13 ms·

Modern Mono

296 points by zdw 4y ago

tardismechanic 4y ago
I swear by Comic Sans Mono: https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/ https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/ Reminds me not to take life too seriously ;)
xrayarx 4y ago
TFA looks for the perfect monospaced font in the Mac OS terminal, long article
bigbottomenergy 4y ago
Wow screenshots of text rendered on a notoriously bad text renderer, then downscaled and posted in a blog. A text-based description of the fonts might be worse, but only barely. Yeah, man, so much effort and every screenshot looks identical in context in the blog post. Iosevka and Iosevka-Comfy for the win.
- rzzzt 4y ago
  Click on the images to embiggen.
  - CyberDildonics 4y ago
    You probably meant 'enlarge'. "Embiggen" was made up by the simpsons as a joke.
    - throwanem 4y ago
      It's a perfectly cromulent word.
    - sorokod 4y ago
      In the same episode as that other word - amazing
      - rzzzt 4y ago
        Me fail English? That's unpossible!
    - timbray 4y ago
      Anyone can embiggen me any time they want.
    - emptybits 4y ago
      All words in use today were made up at some point and then accepted through popular use. Merriam-Webster accepted this one into their dictionary some years ago.[1] And Dictionary.com acknowledges it may have been published previously in 1884 by C.A. Ward as an example of a barbarous verb.[2][3] [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embiggen https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embiggen [2] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/embiggen https://www.dictionary.com/browse/embiggen [3] https://academic.oup.com/nq/article-abstract/s6-X/242/135/4389948?redirectedFrom=fulltext https://academic.oup.com/nq/article-abstract/s6-X/242/135/43...
    - chungy 4y ago
      You understood the meaning well enough, which is the purpose of a word. Perhaps you need to embiggen your perspective.
- TimTheTinker 4y ago
  I tried Iosevka but it felt too much like the bitmap ROM fonts on old computers and terminals. All those fonts were a little too pixel-dense.
  - bitwize 4y ago
    That may be why it -- and Envy Code R -- are the only "modern" monospace fonts I can stand for very long. Everything else just looks like IBM Letter Gothic, or some other typewriter vendor's substitute for Letter Gothic. Hence why I use bitmap or bitmap-like fonts for terminals.
qbasic_forever 4y ago
I thought it would be silly or I would hate it, but the comic sans like nature of Fantasque Sans Mono really surprised me and worked well for coding/IDE use (especially in Python): https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans
- ricardobeat 4y ago
  Looks similar to Monaco (Mac OS’s default for monospace). The slight irregularities make it more comfortable to read vs more geometrical shapes.
- otterpro 4y ago
  Yes, my favorite font for text editing. Not too unprofessional like comics-san but not dull/sterile like most mono fonts. Not sure why, but it has sort of an artistic personality, if I could describe it. Only thing I dislike is the "k" so I use the non-loop version.
- djur 4y ago
  This and Comic Code are my favorites, and Fantasque Sans Mono is free (unlike Comic Code).
acuozzo 4y ago
It's not mentioned in TFA, but I really love "Monofur". DAE know of a more complete lookalike with more glyphs?
- stronglikedan 4y ago
  That's a nice font. Thanks for the link. And thankfully, I hate glyphs.
- mcguire 4y ago
  Monofur has been my goto text font for a long time.
davidy123 4y ago
I like ligatures, little quirks (relative to ordinary fonts) make output more interesting. I wanted to get a portable monitor with a high hz rate for VR applications, and separately text test output. The best I could find, without spending too much on something that'll be better in the near future, is 16" 2560×1600. So not very high PPD. Anyone have any suggestions for a font that won't look grainy? I use it in portrait.
- cosmotic 4y ago
  The last thing I want is for my text to look interesting. I want it to be boring and instantly recognizable. I want text editors showing it to work predictably. Two characters should show as two glyphs with the background showing through the middle. All glyphs should be the same width. Ligatures break these universal consistencies and stick out, screaming for attention. I want my text to be absolutely silent.
  - DwnVoteHoneyPot 4y ago
    I find ligatures makes certain symbols instantly recognizable. Two characters, such as "=>" or "<-" look like math symbols, but then it takes one more step to realize no it's an arrow.
  - nmeofthestate 4y ago
    I recently started using a font that has ligatures - they don't break alignment of mono-spaced text, for example a two-character ligature takes up the space of two characters. I am not thrown by != showing up as an equals sign with a slash through it, because I can remember that this is in fact "!=". It's easier to read than the "raw" version. All in all I'm sold.
    - cosmotic 4y ago
      I can remember that the inequality symbol means != but I'd prefer the lower cognitive load of not having to recall anything at all. I like that Typing "!=" results in "!=" being printed to the screen. I like that pressing backspace only affects the single preceding character/glyph instead of converting the ligature back into its constituent parts. It's a consistency thing. I'm never reading math textbooks written with latex and all the fancy ligatures and symbols. I spend my entire day reading and writing code, so consistency there is paramount.
Arainach 4y ago
This is a nice overview. I don't share the author's intense distaste for serifs. In my search I ended up on Cascadia Code, which wasn't part of this comparison: https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code
- aorth 4y ago
  Yes, I also settled in Cascadia Code around a year ago. Really nice!
- nwah1 4y ago
  Yes, this one is in the same top tier along with Fira, Hack, JetBrains, and Inconsolata.
fuzzy2 4y ago
And now for the comparison on 96(-ish) PPI screens…! I find that many more recent fonts simply do not look good on those. Some are even outright terrible, glitching all over the place with subpixel rendering.
frob 4y ago
Years ago I fell in love with Anonymous Pro. Everything seems to fit just right. I've never had an issue wondering which character is which nor have I run into missing common characters. https://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro https://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro
- jjraden 4y ago
  Wow, that’s a beautiful typeface. Thanks!
the_mitsuhiko 4y ago
If you are willing to entertain non free options: MonoLisa is a pretty good font and you can customize which ligatures you are willing to entertain. (I’m basically at zero)
numbsafari 4y ago
Our terminals in college were configured with monofur, and it's whimsical nature is something I've always been partial to: https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font
