on the font and choose "Install". In KDE, you right-click on the font, go into the "Actions" sub-menu and choose "Install...". Gnome may be similar, but I'm not sure. In most Linuxes, you can copy the fonts to "/usr/share/fonts/truetype" (as a GUI-independent install mechanism). I don't have a Mac available to test, but I'd bet that there's a font-installation capability either by right-clicking on the font, or in whichever viewer opens when you double-click on it.
  - kennydude 11y ago
    On Mac just open the file and there's an Install button
timbit42 11y ago
Why are there no proportional typefaces?
cogburnd02 11y ago
There's also this Slant article: http://www.slant.co/topics/67/~programming-fonts http://www.slant.co/topics/67/~programming-fonts

Programming Fonts

61 points by mjswensen 11y ago

forrestthewoods 11y ago

Consolas; forever and always. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolas https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolas

Raphmedia 11y ago
I find CamingoCode pretty good: https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/jan-fromm/camingo-code/ https://www.myfonts.com/fonts/jan-fromm/camingo-code/

twblalock 11y ago

The layout and operation of this page are very frustrating.

xikrib 11y ago
Seriously. At least try!
- kevinwang 11y ago
  It's a tumblr page and I think that's just the way it is

mayoff 11y ago

Curious as to why this site shows a “Registered domain / Geregistreerd domein” page and no content when cookies are disabled. What is it about this page that cries out for persistent client-side storage?

hmottestad 11y ago

I switched to verdana a couple of years ago and am very happy with that. Mono space fonts are hard to read, especially when skimming. So verdana just makes the whole experience of looking at my code more enjoyable and natural.

aquilaFiera 11y ago
My first reaction to this was to balk and dismiss it, but nonetheless I went to Sublime and tried it. I have to say, certain aspects of it were fairly nice; it was very readable. That said, I could never switch. Some of my team's code conventions depend on monospaced fonts, for good or for worse.
Stratoscope 11y ago
Yeah, I closed the tab as soon as I saw this: Programming Fonts The most complete resource for monospace fonts on the web. (Ironically, that title and sentence are in a proportional font on the page!) I'm sad that so many developers think it's not code if it's not monospaced. Of course, everyone has their own taste in fonts, and I have no beef with anyone who prefers some monospaced font or another. Fonts are a very personal choice. On the flip side, though, there are too many coding standards that essentially prohibit developers from using proportional fonts. The biggest problems are two-space indents and column alignment (that is, alignment to specific columns after the initial indent, to match up text on previous lines). In a proportional font, a two-space indent is like nothing. And column alignment doesn't work when you don't have columns! I love the beauty and readability of proportional fonts, and I won't be going back to monospaced fonts. But I don't try to tell anyone else what to do: I write code in a way that makes it equally readable in monospaced or proportional fonts. That way everyone can view the code in the font they like. I've written at some length about the problems with column alignment, so rather than repeat it, here are a couple of previous discussions: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10206860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10206860 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9469713 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9469713 My current favorite programming font is Trebuchet MS. Yes, really. It looks great on high-DPI displays on both Mac and Windows (in the somewhat large font sizes I prefer), and it makes all the confusing groups like O0 and 1l| easily distinguishable. About the only thing I don't like is that it has a really bad ~ glyph. Someday I must patch that.

JoshTriplett 11y ago

I used to use Neep Alt, back when bitmap fonts made sense and screens had relatively low resolution. I found it incredibly readable. These days, I just use the standard DejaVu Sans Mono for everything.

noja 11y ago

I'd like to see all font previews in the same format with mouseover for comparison.

superfunc 11y ago

I've come to really like terminus

CGamesPlay 11y ago

You should definitely add Anonymous Pro to the list! http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro

twblalock 11y ago
It's there, near the bottom. You have to keep clicking the down arrow at the bottom of the page to load more posts.
malkia 11y ago
That's a beautiful font! Thanks for sharing!

hjek 11y ago

This free clone of the fixedsys is just pixelisiuosly crisp and DOS'y: http://www.fixedsysexcelsior.com/ http://www.fixedsysexcelsior.com/

Watabou 11y ago

I used to use Inconsolata-g pretty much all the time, even had that in my css for the browser so it would always use Inconsolata-g for github/bitbucket code blocks. I've switched to Fira Mono since then and couldn't be happier. It feels like my type of font, very well designed, every letter is distinguishable and very readable. Plus, who doesn't love the "@" and "&" in Fira Mono?! :)

harlanji 11y ago

I've been using "Hack" for monospace across my system since I found it on HN a few months ago. It claims to be "A typeface designed for source code". I use it for terminal with iTerm2+zsh and editing with MacVim and IntelliJ. I'm not particularly sensitive about fonts, but since the moment I dropped it in I've not been annoyed by anything, and it seems to look pretty nice. http://sourcefoundry.org/hack/ http://sourcefoundry.org/hack/

mrcactu5 11y ago

do they show a way to install them on your computer?

khedoros 11y ago
In Windows, you right-click on the font and choose "Install". In KDE, you right-click on the font, go into the "Actions" sub-menu and choose "Install...". Gnome may be similar, but I'm not sure. In most Linuxes, you can copy the fonts to "/usr/share/fonts/truetype" (as a GUI-independent install mechanism). I don't have a Mac available to test, but I'd bet that there's a font-installation capability either by right-clicking on the font, or in whichever viewer opens when you double-click on it.
- kennydude 11y ago
  On Mac just open the file and there's an Install button

timbit42 11y ago

Why are there no proportional typefaces?

cogburnd02 11y ago

There's also this Slant article: http://www.slant.co/topics/67/~programming-fonts http://www.slant.co/topics/67/~programming-fonts