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JetBrains Mono – the free and open-source typeface for developers

341 points by onnnon 5y ago

nathanaldensr 5y ago
Meh, I like Cascadia Code[1], especially after the designer fixed the awful "fun" italics. [1] https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code
- blondin 5y ago
  another vote for cascadia code :) (someone should do a hn poll on programming fonts.)
  - irrational 5y ago
    Not a poll, but try this tool (be sure to hide font names using the switch at the top of the page). https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/
    - deleted 5y ago
      [deleted]
    - ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
      > https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/ That's terribly blurred on my screen.
      - irrational 5y ago
        Strange, it worked great for me.
        ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
        Actually only in the tournament part, the browser part is fine with the same font size (16) and fonts
      - knuthsat 5y ago
        Yep, blurred on one of my devices.
    - copperx 5y ago
      It needs fixing: 1) It should give you a list of runner ups, not just the final winner. 2) It should include MORE fonts. Some popular ones aren't in there. Maybe it should be a local app that can use your installed fonts.
- blahyawnblah 5y ago
  I like the old Consolas font. Basically the same but not quite as thick.
- ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
  > especially after the designer fixed the awful "fun" italics. I like the old italics better.
- seanw444 5y ago
  I preferred the cursive.
sawaali 5y ago
In terms of legibility, aesthetic balance, and not being over-engineered, I haven’t found anything better than M+ 1: https://macwright.com/2014/07/09/mplus.html https://macwright.com/2014/07/09/mplus.html
hahnchen 5y ago
Apple’s fonts are quite nice. I use sf mono. You can download it from https://developer.apple.com/fonts https://developer.apple.com/fonts
- epicide 5y ago
  Looks like SF Mono is what replaced Menlo. Interestingly enough, JetBrains Mono seems very similar to Menlo. Biggest difference I see is the 0.
- wildrhythms 5y ago
  I find OS text rendering drastically affects which fonts I choose to use, and Mac OS makes these fonts in particular look really good on a 4k display.
laacz 5y ago
I use Fira Code. Mainly because it allows you to chose ligatures if for some reason there are default ones you don't like (I really enjoy ligatures when writing code). Sadly, that works only on application level, not OS, so not all IDEs support choosing stylistic sets: https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/How-to-enable-stylistic-sets https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/How-to-enable-stylis...
onnnon 5y ago
I've been using this typeface lately, and it's fantastic. Well done! https://jetbrains.com/mono https://jetbrains.com/mono
usrme 5y ago
I think I switched to this font a couple of years ago and I've been unable to find anything that even comes close! At this point I would consider JetBrains Mono to be my forever font.
- khaledh 5y ago
  Same here.
- krat0sprakhar 5y ago
  Exactly in the same boat. Whenever I setup a new workstation, I install this font right away and set it as default in my IDE, terminal etc.
- fortyseven 5y ago
  It unseated Ubuntu Mono as my "forever". I was stunned that happened! I ended up going with a slashed zero variant of JetBrains Mono. Now it's perfect.
  - ragnese 5y ago
    I keep trying to switch away from Ubuntu Mono, but I always end up switching back after a few days. I just played "the font game" and Source Code Pro won for me, today (But my top contenders were pretty much what I expected: Fira, Ubuntu, Source Code Pro). So, maybe I'll give SCP another few days and see what happens.
- petepete 5y ago
  I've been using it for about a year, definitely won't be changing any time soon.
- GordonS 5y ago
  I do like JetBrains Mono, but I personally prefer Fira Code. Plain old Consolas (a standard Windows font) actually comes pretty close too.
  - klysm 5y ago
vr46 5y ago
Love this font, has half-replaced Pragmata after a decade or so. Super-good in the terminal.
- GrumpyNl 5y ago
  For me, not enough difference between 0 and O, zero and capital o
  - vr46 5y ago
    Fair points
GavinMcG 5y ago
> Ligatures in programming fonts are a terrible idea. > And not because I’m a purist or a grump. (Some days, but not today.) Programming code has special semantic considerations. Ligatures in programming fonts are likely to either misrepresent the meaning of the code, or cause miscues among readers. So in the end, even if they’re cute, the risk of error isn’t worth it. - Matthew Butterick, Ligatures in Programming Fonts: Hell No, https://practicaltypography.com/ligatures-in-programming-fonts-hell-no.html https://practicaltypography.com/ligatures-in-programming-fon...
- usrusr 5y ago
  I might be imagining this but I think that I have seen ligatures on/off being used as a deliberate hint to convey the difference between read-only and editable code. That's a very nice tweak. InteliJ at least can be configured that way, might be a case where its Android Studio incarnation has different defaults.
- one_off_comment 5y ago
  This font ships with a ligature-less version.
- boomskats 5y ago
  Matthias Tellen also has an interesting take on this subject in in issue #29 for his font mononoki [0]. I love mononoki. [0]: https://github.com/madmalik/mononoki/issues/29#issuecomment-220626523 https://github.com/madmalik/mononoki/issues/29#issuecomment-...
  - schleck8 5y ago
    Looks fantastic, I'll definitely try this one out
  - barrenko 5y ago
    Mononoki, Input Mono are in my Top 3.
- donatj 5y ago
  > They grow on you. - Me I honestly really didn't like them at first, but I came to love Fira Code after a couple false starts. My IDE catches the errors this guy mentions.
one_off_comment 5y ago
I used to use Fira Code. Then I played this font game and I switched to JetBrains Mono. https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/
- jedimastert 5y ago
  I really like the idea, although I'd really prefer if I could pick an example for a language I actually use. Even just my own snippet
- pg_1234 5y ago