rizenfrmtheash 4y ago
I tried a couple Mono Fonts and found them all kinda samey. I ended up seeing a post here for Berkeley Mono, a paid font, and I noticed in particular that it was incredibly readable compared to other mono fonts I was using, so much so that I've zoomed out one level on VS Code and iTerm and have similar readability as before. It was the first font I paid for, and I was quite happy with it. https://berkeleygraphics.com/typefaces/berkeley-mono/ https://berkeleygraphics.com/typefaces/berkeley-mono/
- replwoacause 4y ago
  I too have been following the Berkeley Mono font, and I think their website and promo materials are all very well designed. However, I tried the trial version of the font and found the kerning odd and unnatural seeming.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - systemvoltage 4y ago
    Concept of kerning doesn't make sense in monospaced fonts. You can't adjust side bearings and create kerning pairs.
    - jamesbvaughan 4y ago
      I can relate to GP's feeling here. When I first installed Berkeley Mono and looked at some code in it, I had the same reaction: the spacing between characters looked inconsistent in some words. I think that some other monospace fonts do a better job of making the narrow characters ("i", "l", etc.) match the width of wider characters. That said, I've been using it for a couple weeks now, and have stopped noticing that. My main issue with it now is that some italic glyphs get cut off in my terminal, but I'm not sure if that's the font's fault or my terminal's fault.
      - systemvoltage 4y ago
huhtenberg 4y ago
Obligatory mention of Mensch - https://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html https://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html Don't know if it counts as "modern" being 13 years old, but it's the best there is.
fallat 4y ago
Why would he miss the best of all? DejaVu Sans Mono. This font is the only thing I come back to decade after decade. There's too much good to say about it.
oltmang 4y ago
Why no Comic Mono? https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/ https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/
- snotrockets 4y ago
  Comic Code (https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code) is a bit more refined and better made imo. It is what I've been using for a few years now.
_boffin_ 4y ago
Tossing this one in here as it's a combination of Isoveska & PragmataPro: https://github.com/shytikov/pragmasevka https://github.com/shytikov/pragmasevka Been using it for a bit and I've really fallen in love with it.
graypegg 4y ago
I’ve stuck with Victor Mono for a while now, since I like having comments in cursive. I know that’s not for everyone. I just seem to parse prose a little easier with joined up letters. https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/ https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/
mortenjorck 4y ago
Like the author, I always thought IBM's Plex Mono had a bit too much character for a UI font, but I’m a big fan of IA's modifications: https://github.com/iaolo/iA-Fonts/tree/master/iA%20Writer%20Mono https://github.com/iaolo/iA-Fonts/tree/master/iA%20Writer%20... Part of the project are some interesting duospace and quad-space versions that I probably wouldn’t use for code, but are great for editing general text.
jonhohle 4y ago
I’m still enamored with Monaco after all this time. It’s fun and legible. It has bitmap and vector variants. Whenever I search for a new monospaced font, I always think: but it isn’t Monaco!
- TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
  You can pry Monaco out of my cold, dead hands. It reminds me of the old "rock" or "t" font on Linux, which someone helped me re-find here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/226593/where-can-i-find-a-modern-version-of-the-rock-or-t-console-typeface https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/226593/where-can-i-....) Unfortunately, I've tried using a version of Monaco on Windows, and whatever version I downloaded just doesn't... quite... render just right. So I stick with Droid Sans Mono on that _other_ OS.
vbernat 4y ago
In the Emacs screenshots, I am curious what "Combined ⤿" means.
fernandotakai 4y ago
i've been using dejavu sans mono for... so long that whenever i see other fonts i get weird out. i totally get people that don't like it, but fonts are so personal that i don't really care.
AceJohnny2 4y ago
Everyone plugging their favorite font, but here's an easy way to compare them side-by-side to help you choose: https://www.codingfont.com https://www.codingfont.com (featured on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443) Also this site to view a wide collection of programming fonts: https://www.programmingfonts.org https://www.programmingfonts.org
- AceJohnny2 4y ago
  Also, because people tend to be nitpicky about particular font features, such as: - g with a curve or loop at the bottom? - 0s barred, dotted or gasp nothing? - $ with full-length bar or just top/bottom pins? - etc There are some fonts families out there that let you select just the right set for you, for example Input: https://input.djr.com/info/ https://input.djr.com/info/
  - Avshalom 4y ago
    I've been using the variable width Input for a while now and I've been really enjoying it. Main downside is poor APL coverage.
- cormullion 4y ago
  Another good comparison site: https://devfonts.gafi.dev https://devfonts.gafi.dev
- Mindless2112 4y ago
  The problem with codingfont.com is that it overrides the line height, so you won't see what the line height will actually look like in your editor, which is something that I care about.
  - AlanYx 4y ago
    If your editor doesn't allow you to override the font's default line height (to whatever you like), there's a nice little tool you can use to do this to the font file itself: https://github.com/source-foundry/font-line https://github.com/source-foundry/font-line This is also useful for mixing and matching fonts. Nicolas Rougier uses this in NANO Emacs to hack the Victor Mono italic to have the same line height as Roboto Mono.
macintux 4y ago
I switched to Iosevka for both iTerm and Emacs several years ago and have been pretty happy with the added horizontal density. My only real complaint is that Emacs behaves a bit weirdly when lines exceed the buffer width, but I haven't tried switching back to a "normal" typeface to confirm that it's Iosevka's fault.
latchkey 4y ago
JetBrains Mono is my choice. I tried switching between a bunch of them and always came back to it. They've done a great job.
- seanw444 4y ago
  It looks good, and is surprisingly readable when shrunk down a bunch. It's a fantastic quick-setup font. I only don't use it as my main font anymore because I have a very personalized Iosevka build. But that takes time and motivation to do (and a mind-blowing amount of RAM).
brundolf 4y ago
