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Are people really that conscious about coding fonts? Maybe it's just me, but I am more concerned with color palettes for the code highlighting more than fonts.

by chirau 9y ago

Are people really that conscious about coding fonts? Maybe it's just me, but I am more concerned with color palettes for the code highlighting more than fonts. I barely notice font differences in most cases. When it comes to fonts, any gun can shoot really. Except Wingdings, where is that font even used?

Fnoord 9y ago
Agreed. FWIW, after trying out many fonts (some are mentioned here) I settled on Cousine and PragmataPro depending on the terminal application. One uses Bash, other one Fish. One's for serious work, one's for quick work or backup. Etc etc. Both have the same color palette though (Solarized Dark).
SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
I know a guy that codes in Javanese just to piss off whoever is looking over his shoulder. It's very good at that.
- pamqzl 9y ago
  Did he learn the Javanese alphabet just for this purpose?
  - SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
    It's a font that's really annoying.
dwringer 9y ago
I've had different opinions on fonts over the years, sometimes with little to no preference and other times trying to use a single font across all my devices. I finally decided the only real preference I had was not seeing the same font all the time for a long time. Seeing a similar pattern with my preferences toward color themes, I finally decided to stop letting myself worry about it and set up [1] for my fonts and [2] for color themes. Every time I launch emacs it chooses at random from up to 22 available monospace fonts, 4 font sizes, and 38 color themes. This has proven very useful for juggling large numbers of sessions on the same desktop (especially with window translucency). [1]https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L120-L177 https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L120-L1... [2]https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L210-L265 https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L210-L2...
_cereal 9y ago
It depends, I try to choose something that's easy to read to avoid confusion between some characters and numbers. Also some programming fonts offer symbols ligatures. I don't like them, maybe it's just an habit but, if I have to write something, I don't want to think about the meaning of a symbol into another font. I find my self comfortable with the Ubuntu fonts, these are my system & browser defaults. Being everywhere in the interface I forget about them and concentrate on the code. Color palettes and code highlighting are also my concerns, I change them depending on ambient light. But I usually prefer bright palettes.
dkersten 9y ago
To me, both fond and colour are important. I want a good, clean[1] monospaced font with a nice set of ligatures. [1] What I mean by this is that characters (and especially symbols) are easily identifiable, which usually means they should not have much unnecessary detail. They also should not bee too thick or thin. I mostly use Fira Code currently, which is like Fira Mono but with ligatures.
thomastjeffery 9y ago
Yes. I care a lot about the font. One of the first things I install in Windows is DejaVu Sans Mono. A good font has clearly distinct characters. Can you tell these apart without trying? ijtlI|!?[{( A good font is clearly readable, even when bold and small. A bad font can be headache inducing, and requires extra brainpower from the reader, especially when spelling is important.
dsego 9y ago
Operator Mono
gmiller123456 9y ago
>Are people really that conscious about coding fonts? Probably not as much anymore, most IDE's in the past 5-10 years have default font and color schemes that are pretty good for most people. It used to be that the first 30 minutes after installing any IDE would be spent customizing the color scheme. And since no IDE's had export/import functionality, and most programmers having almost no background in graphic design, they all looked hideous. Today, the only thing I feel compelled to change is selecting whether I want a light or dark colored theme, and they're all way better than anything I could come up with myself.

by chirau 9y ago

Fnoord 9y ago

Agreed. FWIW, after trying out many fonts (some are mentioned here) I settled on Cousine and PragmataPro depending on the terminal application. One uses Bash, other one Fish. One's for serious work, one's for quick work or backup. Etc etc. Both have the same color palette though (Solarized Dark).

SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago

I know a guy that codes in Javanese just to piss off whoever is looking over his shoulder. It's very good at that.

pamqzl 9y ago
Did he learn the Javanese alphabet just for this purpose?
- SimbaOnSteroids 9y ago
  It's a font that's really annoying.

dwringer 9y ago

I've had different opinions on fonts over the years, sometimes with little to no preference and other times trying to use a single font across all my devices. I finally decided the only real preference I had was not seeing the same font all the time for a long time. Seeing a similar pattern with my preferences toward color themes, I finally decided to stop letting myself worry about it and set up [1] for my fonts and [2] for color themes. Every time I launch emacs it chooses at random from up to 22 available monospace fonts, 4 font sizes, and 38 color themes. This has proven very useful for juggling large numbers of sessions on the same desktop (especially with window translucency). [1]https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L120-L177 https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L120-L1... [2]https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L210-L265 https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L210-L2...

_cereal 9y ago

It depends, I try to choose something that's easy to read to avoid confusion between some characters and numbers. Also some programming fonts offer symbols ligatures. I don't like them, maybe it's just an habit but, if I have to write something, I don't want to think about the meaning of a symbol into another font. I find my self comfortable with the Ubuntu fonts, these are my system & browser defaults. Being everywhere in the interface I forget about them and concentrate on the code. Color palettes and code highlighting are also my concerns, I change them depending on ambient light. But I usually prefer bright palettes.

dkersten 9y ago

To me, both fond and colour are important. I want a good, clean[1] monospaced font with a nice set of ligatures. [1] What I mean by this is that characters (and especially symbols) are easily identifiable, which usually means they should not have much unnecessary detail. They also should not bee too thick or thin. I mostly use Fira Code currently, which is like Fira Mono but with ligatures.

thomastjeffery 9y ago

Yes. I care a lot about the font. One of the first things I install in Windows is DejaVu Sans Mono. A good font has clearly distinct characters. Can you tell these apart without trying? ijtlI|!?[{( A good font is clearly readable, even when bold and small. A bad font can be headache inducing, and requires extra brainpower from the reader, especially when spelling is important.

dsego 9y ago

Operator Mono

gmiller123456 9y ago

>Are people really that conscious about coding fonts? Probably not as much anymore, most IDE's in the past 5-10 years have default font and color schemes that are pretty good for most people. It used to be that the first 30 minutes after installing any IDE would be spent customizing the color scheme. And since no IDE's had export/import functionality, and most programmers having almost no background in graphic design, they all looked hideous. Today, the only thing I feel compelled to change is selecting whether I want a light or dark colored theme, and they're all way better than anything I could come up with myself.