  Of the options available I actually liked Fira Code ... never heard of it before. But Deja Vu Mono is notably absent and I still prefer that.
- peakaboo 5y ago
  I also ended up with Jetbrains Mono but Ive been too lazy to switch from Fira Code which is also really good. But soon!
- mcdonje 5y ago
  I use fira code. I just played this with the names hidden and still ended up with fira code, lol. Both are extremely good, though.
- benbristow 5y ago
  I've been using JetBrains Mono on JetBrains Rider at home/work, has been pretty good. Playing that game though ended up with liking Roboto Mono the most, Fira being a close second.
- jedberg 5y ago
  Just played the game with names off and ended up with Fira Code. But since I have the names off, I don't know what second place was, but I think it was Jetbrains Mono based on the look of it.
  - anotherevan 5y ago
electric_mayhem 5y ago
Bitstream Vera Sans Mono has been my monospaced font of choice for years, but having seen JetBrains Mono when I started playing with their IDEs last year… it’s really good, and has some features I prefer over BVSM.
minimaxir 5y ago
My experience with JetBrains Mono is that it's too aesthetic/overdesigned for coding (coming from Fira Code), but it makes an excellent monospace typeface for image design.
- chrismorgan 5y ago
  Following æsthetic at the cost of function is a complaint I’d make of Fira Code, not JetBrains Mono (disregarding ligatures, which both overdo): Fira Code’s r glyph is lousy, its & poor for code where immediately followed sans whitespace by letters (common for reference syntax in C-family languages; it’s much too similar to a letter, especially given the high ex height), and its ff ligation (two columns → one) downright idiotic.
  - minimaxir 5y ago
    Fair. At the least, some of those examples have variants that can be manually enabled: https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/blob/master/extras/character_variants.png https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/blob/master/extras/charac...
    - chrismorgan 5y ago
      Actually, I must amend what I said: I was talking about Fira Mono rather than Fira Code. Fira Code fixes the r glyph (its default r glyph is excellent and its alternative perfectly respectable, still having narrowed the base line), and offers a better ampersand as an alternative. Dunno about the f ligations (ﬀ, ﬁ, &c.), hopefully they ditched that madness (even if they’re opt-in discretionary ligatures in Fira Mono—they just have absolutely no place in a monospaced font, dlig or no dlig).
      - chrismorgan 5y ago
        It seems like I might have to make another amendment as I just came across something labelled Fira Mono that also seems to have the fixed r glyph. I’m throwing in the towel, there are too many things called Fira Mono and Fira Code and I can’t find any one sound canonical source; some seem to say there are a bunch of changes between the two, others seem to say it’s only a different line-height; did they perhaps start out more different but get mostly merged back? I give up. All I know is that places like bugzilla.mozilla.org and crates.io use bad versions of some Fira monospace font.
neilpanchal 5y ago
I've been working on a new typeface[1][2] for code - Berkeley Mono. I've taken some inspiration from Jet Brains Mono, SF Mono, Bit Stream Vera, Andale Mono, OCR-B, Univers, Eurostile and Monogramma from the 50's, and weird things like the German License Plate slashed 0. Anyone interested in beta testing? neil@berkeleygraphics.com. [1] https://neil.computer/notes/introducing-berkeley-mono/ https://neil.computer/notes/introducing-berkeley-mono/ [2] https://neil.computer/notes/berkeley-mono-december-update/ https://neil.computer/notes/berkeley-mono-december-update/
- ghishadow 5y ago
  looks great
- fgblanch 5y ago
  Neil, congrats your site! It looks great, very cool design and content. The Berkeley font also looks very nice. I'll beta test.
- tannhaeuser 5y ago
  Matter of taste, but I like and recommend single-storey a in the regular not just the italic type face as variant. Or preferably even as default/only variant as I don't find switching double-storey to single-storey, or other drastical change of basic shapes for that matter convincing for a coding font.
  - neilpanchal 5y ago
    Thanks for the feedback. Double-storey ‘a’ does make things busy. I’ll see what I can do with optional single storey ‘a’ as a stylistic set. The problem with stylistic sets is no one uses them and they’re not well supported in programming tools. I’ve got automated font file generation script in Glyphs app that generates all variants as separate fonts, so users can download whatever they want. I’ll try to create a single storey ‘a’ as an option, definitely for italics which are still under development.
- radicaldreamer 5y ago
  Great work, looking forward to trying it out when it's ready
Trex_Egg 5y ago
I just converted to this font and using it for a month almost. Seems good on my editor/
VTimofeenko 5y ago
Absolutely love this font, been using the Nerd fonts patched version for a very long time for my terminal-based workflows. One really minor gripe that I have with it is the triple asterisk ligature which I have no use for. But it's so minor that I never bothered to patch this symbol out.
- 8n4vidtmkvmk 5y ago
  get the non ligatures version. ligatures are extra terrible in a terminal
  - VTimofeenko 5y ago
    I have been using kitty on Linux for quite a while now, and it handles ligatures extremely well. I like seeing nice arrows in my terminal.
fc373745 5y ago
I've tried IBM plex, Fira, and even bought Operator Mono. Always switched back to Ubuntu Mono. It may not be the coolest looking font, but the most legible to me.
kitsunesoba 5y ago
I’ll be giving JetBrains Mono a try, but for the past few years I’ve been enjoying Dank Mono[0] for writing Swift, Obj-C, Kotlin, and C#. In particular I like its handwriting-inspired italic style, which works well for adding contrast to things like keywords. [0]: https://philpl.gumroad.com/l/dank-mono https://philpl.gumroad.com/l/dank-mono
- jgalentine007 5y ago
  I also use dank mono and really like it. Its similar to JetBrains Mono and Roboto Mono, but a bit crisper and slightly more space efficient. Looks equally good on my Mac retina display and my Windows 1080p display.
nick_ 5y ago