It's weird to see the author talk about "information density" with monospace fonts. Am I missing something, maybe misinterpreting what he means by it?
- Etheryte 4y ago
  I'd wager the context in which it is used gives a clue: > More compact than this overview’s average but so graceful that I’ll take that and welcome the information density. My guess is they mean how wide or narrow one character is in a given monospace font.
  - brundolf 4y ago
    Yeah, that was my best guess too: visual density "Information density" normally means "how much information can fit in a piece of the screen", which is going to be the same for all monospace fonts (at the same font size, anyway)
W0lf 4y ago
I have switched to Operator Mono about 10 years ago. This font is not free though. However it was the only font (at the time I was looking at at least) that had a monospaced italic version which I found looked slick. So I ended up buying that font and used it ever since.
- keeganpoppen 4y ago
  operator mono has always been my goto since i first went into a deep dive on this topic, and i LOVE it. in the interest of full disclosure, i... torrented it... many, many years ago, but now that i'm thinking about it i will go buy a copy-- i definitely owe them at this point. highly, highly recommend operator mono-- i just feel like if you are optimizing for pure aesthetics it wins out. the italic version is definitely a big part of that.
__mharrison__ 4y ago
I used Envy Code R for a long time and switched to Iosevka a few years back. Most mono fonts feel too spread out. (From the looks of the fonts, most folks probably feel the opposite of me...)
- replwoacause 4y ago
  Love Envy Code R.
rwalle 4y ago
> I’ve just finished setting up a new Mac (14" MBP, M2 Pro, 32G, 4T) I am curious what processor, RAM or storage size have anything to do with this article.
- fredoliveira 4y ago
  Not sure the obvious needs to be stated, but it feels totally up to the author to add any detail they like. And perhaps frequent readers are interested in the tools the author uses besides their programming font?
- satysin 4y ago
  It isn't important to the article but whenever someone writes an article about doing something new/different because "I got a new computer" the first comment is always "what computer did you get?" I guess the author knows this and so pre-empted the question and decided to just answer it before anyone asks (although someone will no doubt still ask).
montroser 4y ago
Of his existing incumbent choice, Inconsolata, the author says: > Unfortunately I am failing to find the words to explain why this pleases my eyes so much; a screenful of it makes me happy. One theory about why would be that he has been looking at it day in and day out for years, and we tend to think that things we are more familiar with are more beautiful. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect
- markdoubleyou 4y ago
  This describes me. Every couple of years I read an article like this, download a handful of monospaced fonts, and try to use each one for at least an hour. Inevitably, every one of them has some little problem that rubs me the wrong way, and I go back to my old standby: Consolas, the dad jeans of programming fonts. I've been using it for 15 years, and I think I'm doomed to use it for the rest of my career.
  - jmnicolas 4y ago
    Then there are people like me that will use the default font provided by the software they use. I have absolutely no idea what coding font I use (and it varies between IDE anyway).
    - Semaphor 4y ago
      Similar for me. Sometimes articles like this motivate me to find a new font. I spend some hours deciding on one and then use it. Until I wrote my device (I use windows, so once a year), lose the font, and don't even realize it. This repeats with the next article.
  - replwoacause 4y ago
    Have you tried Menlo? It's pretty great. It manages to make you look stylish without sacrificing comfort.
    - rofrol 4y ago
themadsens 4y ago
I swear by "Monaco Nerd Mono" It was a revelation to discover "Monaco" when I first got started on the mac. So casual yet stylish and refined.
daneel_w 4y ago
I've completely fallen for Cascadia Code - https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code - which I think deserves a mention.
yes_but_no 4y ago
Few more fonts that lesser known, but worth to take a look imo - Basically a Mono https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/ https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/ - Messina Sans https://www.luzi-type.ch/messina-sans https://www.luzi-type.ch/messina-sans - PP Fraktion Mono https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/ https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/
samwillis 4y ago
I really don't get the current trend of font ligatures for things such as !=. It seems to me you loose the fundamental structure of the code. I get it looks good in screen shots on Twitter but when I tried a font with them it just seems to make me have to pause and think more. What have others experience been?
- capableweb 4y ago
  Agree with you, tried it a couple of times and found it more distracting than anything. One gripe is seeing one character, hitting backspace and instead of removing one character, it changes to another character rather than deletes it ("≠" -> hitting backspace expecting "" but instead seeing "!" now).
- masklinn 4y ago
  I love ligatures. I find that well crafted ones make code look more coherent without detracting in any way from the structure (unlike proportional fonts which I abhor). They're also very useful for languages which have operators which are easy to confuse, like the triple equal of PHP and JS (in which case having a ligature that's really distinct from the double equal is very convenient).
  - capableweb 4y ago
    Monospace font on HN seems to do good enough, at least for me, or you think these are too similar as well? == vs === On my machine(s), the difference is quite obvious, with the space in-between each equal sign and all.
    - WorldMaker 4y ago
      The difference is obvious when paired together next to each other like that, but the issue with code is often you are looking at examples (often with weary eyes) that are "miles apart" or the only one in a file and trying to spot the difference. The ligatures that stack a third bar vertically across the space of three characters do jump out at you as much more meaningfully distinct in isolation. You don't have to just count width or whitespace, you have a third "clue" to work with, and sometimes that extra "clue" is incredibly important when you are tired and staring a bunch of code you expected to work and has a subtle bug and need to visually spot the subtle bug.
sfpotter 4y ago
Monaco until the day I die.
deckard1 4y ago
