6 ms·

Alternative monospace fonts for programmers

28 points by impomatic 16y ago

morbidkk 16y ago
this has been already discussed in detail on SO. link : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4689/recommended-fonts-for-programming http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4689/recommended-fonts-fo...
jarin 16y ago
Fonts like Consolas or Inconsolata are designed to be used with subpixel rendering, that's why they look all jacked up without it. If subpixel rendering hurts your eyes, you probably need to tune it to your monitor.
- frou_dh 16y ago
  Years ago, I remember doing a terrific amount of whining about how sub-pixel font rendering was blurry and pointless. But really it's simply a matter of adjusting to the benefits. Anyway, I'm using 'Consolas' on Windows and 'Menlo' on Mac and am happy with both.
  - psranga 16y ago
    I second the recommendation to tune the subpixel rendering using your OS's wizard. Both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 make this very easy. The difference is very apparent and worth it.
  - impomatic 16y ago
    They look much better with sub-pixel rendering but thanks to different sub-pixel geometries taking a screenshot doesn't really work.
jlangenauer 16y ago
It's kinda hard to evaluate the fonts when only fully capitalised samples are used. COBOL went out with Clement Atlee - we kinder, gentler Rubyist types like our lower case code.
- CaptainMorgan 16y ago
  I second the lower case, being a Linux user type. I was also expecting more analysis in this post than just whether the zeros were slashed or not. adg below posted a link to a former and similar article that I think has that analysis I was looking for.
anatoly 16y ago
I recommend Terminus (it's not in the list).
- thmz 16y ago
  ProFontWindows is also not in the list. But it's great for a small font-size but keeping the code readable.
  - jasonlotito 16y ago
    Ooo.... thanks for the ProFontWindows recommendation.
    - thmz 16y ago
      Just curious: Are you being cynical?
      - jasonlotito 16y ago
        Not at all. I switched, and love it. Console windows love the suggestion, and Eclipse is running with it. I'm still debating on the size, but it was a great suggestion. I'm glad you replied, as I can now give you another upvote. =)
adg 16y ago
This is basically of a rip-off of this post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=615088 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=615088.
- impomatic 16y ago
  Why is it a rip off? Just because half of the fonts are listed in both articles?
dogas 16y ago
Since I stare at Terminal.app for 10+ hours a day, I'm nearly obsessive-compulsive about my font setup. Inconsolata is my font of choice on the list. It looks beautiful, black background, 15pt, antialiased.
drivebyacct 16y ago
If you're going to do a comparison of programming fonts at small sizes, at least bother to get optimal font rendering for small fonts. Your worst looking fonts are the nicest with proper rendering. Also "alternative"? Every programmer I know has heard of these...
- ivenkys 16y ago
  "Every programmer I know has heard of these..." - Absolutely. The frequency of these "lightweight" articles has increased of late (e.g. Linode,Slicehost gets newest release of Ubuntu, JavaScript starter link, etc.). May be this is an indication of the changing demographics here on HN. It is called Hacker News and calling Consolas, BitStream Vera as alternative is just "newbism".
JeffJenkins 16y ago
I've been using the Bitstream Vera fonts for over a year now. The main draws were: - zero distinguished from O, lower case L from 1 - clean, unpixelated characters - supports bolding, so I can use that in my editor's styles - is part of a family with a serif and sans serif font, so I can use the same fonts as my defaults everywhere (and I now notice that HN uses Courier for its textarea, ick)
Zak 16y ago
Inconsolata is nice, but the angled quotes annoy me. Fortunately, someone fixed that: http://nodnod.net/2009/feb/12/adding-straight-single-and-double-quotes-inconsola/ http://nodnod.net/2009/feb/12/adding-straight-single-and-dou...
singular 16y ago
I use consolas on windows and linux and it is by far the nicest programming font I've ever used, surprised it didn't get more of a look-in, though obviously sub-pixel rendering is required for it to not look awful. Pity they didn't compare it with sp-r turned on. Oh well!
- psranga 16y ago
  My pet peeve is that Eclipse crashes when I set Consolas the default font. Crash occurred within libpango. So I'm stuck with Andale Mono (a decent substitute). I will have to look into it again one of these days.
rue 16y ago
I will offer a name, see if you can find it: SGIScreen.
- BrianHammond 16y ago
  http://steveblock.com/r/sgiscreen-ttf.tar.gz http://steveblock.com/r/sgiscreen-ttf.tar.gz Looks pretty good at 14pt in Terminal.app. Thanks.
merraksh 16y ago
Related discussion on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058946 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058946 I'm still a bit sad Schumacher Clean never shows up in these lists.
BrianHammond 16y ago
I enjoy TheSansMonoCd by LucasFonts. It costs money though. http://imgur.com/kBpMI.png http://imgur.com/kBpMI.png