https://github.com/i-tu/Hasklig https://github.com/i-tu/Hasklig is best, IMHO. It is https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro but with ligatures.
- Jenk 5y ago
  "Hasklug NF" represent!
rob74 5y ago
My favorite is still Go Mono (and not only for Go) - mostly because I prefer the good old "typewriter-style" fonts with serifs. "Sans-serif" monospace fonts look odd to me because most letters are sans-serif, but then they have to add serifs to I, i, l, 1 etc. to avoid having them look "skinny".
smasher164 5y ago
This is up there with Inconsolata as one of the best monospace fonts, IMO.
- raphlinus 5y ago
  Why thank you :) People may not know that Inconsolata is now a 2-axis variable font with a particularly wide width range: 0.5 to 2.0 of the nominal width.
  - mwcampbell 5y ago
    What are the benefits of such a width range? Does it mean the user can adjust the thickness of the characters independently of font size, or something else?
    - raphlinus 5y ago
      That is already possible with just a weight axis. The benefit is a lot more flexibility in design and layout, plus just a preference. The Iosevka font also being discussed here today is on the narrow side, while Source Code Pro is slightly wider and Courier even more so. Inconsolata can cover all these and more.
fleaaa 5y ago
Am I the only one rocking with agave? Especially agave NF, it looks a bit funky (casual-looking) but it's been really easy on my eyes on not-too-high res display(34' 1440p). https://github.com/blobject/agave https://github.com/blobject/agave
19h 5y ago
Absolutely amazing font. Used it since the first day it was out and never looked back. Improved the code readability for me so much it’s among the first things I setup on a new Mac. I also use it for the terminal, as a font override in dark reader on a bunch of websites, …
leokennis 5y ago
Since this has turned to “list your favorite monospaced font” I’ll happily mention I’ve never found anything better than Consolas.
traspler 5y ago
I really, really like Anonymous Pro. In comparison JB Mono looks similar enough but a bit fatter, not a bad look :)
DwnVoteHoneyPot 5y ago
Julia Mono font is pretty great. https://juliamono.netlify.app/ https://juliamono.netlify.app/
macrael 5y ago
Anyone have good examples of proportional width fonts that have coding focused changes, like well differentiated 0/O and I/l and or coding ligatures? I've been really happy just using Avenir for coding for the last 10 years or so, but I'd love something proportional that was a bit more coding aware. rant: Fixed width fonts are an abomination invented b/c they were easier to program for display in early terminals and computers have long since been fast enough to eschew them forever.
- rami3l 5y ago
- Stratoscope 5y ago
  Nice to meet another fan of proportional fonts! I find them so much more readable than monospaced. My current favorite is Trebuchet MS, or more specifically a version of it that I tweaked in FontForge and call Trebuchet++. Trebuchet MS ticks a lot of the boxes for me "as is". It doesn't have ligatures, but does have easily distinguished 0/O, I/l, etc. And it renders beautifully on the high-DPI monitors I use with the largish font sizes I prefer. I do most of my coding on a 24" 4K monitor, so it's just shy of 200 DPI, and I run it with 200% scaling on Windows and Linux. One thing I don't like in Trebuchet MS is the tilde. It is a scrawny little thing that is hard to distinguish from a hyphen. So I used FontForge to swap in a much better tilde. Then I had some fun with underscores. I don't like snake_case_names at all, but some coding standards mandate them. One problem with proportional fonts is that the underscore is much wider than the period, so you get this effect: snake_case.snake_case.snake_case If you look at the spacing between words here, "case.snake" is more tightly grouped than "snake_case" - the opposite of how it should be. I fixed this by adding a bit of space on each side of the period, and narrowing the space occupied by the underscore. At first I tried just making the underline itself shorter, but it was hard to tell from a period. So instead I kept most of the underline width and narrowed the character box instead. The underline tucks under the adjacent characters a bit, but it looks OK. The net effect is subtle, but for my eyes it makes snake_case.snake_case a little easier to read and understand. I have been meaning to find out if and how I could open source Trebuchet++ (since it's based on a Microsoft font), but in the meantime drop me a note if you would like a copy to try out - email is in my profile.
pjbk 5y ago
It's a bit taller than the usual PT Mono I regularly use. I find that "boxier" mono fonts are a bit more readable than elongated ones.
i_like_apis 5y ago
There was a great Show HN a few months ago of a game to find your favorite programming font and JetBrains Mono is one of the contenders: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443
faldore 5y ago
1024core 5y ago
Every once in a while when I get bored, I head over to Google Fonts page and download some fonts: https://fonts.google.com/?category=Monospace&subset=latin https://fonts.google.com/?category=Monospace&subset=latin
mLewisLogic 5y ago
Too wide for me (makes side-by-side code windows less useful). Check out Iosevka SS14.
Axsuul 5y ago
I try every programming font but always end up going back to Monaco.
- amir734jj 5y ago
  Monaco is my go-to font
- vivab0rg 5y ago
  Same for me, everytime. And I'm a Linux user.
dorfsmay 5y ago
I've started using JetBraims Mono after a friend suggested it to me. If you hesitate between a few fonts, edit some text in your terminal and reduce the size of the font/terminal until it's almost unreadable. Pay special attention to the i, l, o, 0 etc...
ChrisArchitect 5y ago
Last updated 274 days ago. What's new? https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998
s5806533 5y ago
JetBrains Mono won the coding font tournament [1] for me, but said tournament did't have "Hack", which still looks best in my IDE (geany). [1] https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/
thecosmicfrog 5y ago
Source Code Pro is my personal go-to.
ralgozino 5y ago
In my case the font that made me stop switching fonts every month was Victor Mono: https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/ https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/