> Uh, no, it smells of mainframes. Look at some of those 90° serifs, right out of the 1950’s. maybe that's why I like IBM Plex Mono so much. My go-to font has always been DejaVu Sans and before that Bitstream Vera Sans, which are pretty much the same font. But I like IBM Plex after using it for awhile. I'm not that anal about serifs or whatnot. But a font has to "feel" right with a page of code open. And the very minimum they have to get the O (letter "O") vs. 0 (number zero) right as well as I (letter "I") vs. 1 (number one). If you can't get that right then it's a useless coding font.
macrael 4y ago
I don't know why this gets me so hot but you really don't need to be using a monospaced font for code anymore. Monospaced fonts are an abomination created because it made programming early terminals easier, we've long since outgrown our use for them and yet they are entrenched in programming culture because we still use terminal emulators based on those same standards to this day. Give your eyes a rest and look at your code in a variable width font. I've been using Avenir for years and it is so nice.
- Freedom2 4y ago
  Are there any variable width fonts with ligatures? While a bit of a debate on their usefulness, I quite enjoy fonts with them. In addition, how well does block-editing work with variable width fonts? I don't do it too often, but it does massively speed up my workflow when I have to.
- ricardobeat 4y ago
  What about alignment? The space character is much narrower in most fonts, making code have a terrible rythm.
  - macrael 4y ago
    I've found I don't miss the ability to carefully align stuff outside of the initial indentation. I actually use a slightly modified Avenir that prints a wider space if it's the first thing in a line, making the indentation stand out more. The rhythm of a general line of code I think is improved because it reads like regular text.
  - Narishma 4y ago
    That's what tabs are for.
  - Stratoscope 4y ago
    The key to using a proportional font is to give up alignment completely, and only use indentation. Once you do that, it no longer matters whether you use a proportional or monospaced font. The Black formatter for Python is an interesting example. It strictly uses indentation only and never uses alignment. As a result, Black-formatted code is equally readable in any font, monospaced or proportional. I use my own customized proportional font called Trebuchet++, and Black code looks great in it. If you didn't know I was using a proportional font, you might not even notice that it wasn't monospaced. As you may guess, Trebuchet++ started out as Trebuchet MS, which I found I really enjoy reading on a high-DPI display. Then I started tweaking things in FontForge: Trebuchet MS has a terrible tilde character that looks too much like a minus sign. So I put in a better defined glyph for that. One problem in a proportional font if you use names_with_underscores as required by too many coding standards: the underscore character is much too wide compared to a period. This gives a visual grouping that is the opposite of what you want, for example in foo_bar.moo_car(), "bar" and "moo" are closer together than "foo" and "bar" or "moo" and "car". This is misleading visually. So I used FontForge to add a bit of space on each side of the dot, and add negative space on each side of the underscore. In the example above, this pulls the "foo" and "bar" in "foo_bar" closer to each other, and similary for "moo_car". At the same time, it adds some separation between "bar" and "moo". The difference is subtle, but in terms of visual grouping it avoids having the code read like this: foo bar moo car So it reads more like this: foo bar moo car I have a couple of other tweaks I haven't gotten to yet. In particular I want to add a bit of margin on the inside of parentheses and square brackets. In my own code where I get to choose the style, I've always uses a space inside those. I find this offers a real improvement in readability. But if I can't do that, at least I can fix it with some font tweaks!
amelius 4y ago
You really have to use a font for a few days before you can judge it. I personally use Iosevka, but it took some time to get used to.
ilyagr 4y ago
I wish the article mentioned Fira Mono, which is the same as Fira Code but without the ligatures.
globalreset 4y ago
In my experience on every setup: different OS version, different screen, etc. the rendering of fonts gives slightly different results, to the point, I just choose whatever works best at a given moment, and don't get too attached to it.
fictorial 4y ago
I fell in love with Recursive (Casual Mono). To me, it's the perfect blend of slightly casual, slightly serif-ish, and not too skinny. https://recursive.design https://recursive.design Screenshot: https://freeimage.host/i/HE6AFfV https://freeimage.host/i/HE6AFfV
tbolt 4y ago
If you're on MacOS, SF Mono is available out-of-the-box pretty sure. I use it in Terminal.app and text editors (mostly Nova.app) and it looks great.
WatchDog 4y ago
The screenshots look really poorly compressed and noisy, not great for comparing fonts.
- Narishma 4y ago
  You can click them to get the full version.
  - WatchDog 4y ago
    I'm aware of that thanks. The images have been scaled, to varying degrees. It makes them basically useless for comparing fonts. You can see obvious signs of this by comparing the below two screenshots, the macOS window UI elements are different sizes. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/inconsolata-light.png https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/inco... https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/droid-sans.png https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/droi...
deevus 4y ago
I thought this was going to be about C#. I was a little disappointed that it was about fonts, heh.
mafuyu 4y ago
For my mono font, I converted the Atkinson Hyperlegible[0] font into mono, and have been using it as my terminal and editor font for over a year now. It's pretty janky, but it's surprisingly lasted longer than many of the other fonts I've tried over the years. If you want to try it: https://github.com/Hylian/atkinson-monolegible https://github.com/Hylian/atkinson-monolegible [0]: https://brailleinstitute.org/freefont https://brailleinstitute.org/freefont
amacbride 4y ago
As a traditionalist, I swear by good ol' X11 "fixed" (6x13) -- great density and legibility, with pretty much any glyph one would want. https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs-fonts.html https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs-fonts.html
- ElderKorihor 4y ago
  Yup. I emailed myself the string "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1" a couple decades ago just to make sure I didn't lose it. Not sure what I'll do when I finally get a HiDPI display. I think it's part of the reason I haven't made the jump yet.
amake 4y ago
Oh boy time for this again: > To all the people complaining about how they don't like ligatures: > Nobody cares. If you don't like them, then don't use them. They are optional. > Lots of people like them. Let people like things. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34589338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34589338