28 points by impomatic 16y ago

this has been already discussed in detail on SO. link : http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4689/recommended-fonts-for-programming http://stackoverflow.com/questions/4689/recommended-fonts-fo...

jarin 16y ago

Fonts like Consolas or Inconsolata are designed to be used with subpixel rendering, that's why they look all jacked up without it. If subpixel rendering hurts your eyes, you probably need to tune it to your monitor.

frou_dh 16y ago
Years ago, I remember doing a terrific amount of whining about how sub-pixel font rendering was blurry and pointless. But really it's simply a matter of adjusting to the benefits. Anyway, I'm using 'Consolas' on Windows and 'Menlo' on Mac and am happy with both.
- psranga 16y ago
  I second the recommendation to tune the subpixel rendering using your OS's wizard. Both Windows 7 and Ubuntu 9.10 make this very easy. The difference is very apparent and worth it.
- impomatic 16y ago
  They look much better with sub-pixel rendering but thanks to different sub-pixel geometries taking a screenshot doesn't really work.

jlangenauer 16y ago

It's kinda hard to evaluate the fonts when only fully capitalised samples are used. COBOL went out with Clement Atlee - we kinder, gentler Rubyist types like our lower case code.

CaptainMorgan 16y ago
I second the lower case, being a Linux user type. I was also expecting more analysis in this post than just whether the zeros were slashed or not. adg below posted a link to a former and similar article that I think has that analysis I was looking for.

anatoly 16y ago

I recommend Terminus (it's not in the list).

thmz 16y ago
ProFontWindows is also not in the list. But it's great for a small font-size but keeping the code readable.
- jasonlotito 16y ago
  Ooo.... thanks for the ProFontWindows recommendation.
  - thmz 16y ago
    Just curious: Are you being cynical?
    - jasonlotito 16y ago
      Not at all. I switched, and love it. Console windows love the suggestion, and Eclipse is running with it. I'm still debating on the size, but it was a great suggestion. I'm glad you replied, as I can now give you another upvote. =)

adg 16y ago

This is basically of a rip-off of this post: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=615088 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=615088.

impomatic 16y ago
Why is it a rip off? Just because half of the fonts are listed in both articles?

dogas 16y ago

Since I stare at Terminal.app for 10+ hours a day, I'm nearly obsessive-compulsive about my font setup. Inconsolata is my font of choice on the list. It looks beautiful, black background, 15pt, antialiased.

drivebyacct 16y ago

If you're going to do a comparison of programming fonts at small sizes, at least bother to get optimal font rendering for small fonts. Your worst looking fonts are the nicest with proper rendering. Also "alternative"? Every programmer I know has heard of these...

ivenkys 16y ago
"Every programmer I know has heard of these..." - Absolutely. The frequency of these "lightweight" articles has increased of late (e.g. Linode,Slicehost gets newest release of Ubuntu, JavaScript starter link, etc.). May be this is an indication of the changing demographics here on HN. It is called Hacker News and calling Consolas, BitStream Vera as alternative is just "newbism".

JeffJenkins 16y ago

I've been using the Bitstream Vera fonts for over a year now. The main draws were: - zero distinguished from O, lower case L from 1 - clean, unpixelated characters - supports bolding, so I can use that in my editor's styles - is part of a family with a serif and sans serif font, so I can use the same fonts as my defaults everywhere (and I now notice that HN uses Courier for its textarea, ick)

Zak 16y ago

Inconsolata is nice, but the angled quotes annoy me. Fortunately, someone fixed that: http://nodnod.net/2009/feb/12/adding-straight-single-and-double-quotes-inconsola/ http://nodnod.net/2009/feb/12/adding-straight-single-and-dou...

singular 16y ago

I use consolas on windows and linux and it is by far the nicest programming font I've ever used, surprised it didn't get more of a look-in, though obviously sub-pixel rendering is required for it to not look awful. Pity they didn't compare it with sp-r turned on. Oh well!

psranga 16y ago
My pet peeve is that Eclipse crashes when I set Consolas the default font. Crash occurred within libpango. So I'm stuck with Andale Mono (a decent substitute). I will have to look into it again one of these days.

rue 16y ago

I will offer a name, see if you can find it: SGIScreen.

BrianHammond 16y ago
http://steveblock.com/r/sgiscreen-ttf.tar.gz http://steveblock.com/r/sgiscreen-ttf.tar.gz Looks pretty good at 14pt in Terminal.app. Thanks.

merraksh 16y ago

Related discussion on HN: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058946 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1058946 I'm still a bit sad Schumacher Clean never shows up in these lists.

BrianHammond 16y ago

I enjoy TheSansMonoCd by LucasFonts. It costs money though. http://imgur.com/kBpMI.png http://imgur.com/kBpMI.png