- seanw444 5y ago
  Damn you. Another font to add to my list to try out tomorrow. Been using JetBrains Mono for months now, and I quite like it. But I found out the the font a YouTuber I watch uses is Iosevka, which I've been hearing about, so I'm going to go custom compile it with JetBrains Mono styling added in And then I'll have to give this a go. Thanks.
  - seanw444 5y ago
    Update: Victor Mono is an excellent font. It's a bit too thin for my liking on the regular weight, but semi-bold is a perfect weight. The cursive is a nice touch. Thank you.
manmal 5y ago
Installing this font is the first thing I do when setting up a new editor. It has a great character and feels pretty much ideal to me.
j1elo 5y ago
After playing the CodingFont that others commented (https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/), I ended up with this list of winners: * Cousine * JetBrains Mono * Roboto Mono * Source Code Pro However, when actually testing, they all have a something that doesn't click as good as the Ubuntu Mono in terms of horizontal spacing. All these fonts are too wide, and the step from 10pt to 11pt causes a huge increment on horizontal space usage. Whereas Ubuntu Mono stays in a perfect sweet spot when set at 13pt. Anyone finding the same? EDIT: I made a quick visual comparison (mind that all of the fonts listed above have practically the same width): https://pasteboard.co/qZ8rvfV4aEHf.png https://pasteboard.co/qZ8rvfV4aEHf.png
- wodenokoto 5y ago
  Yeah, you can add features to your font all you want, but in the end it comes down to “does it feel good to read?”
- jrockway 5y ago
  If you like narrow, you want Iosevka: https://typeof.net/Iosevka/ https://typeof.net/Iosevka/ It is my all-time favorite font.
  - j1elo 5y ago
    Curiously enough, this is the only font that I've tested which matches the horizontal proportions of Ubuntu Mono; well, to be precise, iosevka is actually a couple pixels wider than the former :-) All in all, a very nice font, although if I'm allowed to complain, it now seems to me that it takes too much vertical space :-) (not just a nitpick, same test lines take considerably more pixels)
- smlacy 5y ago
  SF Mono (https://developer.apple.com/fonts/ https://developer.apple.com/fonts/) is also an amazing font, but generally left out of most online comparison tools due to licensing issues. But, it's freely available for personal use, and is certainly worth a look, and has been my preferred fixed width font for quite some time. SF Mono works great in any system (not just Fruit) but you'll need to use a few tools to dig down to get the OTF's out of the DMG.
forrestthewoods 5y ago
Almost all programming fonts suck on Windows. They’re designed for retina DPI MacBooks with Apple rendering. It’s annoying. As a Windows programmer my #1 font for ~15 years was Consolas. I recently made the change to Cascadia Mono. It took a couple of days to get used but it’s better. #1 Cascadia Mono #2 Consolas #3 Death
LittlePeter 5y ago
I may be weird but I prefer Times New Roman. Just joking. Ubuntu Mono for me.
- seanw444 5y ago
  Times New Roman is for normies. Comic Sans is best code font.
gombosg 5y ago
Also you can think out of the box and realize that you may not need a monospaced font for development, but a font that has the advantages of monospaced fonts. I've been using Input Sans for years now. See at: https://input.djr.com/info/ https://input.djr.com/info/
- seanmcdirmid 5y ago
  I would give it a try if it supported ligatures. I just use Verdana or Google Sans right now for code (just a good proportional sans serif font works for me, but none support coding ligatures).
tehnub 5y ago
This story links to the GitHub repo, which is useful, but I really enjoy the main webpage they've made for this font: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/
RBerenguel 5y ago
If we are throwing font recommendations here, I favour Monoid [M], I love its glyphs and look. But some years ago I installed Victor Mono [V] as a kind of practical joke on myself (it has italics, usually enabled for comments in the language you use in your editor, but of course that's up to where you want them) and I found it's actually extremely nice because of that. I now also use it on Obsidian (the other monospaced editor I use aside from VS Code/emacs) [M]: https://larsenwork.com/monoid/ [V]: https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/ Edit: formatting
TheRealDunkirk 5y ago
<Laughs in Monaco>
paulvnickerson 5y ago
Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. This is my new font in VS Code.
dang 5y ago
Past related threads: JetBrains Mono: A free and open-source typeface for developers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998 - Jan 2020 (201 comments) JetBrains Mono: A free and open source typeface for developers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22062675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22062675 - Jan 2020 (29 comments)
veidr 5y ago
I used to use this font, and applaud JetBrains for creating it, but I eventually found Rec Mono Duotone, which I've now used for years. Found it via this website in a thread very much like this one, so just paying it forward: https://www.recursive.design https://www.recursive.design screenshot: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/masonmark/masons-vscode-theme/main/whatever/aah.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/masonmark/masons-vscode-th...
- cassianoleal 5y ago
  All the Rec Mono fonts are great. I've been using Rec Mono Casual myself, both on VS Code and the terminal.
Larrikin 5y ago
At some point in grad school a few years ago, I was procrastinating furiously and did a deep dive into the font I would prefer for coding, terminal, etc. I ultimately landed on Meslo LGS with Nerd Font after also looking at different shells. I'm not a fan of ligature so don't care about those fonts Sometimes I wonder if I'm missing out on something better or if just the Meslo people came out with something great and haven't felt the need to promote it on the web in a few years since they are all gainfully employed. https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-fonts/Meslo https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-...
incepting 5y ago
[dead]