durandal1 4y ago
If you had asked me 1 year ago whether I would pay $75 for a coding font I would have laughed at you. And yet, here we are, my font of choice is Berkeley Mono any day, everyday.
panda88888 4y ago
I like iA Writer Duospace. It is not a strictly monospaced font, but imo the additional half width really makes m/w much more readable.
- sjm 4y ago
  It's such a great font. I've been through them all, and even hacked together my own custom version of Office Code Pro, and while I switch every now and then, the iA Writer fonts are my favourites. I pair them with the Quatro version for code comments.
kristjansson 4y ago
Just pay the man for PragmataPro[1] and turn off anti-aliasing in Emacs and iTerm. The font is legible and beautiful at every size on any screen. [1]: https://fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/ https://fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- jamestanderson 4y ago
  I'm a big fan of this font, I use it every day and have never regretted the purchase. Unfortunately the OP noted they didn't like Iosevka, which I think is pretty visually similar.
  - DiabloD3 4y ago
    Pragmata Pro is a huge influence on Iosevka, the author has admitted it. What makes Pragmata Pro work, afaict (since I've yet to actually buy the damned thing), is it is insanely well hinted... this is the one thing Iosevka will never have (it depends on ttfautohint, which although acceptable, will never be good as a talented font hinter producing his art). Having tried, and evaluated, basically every mono font in existence worth using here, I may end up just buying Pragmata Pro. My current daily driver is Input, and not set as a compressed or condensed style. Input is only hinted for the weights Light, Regular, Medium, and Bold, for normal width; the other three more narrow widths are not hinted at any weight. At the sizes I prefer text, Input requires the hinting supplied by the author.
- cranium 4y ago
  I finally bought it a month ago after years of "trial". It's an expense that student me would never had approved, but now I'm glad to give back because the font makes me so happy.
- blipmusic 4y ago
  I love PragmataPro. It's not just the look, but also the character support and many of its design features. I work with linguists in academia and get to work on a lot of plain text data - transcriptions and what not. PragmataPro's IPA support is something I make use of every, single day, not just for coding. If I had to pick a single font to use for anything and everything for the rest of my life, this would be it - including reading.
forrestthewoods 4y ago
Consolas is the old best. Cascadia Code is the new best.
mikl 4y ago
Shame he apparently only tries one of the very light weights of Iosevka. I love my Iosevka Slab. The “light” weight works great on retina displays imho.
dancemethis 4y ago
Iosevka is glorious.
xyproto 4y ago
I've been using JetBrains Mono NL for some time, but after reading the article I want to give Hack a shot, since it's more vertically compact.
okasaki 4y ago
I tried Scientifica as a joke, and have ended up using it both in the terminal and editor: https://github.com/nerdypepper/scientifica https://github.com/nerdypepper/scientifica The blockiness just works for me. Reminds me of old DOS fonts. Coworkers hate looking at my screen though.
djha-skin 4y ago
I like old mono. I was reading Guy Steele's Common Lisp book and loved the font so much I looked it up. Turns out it's called Letter Gothic Standard, and it looks awesome in code: https://www.wfonts.com/font/letter-gothic-std https://www.wfonts.com/font/letter-gothic-std
- computerfriend 4y ago
  Wow, this typeface is delightful. Thanks.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
localhost 4y ago
I'm a big fan of Lilex and use it currently: https://github.com/mishamyrt/Lilex https://github.com/mishamyrt/Lilex. I think it looks quite a bit like Inconsolata which I used to use a long time ago.
rubyist5eva 4y ago
last year I made a custom build of Iosevka using the customizer on the website and building it on my machine, and I can't use any other font now. If you like the general look of Iosevka, but prefer certain glyph variants over others - highly recommended to look into creating a custom iosevka build for yourself
joshu 4y ago
6x13 or gtfo
magios 4y ago
unifont http://unifoundry.com/unifont/index.html http://unifoundry.com/unifont/index.html
- djha-skin 4y ago
  Ugly as sin but works on everything everywhere. Truly a font built for a war zone.
29athrowaway 4y ago
Iosevka has a large number of variations, weights, widths and styles. He just cherry-picked one and decided he didn't like it. Based on his preferences, he should try Iosevka Term SS10 Extended instead.
- pstadler 4y ago
  Whenever I‘m trying a different font, it doesn’t last for long. Not only does Iosevka support all kind of variations (as in: there’s a style for everyone), it‘s also very narrow. I always find it odd when looking at different fonts taking up 1.5 times the horizontal space, especially in terminals. I‘m using a mixture of SS10 and SS05.
  - 29athrowaway 4y ago
    The Extended width is not narrow.
irdc 4y ago
Seeing as everybody's using this space to plug their favourite font, and the one I use hasn't been mentioned yet: I'm partial to Generic Mono II (http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-75172.html http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-75172.html & https://github.com/organicplanning/hackedfonts https://github.com/organicplanning/hackedfonts). It has slashed zeroes and, with a reduced character spacing, just looks nice and otherwise doesn't distract from what I'm doing. Though it's coverage outside of the Latin character set leaves a bit more to be desired.
foreigner 4y ago
Is there some sort of organisation or society for people who just don't care about fonts? I think we need a secret handshake or a bumper sticker or something.
- hahamaster 4y ago
  Yes, they're called peasants.
- adastra22 4y ago
  The secret “handshake” is just using Comic Sans for everything.
  - foreigner 4y ago
    No, those people went out of their way to choose a font. They're not members.
  - paldepind2 4y ago
    I use Comic Code for programming[1]. At some point I got bored of all the squarish typewriter-like fonts that makes code look boring and mechanical. Comic Code is fun and human. 1: https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code
    - pkphilip 4y ago
      This is actually surprisingly nice! :)
    - adastra22 4y ago
      This looks really good! Now I want a mono spaced Papyrus font.
    - Doxin 4y ago
      I used monofur[0] for the longest time, which is squarely in the category of quirky fonts, though definitely more regular than comic sans. It has basically no confusible characters in it at all which is a nice property. [0] https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font