341 points by onnnon 5y ago

Meh, I like Cascadia Code[1], especially after the designer fixed the awful "fun" italics. [1] https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code

blondin 5y ago
another vote for cascadia code :) (someone should do a hn poll on programming fonts.)
- irrational 5y ago
  Not a poll, but try this tool (be sure to hide font names using the switch at the top of the page). https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
    > https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/ That's terribly blurred on my screen.
    - irrational 5y ago
      Strange, it worked great for me.
      - ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
        Actually only in the tournament part, the browser part is fine with the same font size (16) and fonts
    - knuthsat 5y ago
      Yep, blurred on one of my devices.
  - copperx 5y ago
    It needs fixing: 1) It should give you a list of runner ups, not just the final winner. 2) It should include MORE fonts. Some popular ones aren't in there. Maybe it should be a local app that can use your installed fonts.
blahyawnblah 5y ago
I like the old Consolas font. Basically the same but not quite as thick.
ReleaseCandidat 5y ago
> especially after the designer fixed the awful "fun" italics. I like the old italics better.
seanw444 5y ago
I preferred the cursive.

sawaali 5y ago

In terms of legibility, aesthetic balance, and not being over-engineered, I haven’t found anything better than M+ 1: https://macwright.com/2014/07/09/mplus.html https://macwright.com/2014/07/09/mplus.html

hahnchen 5y ago

Apple’s fonts are quite nice. I use sf mono. You can download it from https://developer.apple.com/fonts https://developer.apple.com/fonts

epicide 5y ago
Looks like SF Mono is what replaced Menlo. Interestingly enough, JetBrains Mono seems very similar to Menlo. Biggest difference I see is the 0.
wildrhythms 5y ago
I find OS text rendering drastically affects which fonts I choose to use, and Mac OS makes these fonts in particular look really good on a 4k display.

laacz 5y ago

I use Fira Code. Mainly because it allows you to chose ligatures if for some reason there are default ones you don't like (I really enjoy ligatures when writing code). Sadly, that works only on application level, not OS, so not all IDEs support choosing stylistic sets: https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/How-to-enable-stylistic-sets https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/wiki/How-to-enable-stylis...

onnnon 5y ago

I've been using this typeface lately, and it's fantastic. Well done! https://jetbrains.com/mono https://jetbrains.com/mono

usrme 5y ago

I think I switched to this font a couple of years ago and I've been unable to find anything that even comes close! At this point I would consider JetBrains Mono to be my forever font.

khaledh 5y ago
Same here.
krat0sprakhar 5y ago
Exactly in the same boat. Whenever I setup a new workstation, I install this font right away and set it as default in my IDE, terminal etc.
fortyseven 5y ago
It unseated Ubuntu Mono as my "forever". I was stunned that happened! I ended up going with a slashed zero variant of JetBrains Mono. Now it's perfect.
- ragnese 5y ago
  I keep trying to switch away from Ubuntu Mono, but I always end up switching back after a few days. I just played "the font game" and Source Code Pro won for me, today (But my top contenders were pretty much what I expected: Fira, Ubuntu, Source Code Pro). So, maybe I'll give SCP another few days and see what happens.
petepete 5y ago
I've been using it for about a year, definitely won't be changing any time soon.
GordonS 5y ago
I do like JetBrains Mono, but I personally prefer Fira Code. Plain old Consolas (a standard Windows font) actually comes pretty close too.
- klysm 5y ago

vr46 5y ago

Love this font, has half-replaced Pragmata after a decade or so. Super-good in the terminal.

GrumpyNl 5y ago
For me, not enough difference between 0 and O, zero and capital o
- vr46 5y ago
  Fair points

GavinMcG 5y ago

> Ligatures in programming fonts are a terrible idea. > And not because I’m a purist or a grump. (Some days, but not today.) Programming code has special semantic considerations. Ligatures in programming fonts are likely to either misrepresent the meaning of the code, or cause miscues among readers. So in the end, even if they’re cute, the risk of error isn’t worth it. - Matthew Butterick, Ligatures in Programming Fonts: Hell No, https://practicaltypography.com/ligatures-in-programming-fonts-hell-no.html https://practicaltypography.com/ligatures-in-programming-fon...

usrusr 5y ago
I might be imagining this but I think that I have seen ligatures on/off being used as a deliberate hint to convey the difference between read-only and editable code. That's a very nice tweak. InteliJ at least can be configured that way, might be a case where its Android Studio incarnation has different defaults.
one_off_comment 5y ago
This font ships with a ligature-less version.
boomskats 5y ago
Matthias Tellen also has an interesting take on this subject in in issue #29 for his font mononoki [0]. I love mononoki. [0]: https://github.com/madmalik/mononoki/issues/29#issuecomment-220626523 https://github.com/madmalik/mononoki/issues/29#issuecomment-...
- schleck8 5y ago
  Looks fantastic, I'll definitely try this one out
- barrenko 5y ago
  Mononoki, Input Mono are in my Top 3.
donatj 5y ago
> They grow on you. - Me I honestly really didn't like them at first, but I came to love Fira Code after a couple false starts. My IDE catches the errors this guy mentions.