rcarmo 4y ago
I use Fira Code wherever I can (have done so for years) and Inter as a system font. I find the combination extremely readable.
eterevsky 4y ago
I did a similar comparison for all the mentioned fonts, but optimized more for the legibility of source code. I ended up selecting Source Code Pro.
KronisLV 4y ago
Looking at the screenshots, to me the fonts with the stronger and more defined lines seem slightly better than others: - Go Mono - JetBrains Mono - MesloLGS NF In comparison, there are some that are clearly harder to read: - Iosevka Term - Inconsolata Light I actually commented on the fonts that I use (Liberation Mono for readability and PT Mono for stylistic preferences) a while ago, with my own example images, but I'll also agree with the statement that most modern fonts look a bit samey: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34588312 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34588312 However, I can't help but to wonder how exactly one would measure how light or heavy a font is, when compared against other fonts. Maybe some measurement of how much contrast there is to the edges of the strokes (e.g. the font doesn't appear blurry and is readable, given a certain quality of eyesight, at a particular size and distance), or just how much of the image is made up by dark tones, or how clear the strokes are? Comparing the histograms seems borderline useless, for example, even between Go Mono and Inconsolata Light the differences are very slight: https://imgur.com/a/BWbzJzj https://imgur.com/a/BWbzJzj
- professoretc 4y ago
  > - Iosevka Term Iosevka comes with about a million different variations (and you can build custom variations by building the font from source). From the screenshot, it looks like the author was using the light weight; I almost always use medium. Similarly, if you don't like serifs, you can turn them off; I use the "hooky" variant which adds loopy tails to some letters.
arh68 4y ago
The tournament thing is kinda fun, but deep down I think we know which we like best. For me, it's serif fonts 1. Triplicate A Code 2. NSimSun 3. Courier Prime Sans serif fonts certainly have their own appeal 1. The Sans Mono (the O'Reilly book font) / Fira 2. APL385 Unicode (this font's got maybe the best numbers) 3. Mononoki Pixel fonts, classics (but maybe best on low DPI) 1. Fixedsys Excelsior 3.01 2. 6x13
hahamaster 4y ago
Andale Mono - one for the ages. Tried a lot of others and always come back to it. How can anyone use anything else is beyond me ;-)
SLWW 4y ago
> I got a huge number of suggestions, of which I downloaded 16, basically all the ones that are free. In general I prefer to pay for things and am suspicious of anything that’s free on the Net, but when there are so many good free options I just don’t think there’s a business model. This sentiment is quite odd; given that who would ever pay for a font? I get being suspicious of "free" but if you use Google, or have a gmail account. Heck even Mastodon is a free software package. I see this a lot with older development communities; even though I've been writing code for many years; while working on an old application I was met with a prompt to purchase a license to use a library. It took me aback because while I've heard about buying and selling libraries, I've never (ever) ran into it before working at my current job. It's odd, and thankfully a dying way of making money since every dev license is at minimum $500 for a year; to $5000 annually to use those libraries in production, not even just the time to develop with them. Never buy a font please
- TurboHaskal 4y ago
  You’re glad it’s a dying way to make money but I remember developing and selling software tools and libraries was fulfilling and a lot of fun. Definitely beats writing hundreds of yaml configuration for open source libraries and fishing for thumbs up in GitHub issues so they get more attention :)
TomMasz 4y ago
I'm currently using Menlo in VS Code (on Mac) since SF Mono is too restrictive for my needs. I like Fira Code but the ligatures, while very nice, would be confusing for my students and probably best not used.
- rofrol 4y ago
  Looks great https://imgur.com/a/5zPQ09F https://imgur.com/a/5zPQ09F
TacticalCoder 4y ago
Anyone know of a similar comparison of screenshots using subpixel-AA instead of "monoscale"? (it's not really "grayscale" as the color used is not gray). I know OS X dropped subpixel-AA but, to me, the only criticism about subpixel-AA is long gone: on monitors with low DPI it could make letters a bit blurry in some kind of a psychedelic way. But now all monitors have higher DPI and I'm devv'ing on Linux only, which does support subpixel AA, and I turn subpixel-AA on where I can. If anything it makes rendering less blurry.
- TacticalCoder 4y ago
  Answering my own question, user "cornellion" posted in this HN thread a link to a site which uses your system to actually render the fonts in order to compare them, as opposed to screenshots, so as my system uses subpixel-AA I can see what they're going to actually look like on my system: https://devfonts.gafi.dev/ https://devfonts.gafi.dev/
shadowofneptune 4y ago
Go Mono is a favorite of mine. The serifs give more of a book feel than most monospace fonts. Each character is also quite visually distinct.
fire 4y ago
I dislike most mono fonts, but I found a monospace version of Atkinson Hyperlegible a while back and was using it until the author made a new monospace font they call Unolexic[1]; I've been using it since. They also have done posts comparing different parts of different fonts[2], making quasi-monospace fonts[3], etc., which are fascinating to read. 1: http://thedarnedestthing.com/unolexic http://thedarnedestthing.com/unolexic 2: http://thedarnedestthing.com/monolexic%20timeline http://thedarnedestthing.com/monolexic%20timeline 3: http://thedarnedestthing.com/quasimono http://thedarnedestthing.com/quasimono
- junon 4y ago
  It's a beautiful typeface but I find it exceptionally hard to read on mobile at least, which doesn't bode well for terminal work.
Terretta 4y ago
Andale Mono since 1993 -- it's on your Mac, and in Windows "Core Fonts for the Web", try it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalé_Mono https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalé_Mono Author criteria was free. This has been free, and even without MacOS, can still be legally gotten free: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_Web // Lucida Console is not the same.
alexeiz 4y ago
The font rendering engine affects the font appearance significantly. Fonts that look good on macOS don't necessarily look as good on Linux or Windows and visa versa. There are also fonts designed specifically for macOS, Linux or Windows. For example, the rendering of Iosevka Term on macOS looks quite bad, but on Linux it's rendered very well both in 96 dpi and hidpi. So there are no "best" fonts. You have to try them all and decide for yourself which one looks the best.