one_off_comment 5y ago

I used to use Fira Code. Then I played this font game and I switched to JetBrains Mono. https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/

jedimastert 5y ago
I really like the idea, although I'd really prefer if I could pick an example for a language I actually use. Even just my own snippet
pg_1234 5y ago
Of the options available I actually liked Fira Code ... never heard of it before. But Deja Vu Mono is notably absent and I still prefer that.
peakaboo 5y ago
I also ended up with Jetbrains Mono but Ive been too lazy to switch from Fira Code which is also really good. But soon!
mcdonje 5y ago
I use fira code. I just played this with the names hidden and still ended up with fira code, lol. Both are extremely good, though.
benbristow 5y ago
I've been using JetBrains Mono on JetBrains Rider at home/work, has been pretty good. Playing that game though ended up with liking Roboto Mono the most, Fira being a close second.
jedberg 5y ago
Just played the game with names off and ended up with Fira Code. But since I have the names off, I don't know what second place was, but I think it was Jetbrains Mono based on the look of it.
- anotherevan 5y ago

electric_mayhem 5y ago

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono has been my monospaced font of choice for years, but having seen JetBrains Mono when I started playing with their IDEs last year… it’s really good, and has some features I prefer over BVSM.

minimaxir 5y ago

My experience with JetBrains Mono is that it's too aesthetic/overdesigned for coding (coming from Fira Code), but it makes an excellent monospace typeface for image design.

chrismorgan 5y ago
Following æsthetic at the cost of function is a complaint I’d make of Fira Code, not JetBrains Mono (disregarding ligatures, which both overdo): Fira Code’s r glyph is lousy, its & poor for code where immediately followed sans whitespace by letters (common for reference syntax in C-family languages; it’s much too similar to a letter, especially given the high ex height), and its ff ligation (two columns → one) downright idiotic.
- minimaxir 5y ago
  Fair. At the least, some of those examples have variants that can be manually enabled: https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/blob/master/extras/character_variants.png https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode/blob/master/extras/charac...
  - chrismorgan 5y ago
    Actually, I must amend what I said: I was talking about Fira Mono rather than Fira Code. Fira Code fixes the r glyph (its default r glyph is excellent and its alternative perfectly respectable, still having narrowed the base line), and offers a better ampersand as an alternative. Dunno about the f ligations (ﬀ, ﬁ, &c.), hopefully they ditched that madness (even if they’re opt-in discretionary ligatures in Fira Mono—they just have absolutely no place in a monospaced font, dlig or no dlig).
    - chrismorgan 5y ago
      It seems like I might have to make another amendment as I just came across something labelled Fira Mono that also seems to have the fixed r glyph. I’m throwing in the towel, there are too many things called Fira Mono and Fira Code and I can’t find any one sound canonical source; some seem to say there are a bunch of changes between the two, others seem to say it’s only a different line-height; did they perhaps start out more different but get mostly merged back? I give up. All I know is that places like bugzilla.mozilla.org and crates.io use bad versions of some Fira monospace font.

neilpanchal 5y ago

I've been working on a new typeface[1][2] for code - Berkeley Mono. I've taken some inspiration from Jet Brains Mono, SF Mono, Bit Stream Vera, Andale Mono, OCR-B, Univers, Eurostile and Monogramma from the 50's, and weird things like the German License Plate slashed 0. Anyone interested in beta testing? neil@berkeleygraphics.com. [1] https://neil.computer/notes/introducing-berkeley-mono/ https://neil.computer/notes/introducing-berkeley-mono/ [2] https://neil.computer/notes/berkeley-mono-december-update/ https://neil.computer/notes/berkeley-mono-december-update/

ghishadow 5y ago
looks great
fgblanch 5y ago
Neil, congrats your site! It looks great, very cool design and content. The Berkeley font also looks very nice. I'll beta test.
tannhaeuser 5y ago
Matter of taste, but I like and recommend single-storey a in the regular not just the italic type face as variant. Or preferably even as default/only variant as I don't find switching double-storey to single-storey, or other drastical change of basic shapes for that matter convincing for a coding font.
- neilpanchal 5y ago
  Thanks for the feedback. Double-storey ‘a’ does make things busy. I’ll see what I can do with optional single storey ‘a’ as a stylistic set. The problem with stylistic sets is no one uses them and they’re not well supported in programming tools. I’ve got automated font file generation script in Glyphs app that generates all variants as separate fonts, so users can download whatever they want. I’ll try to create a single storey ‘a’ as an option, definitely for italics which are still under development.
radicaldreamer 5y ago
Great work, looking forward to trying it out when it's ready

Trex_Egg 5y ago

I just converted to this font and using it for a month almost. Seems good on my editor/

VTimofeenko 5y ago

Absolutely love this font, been using the Nerd fonts patched version for a very long time for my terminal-based workflows. One really minor gripe that I have with it is the triple asterisk ligature which I have no use for. But it's so minor that I never bothered to patch this symbol out.

8n4vidtmkvmk 5y ago
get the non ligatures version. ligatures are extra terrible in a terminal
- VTimofeenko 5y ago
  I have been using kitty on Linux for quite a while now, and it handles ligatures extremely well. I like seeing nice arrows in my terminal.

fc373745 5y ago

I've tried IBM plex, Fira, and even bought Operator Mono. Always switched back to Ubuntu Mono. It may not be the coolest looking font, but the most legible to me.

kitsunesoba 5y ago

I’ll be giving JetBrains Mono a try, but for the past few years I’ve been enjoying Dank Mono[0] for writing Swift, Obj-C, Kotlin, and C#. In particular I like its handwriting-inspired italic style, which works well for adding contrast to things like keywords. [0]: https://philpl.gumroad.com/l/dank-mono https://philpl.gumroad.com/l/dank-mono

jgalentine007 5y ago
I also use dank mono and really like it. Its similar to JetBrains Mono and Roboto Mono, but a bit crisper and slightly more space efficient. Looks equally good on my Mac retina display and my Windows 1080p display.

nick_ 5y ago

https://github.com/i-tu/Hasklig https://github.com/i-tu/Hasklig is best, IMHO. It is https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Source+Code+Pro but with ligatures.