296 points by zdw 4y ago

I swear by Comic Sans Mono: https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/ https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/ Reminds me not to take life too seriously ;)

xrayarx 4y ago

TFA looks for the perfect monospaced font in the Mac OS terminal, long article

bigbottomenergy 4y ago

Wow screenshots of text rendered on a notoriously bad text renderer, then downscaled and posted in a blog. A text-based description of the fonts might be worse, but only barely. Yeah, man, so much effort and every screenshot looks identical in context in the blog post. Iosevka and Iosevka-Comfy for the win.

rzzzt 4y ago
Click on the images to embiggen.
- CyberDildonics 4y ago
  You probably meant 'enlarge'. "Embiggen" was made up by the simpsons as a joke.
  - throwanem 4y ago
    It's a perfectly cromulent word.
  - sorokod 4y ago
    In the same episode as that other word - amazing
    - rzzzt 4y ago
      Me fail English? That's unpossible!
  - timbray 4y ago
    Anyone can embiggen me any time they want.
  - emptybits 4y ago
    All words in use today were made up at some point and then accepted through popular use. Merriam-Webster accepted this one into their dictionary some years ago.[1] And Dictionary.com acknowledges it may have been published previously in 1884 by C.A. Ward as an example of a barbarous verb.[2][3] [1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embiggen https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/embiggen [2] https://www.dictionary.com/browse/embiggen https://www.dictionary.com/browse/embiggen [3] https://academic.oup.com/nq/article-abstract/s6-X/242/135/4389948?redirectedFrom=fulltext https://academic.oup.com/nq/article-abstract/s6-X/242/135/43...
  - chungy 4y ago
    You understood the meaning well enough, which is the purpose of a word. Perhaps you need to embiggen your perspective.
TimTheTinker 4y ago
I tried Iosevka but it felt too much like the bitmap ROM fonts on old computers and terminals. All those fonts were a little too pixel-dense.
- bitwize 4y ago
  That may be why it -- and Envy Code R -- are the only "modern" monospace fonts I can stand for very long. Everything else just looks like IBM Letter Gothic, or some other typewriter vendor's substitute for Letter Gothic. Hence why I use bitmap or bitmap-like fonts for terminals.

qbasic_forever 4y ago

I thought it would be silly or I would hate it, but the comic sans like nature of Fantasque Sans Mono really surprised me and worked well for coding/IDE use (especially in Python): https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans

ricardobeat 4y ago
Looks similar to Monaco (Mac OS’s default for monospace). The slight irregularities make it more comfortable to read vs more geometrical shapes.
otterpro 4y ago
Yes, my favorite font for text editing. Not too unprofessional like comics-san but not dull/sterile like most mono fonts. Not sure why, but it has sort of an artistic personality, if I could describe it. Only thing I dislike is the "k" so I use the non-loop version.
djur 4y ago
This and Comic Code are my favorites, and Fantasque Sans Mono is free (unlike Comic Code).

acuozzo 4y ago

It's not mentioned in TFA, but I really love "Monofur". DAE know of a more complete lookalike with more glyphs?

stronglikedan 4y ago
That's a nice font. Thanks for the link. And thankfully, I hate glyphs.
mcguire 4y ago
Monofur has been my goto text font for a long time.

davidy123 4y ago

I like ligatures, little quirks (relative to ordinary fonts) make output more interesting. I wanted to get a portable monitor with a high hz rate for VR applications, and separately text test output. The best I could find, without spending too much on something that'll be better in the near future, is 16" 2560×1600. So not very high PPD. Anyone have any suggestions for a font that won't look grainy? I use it in portrait.

cosmotic 4y ago
The last thing I want is for my text to look interesting. I want it to be boring and instantly recognizable. I want text editors showing it to work predictably. Two characters should show as two glyphs with the background showing through the middle. All glyphs should be the same width. Ligatures break these universal consistencies and stick out, screaming for attention. I want my text to be absolutely silent.
- DwnVoteHoneyPot 4y ago
  I find ligatures makes certain symbols instantly recognizable. Two characters, such as "=>" or "<-" look like math symbols, but then it takes one more step to realize no it's an arrow.
- nmeofthestate 4y ago
  I recently started using a font that has ligatures - they don't break alignment of mono-spaced text, for example a two-character ligature takes up the space of two characters. I am not thrown by != showing up as an equals sign with a slash through it, because I can remember that this is in fact "!=". It's easier to read than the "raw" version. All in all I'm sold.
  - cosmotic 4y ago
    I can remember that the inequality symbol means != but I'd prefer the lower cognitive load of not having to recall anything at all. I like that Typing "!=" results in "!=" being printed to the screen. I like that pressing backspace only affects the single preceding character/glyph instead of converting the ligature back into its constituent parts. It's a consistency thing. I'm never reading math textbooks written with latex and all the fancy ligatures and symbols. I spend my entire day reading and writing code, so consistency there is paramount.

Arainach 4y ago

This is a nice overview. I don't share the author's intense distaste for serifs. In my search I ended up on Cascadia Code, which wasn't part of this comparison: https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code

aorth 4y ago
Yes, I also settled in Cascadia Code around a year ago. Really nice!
nwah1 4y ago
Yes, this one is in the same top tier along with Fira, Hack, JetBrains, and Inconsolata.

fuzzy2 4y ago

And now for the comparison on 96(-ish) PPI screens…! I find that many more recent fonts simply do not look good on those. Some are even outright terrible, glitching all over the place with subpixel rendering.

frob 4y ago

Years ago I fell in love with Anonymous Pro. Everything seems to fit just right. I've never had an issue wondering which character is which nor have I run into missing common characters. https://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro https://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro

jjraden 4y ago
Wow, that’s a beautiful typeface. Thanks!