Jenk 5y ago
"Hasklug NF" represent!

rob74 5y ago

My favorite is still Go Mono (and not only for Go) - mostly because I prefer the good old "typewriter-style" fonts with serifs. "Sans-serif" monospace fonts look odd to me because most letters are sans-serif, but then they have to add serifs to I, i, l, 1 etc. to avoid having them look "skinny".

smasher164 5y ago

This is up there with Inconsolata as one of the best monospace fonts, IMO.

raphlinus 5y ago
Why thank you :) People may not know that Inconsolata is now a 2-axis variable font with a particularly wide width range: 0.5 to 2.0 of the nominal width.
- mwcampbell 5y ago
  What are the benefits of such a width range? Does it mean the user can adjust the thickness of the characters independently of font size, or something else?
  - raphlinus 5y ago
    That is already possible with just a weight axis. The benefit is a lot more flexibility in design and layout, plus just a preference. The Iosevka font also being discussed here today is on the narrow side, while Source Code Pro is slightly wider and Courier even more so. Inconsolata can cover all these and more.

fleaaa 5y ago

Am I the only one rocking with agave? Especially agave NF, it looks a bit funky (casual-looking) but it's been really easy on my eyes on not-too-high res display(34' 1440p). https://github.com/blobject/agave https://github.com/blobject/agave

19h 5y ago

Absolutely amazing font. Used it since the first day it was out and never looked back. Improved the code readability for me so much it’s among the first things I setup on a new Mac. I also use it for the terminal, as a font override in dark reader on a bunch of websites, …

leokennis 5y ago

Since this has turned to “list your favorite monospaced font” I’ll happily mention I’ve never found anything better than Consolas.

traspler 5y ago

I really, really like Anonymous Pro. In comparison JB Mono looks similar enough but a bit fatter, not a bad look :)

DwnVoteHoneyPot 5y ago

Julia Mono font is pretty great. https://juliamono.netlify.app/ https://juliamono.netlify.app/

macrael 5y ago

Anyone have good examples of proportional width fonts that have coding focused changes, like well differentiated 0/O and I/l and or coding ligatures? I've been really happy just using Avenir for coding for the last 10 years or so, but I'd love something proportional that was a bit more coding aware. rant: Fixed width fonts are an abomination invented b/c they were easier to program for display in early terminals and computers have long since been fast enough to eschew them forever.

rami3l 5y ago
Stratoscope 5y ago
Nice to meet another fan of proportional fonts! I find them so much more readable than monospaced. My current favorite is Trebuchet MS, or more specifically a version of it that I tweaked in FontForge and call Trebuchet++. Trebuchet MS ticks a lot of the boxes for me "as is". It doesn't have ligatures, but does have easily distinguished 0/O, I/l, etc. And it renders beautifully on the high-DPI monitors I use with the largish font sizes I prefer. I do most of my coding on a 24" 4K monitor, so it's just shy of 200 DPI, and I run it with 200% scaling on Windows and Linux. One thing I don't like in Trebuchet MS is the tilde. It is a scrawny little thing that is hard to distinguish from a hyphen. So I used FontForge to swap in a much better tilde. Then I had some fun with underscores. I don't like snake_case_names at all, but some coding standards mandate them. One problem with proportional fonts is that the underscore is much wider than the period, so you get this effect: snake_case.snake_case.snake_case If you look at the spacing between words here, "case.snake" is more tightly grouped than "snake_case" - the opposite of how it should be. I fixed this by adding a bit of space on each side of the period, and narrowing the space occupied by the underscore. At first I tried just making the underline itself shorter, but it was hard to tell from a period. So instead I kept most of the underline width and narrowed the character box instead. The underline tucks under the adjacent characters a bit, but it looks OK. The net effect is subtle, but for my eyes it makes snake_case.snake_case a little easier to read and understand. I have been meaning to find out if and how I could open source Trebuchet++ (since it's based on a Microsoft font), but in the meantime drop me a note if you would like a copy to try out - email is in my profile.

pjbk 5y ago

It's a bit taller than the usual PT Mono I regularly use. I find that "boxier" mono fonts are a bit more readable than elongated ones.

i_like_apis 5y ago

There was a great Show HN a few months ago of a game to find your favorite programming font and JetBrains Mono is one of the contenders: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443

faldore 5y ago

1024core 5y ago

Every once in a while when I get bored, I head over to Google Fonts page and download some fonts: https://fonts.google.com/?category=Monospace&subset=latin https://fonts.google.com/?category=Monospace&subset=latin

mLewisLogic 5y ago

Too wide for me (makes side-by-side code windows less useful). Check out Iosevka SS14.

Axsuul 5y ago

I try every programming font but always end up going back to Monaco.

amir734jj 5y ago
Monaco is my go-to font
vivab0rg 5y ago
Same for me, everytime. And I'm a Linux user.

dorfsmay 5y ago

I've started using JetBraims Mono after a friend suggested it to me. If you hesitate between a few fonts, edit some text in your terminal and reduce the size of the font/terminal until it's almost unreadable. Pay special attention to the i, l, o, 0 etc...

ChrisArchitect 5y ago

Last updated 274 days ago. What's new? https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ Previous discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998

s5806533 5y ago

JetBrains Mono won the coding font tournament [1] for me, but said tournament did't have "Hack", which still looks best in my IDE (geany). [1] https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/

thecosmicfrog 5y ago

Source Code Pro is my personal go-to.

ralgozino 5y ago

In my case the font that made me stop switching fonts every month was Victor Mono: https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/ https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/

seanw444 5y ago
Damn you. Another font to add to my list to try out tomorrow. Been using JetBrains Mono for months now, and I quite like it. But I found out the the font a YouTuber I watch uses is Iosevka, which I've been hearing about, so I'm going to go custom compile it with JetBrains Mono styling added in And then I'll have to give this a go. Thanks.
- seanw444 5y ago
  Update: Victor Mono is an excellent font. It's a bit too thin for my liking on the regular weight, but semi-bold is a perfect weight. The cursive is a nice touch. Thank you.

manmal 5y ago

Installing this font is the first thing I do when setting up a new editor. It has a great character and feels pretty much ideal to me.

j1elo 5y ago

After playing the CodingFont that others commented (https://www.codingfont.com/ https://www.codingfont.com/), I ended up with this list of winners: * Cousine * JetBrains Mono * Roboto Mono * Source Code Pro However, when actually testing, they all have a something that doesn't click as good as the Ubuntu Mono in terms of horizontal spacing. All these fonts are too wide, and the step from 10pt to 11pt causes a huge increment on horizontal space usage. Whereas Ubuntu Mono stays in a perfect sweet spot when set at 13pt. Anyone finding the same? EDIT: I made a quick visual comparison (mind that all of the fonts listed above have practically the same width): https://pasteboard.co/qZ8rvfV4aEHf.png https://pasteboard.co/qZ8rvfV4aEHf.png

wodenokoto 5y ago
Yeah, you can add features to your font all you want, but in the end it comes down to “does it feel good to read?”
jrockway 5y ago
If you like narrow, you want Iosevka: https://typeof.net/Iosevka/ https://typeof.net/Iosevka/ It is my all-time favorite font.
- j1elo 5y ago
  Curiously enough, this is the only font that I've tested which matches the horizontal proportions of Ubuntu Mono; well, to be precise, iosevka is actually a couple pixels wider than the former :-) All in all, a very nice font, although if I'm allowed to complain, it now seems to me that it takes too much vertical space :-) (not just a nitpick, same test lines take considerably more pixels)
smlacy 5y ago
SF Mono (https://developer.apple.com/fonts/ https://developer.apple.com/fonts/) is also an amazing font, but generally left out of most online comparison tools due to licensing issues. But, it's freely available for personal use, and is certainly worth a look, and has been my preferred fixed width font for quite some time. SF Mono works great in any system (not just Fruit) but you'll need to use a few tools to dig down to get the OTF's out of the DMG.

forrestthewoods 5y ago

Almost all programming fonts suck on Windows. They’re designed for retina DPI MacBooks with Apple rendering. It’s annoying. As a Windows programmer my #1 font for ~15 years was Consolas. I recently made the change to Cascadia Mono. It took a couple of days to get used but it’s better. #1 Cascadia Mono #2 Consolas #3 Death

LittlePeter 5y ago

I may be weird but I prefer Times New Roman. Just joking. Ubuntu Mono for me.

seanw444 5y ago
Times New Roman is for normies. Comic Sans is best code font.

gombosg 5y ago

Also you can think out of the box and realize that you may not need a monospaced font for development, but a font that has the advantages of monospaced fonts. I've been using Input Sans for years now. See at: https://input.djr.com/info/ https://input.djr.com/info/

seanmcdirmid 5y ago
I would give it a try if it supported ligatures. I just use Verdana or Google Sans right now for code (just a good proportional sans serif font works for me, but none support coding ligatures).

tehnub 5y ago

This story links to the GitHub repo, which is useful, but I really enjoy the main webpage they've made for this font: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/

RBerenguel 5y ago

If we are throwing font recommendations here, I favour Monoid [M], I love its glyphs and look. But some years ago I installed Victor Mono [V] as a kind of practical joke on myself (it has italics, usually enabled for comments in the language you use in your editor, but of course that's up to where you want them) and I found it's actually extremely nice because of that. I now also use it on Obsidian (the other monospaced editor I use aside from VS Code/emacs) [M]: https://larsenwork.com/monoid/ [V]: https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/ Edit: formatting

TheRealDunkirk 5y ago

paulvnickerson 5y ago

Beautiful! Thanks for sharing. This is my new font in VS Code.

dang 5y ago

Past related threads: JetBrains Mono: A free and open-source typeface for developers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22053998 - Jan 2020 (201 comments) JetBrains Mono: A free and open source typeface for developers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22062675 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22062675 - Jan 2020 (29 comments)

veidr 5y ago

I used to use this font, and applaud JetBrains for creating it, but I eventually found Rec Mono Duotone, which I've now used for years. Found it via this website in a thread very much like this one, so just paying it forward: https://www.recursive.design https://www.recursive.design screenshot: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/masonmark/masons-vscode-theme/main/whatever/aah.jpg https://raw.githubusercontent.com/masonmark/masons-vscode-th...

cassianoleal 5y ago
All the Rec Mono fonts are great. I've been using Rec Mono Casual myself, both on VS Code and the terminal.

Larrikin 5y ago

At some point in grad school a few years ago, I was procrastinating furiously and did a deep dive into the font I would prefer for coding, terminal, etc. I ultimately landed on Meslo LGS with Nerd Font after also looking at different shells. I'm not a fan of ligature so don't care about those fonts Sometimes I wonder if I'm missing out on something better or if just the Meslo people came out with something great and haven't felt the need to promote it on the web in a few years since they are all gainfully employed. https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k https://github.com/romkatv/powerlevel10k https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-fonts/Meslo https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/tree/master/patched-...

incepting 5y ago

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