the_mitsuhiko 4y ago

If you are willing to entertain non free options: MonoLisa is a pretty good font and you can customize which ligatures you are willing to entertain. (I’m basically at zero)

numbsafari 4y ago

Our terminals in college were configured with monofur, and it's whimsical nature is something I've always been partial to: https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font

rizenfrmtheash 4y ago

I tried a couple Mono Fonts and found them all kinda samey. I ended up seeing a post here for Berkeley Mono, a paid font, and I noticed in particular that it was incredibly readable compared to other mono fonts I was using, so much so that I've zoomed out one level on VS Code and iTerm and have similar readability as before. It was the first font I paid for, and I was quite happy with it. https://berkeleygraphics.com/typefaces/berkeley-mono/ https://berkeleygraphics.com/typefaces/berkeley-mono/

replwoacause 4y ago
I too have been following the Berkeley Mono font, and I think their website and promo materials are all very well designed. However, I tried the trial version of the font and found the kerning odd and unnatural seeming.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- systemvoltage 4y ago
  Concept of kerning doesn't make sense in monospaced fonts. You can't adjust side bearings and create kerning pairs.
  - jamesbvaughan 4y ago
    I can relate to GP's feeling here. When I first installed Berkeley Mono and looked at some code in it, I had the same reaction: the spacing between characters looked inconsistent in some words. I think that some other monospace fonts do a better job of making the narrow characters ("i", "l", etc.) match the width of wider characters. That said, I've been using it for a couple weeks now, and have stopped noticing that. My main issue with it now is that some italic glyphs get cut off in my terminal, but I'm not sure if that's the font's fault or my terminal's fault.
    - systemvoltage 4y ago

huhtenberg 4y ago

Obligatory mention of Mensch - https://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html https://robey.lag.net/2010/06/21/mensch-font.html Don't know if it counts as "modern" being 13 years old, but it's the best there is.

fallat 4y ago

Why would he miss the best of all? DejaVu Sans Mono. This font is the only thing I come back to decade after decade. There's too much good to say about it.

oltmang 4y ago

Why no Comic Mono? https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/ https://dtinth.github.io/comic-mono-font/

snotrockets 4y ago
Comic Code (https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code) is a bit more refined and better made imo. It is what I've been using for a few years now.

_boffin_ 4y ago

Tossing this one in here as it's a combination of Isoveska & PragmataPro: https://github.com/shytikov/pragmasevka https://github.com/shytikov/pragmasevka Been using it for a bit and I've really fallen in love with it.

graypegg 4y ago

I’ve stuck with Victor Mono for a while now, since I like having comments in cursive. I know that’s not for everyone. I just seem to parse prose a little easier with joined up letters. https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/ https://rubjo.github.io/victor-mono/

mortenjorck 4y ago

Like the author, I always thought IBM's Plex Mono had a bit too much character for a UI font, but I’m a big fan of IA's modifications: https://github.com/iaolo/iA-Fonts/tree/master/iA%20Writer%20Mono https://github.com/iaolo/iA-Fonts/tree/master/iA%20Writer%20... Part of the project are some interesting duospace and quad-space versions that I probably wouldn’t use for code, but are great for editing general text.

jonhohle 4y ago

I’m still enamored with Monaco after all this time. It’s fun and legible. It has bitmap and vector variants. Whenever I search for a new monospaced font, I always think: but it isn’t Monaco!

TheRealDunkirk 4y ago
You can pry Monaco out of my cold, dead hands. It reminds me of the old "rock" or "t" font on Linux, which someone helped me re-find here: https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/226593/where-can-i-find-a-modern-version-of-the-rock-or-t-console-typeface https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/226593/where-can-i-....) Unfortunately, I've tried using a version of Monaco on Windows, and whatever version I downloaded just doesn't... quite... render just right. So I stick with Droid Sans Mono on that _other_ OS.

vbernat 4y ago

In the Emacs screenshots, I am curious what "Combined ⤿" means.

fernandotakai 4y ago

i've been using dejavu sans mono for... so long that whenever i see other fonts i get weird out. i totally get people that don't like it, but fonts are so personal that i don't really care.

AceJohnny2 4y ago

Everyone plugging their favorite font, but here's an easy way to compare them side-by-side to help you choose: https://www.codingfont.com https://www.codingfont.com (featured on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443) Also this site to view a wide collection of programming fonts: https://www.programmingfonts.org https://www.programmingfonts.org

AceJohnny2 4y ago
Also, because people tend to be nitpicky about particular font features, such as: - g with a curve or loop at the bottom? - 0s barred, dotted or gasp nothing? - $ with full-length bar or just top/bottom pins? - etc There are some fonts families out there that let you select just the right set for you, for example Input: https://input.djr.com/info/ https://input.djr.com/info/
- Avshalom 4y ago
  I've been using the variable width Input for a while now and I've been really enjoying it. Main downside is poor APL coverage.
cormullion 4y ago
Another good comparison site: https://devfonts.gafi.dev https://devfonts.gafi.dev
Mindless2112 4y ago
The problem with codingfont.com is that it overrides the line height, so you won't see what the line height will actually look like in your editor, which is something that I care about.
- AlanYx 4y ago
  If your editor doesn't allow you to override the font's default line height (to whatever you like), there's a nice little tool you can use to do this to the font file itself: https://github.com/source-foundry/font-line https://github.com/source-foundry/font-line This is also useful for mixing and matching fonts. Nicolas Rougier uses this in NANO Emacs to hack the Victor Mono italic to have the same line height as Roboto Mono.

macintux 4y ago

I switched to Iosevka for both iTerm and Emacs several years ago and have been pretty happy with the added horizontal density. My only real complaint is that Emacs behaves a bit weirdly when lines exceed the buffer width, but I haven't tried switching back to a "normal" typeface to confirm that it's Iosevka's fault.

latchkey 4y ago

JetBrains Mono is my choice. I tried switching between a bunch of them and always came back to it. They've done a great job.

seanw444 4y ago
It looks good, and is surprisingly readable when shrunk down a bunch. It's a fantastic quick-setup font. I only don't use it as my main font anymore because I have a very personalized Iosevka build. But that takes time and motivation to do (and a mind-blowing amount of RAM).

brundolf 4y ago

It's weird to see the author talk about "information density" with monospace fonts. Am I missing something, maybe misinterpreting what he means by it?

Etheryte 4y ago
I'd wager the context in which it is used gives a clue: > More compact than this overview’s average but so graceful that I’ll take that and welcome the information density. My guess is they mean how wide or narrow one character is in a given monospace font.
- brundolf 4y ago
  Yeah, that was my best guess too: visual density "Information density" normally means "how much information can fit in a piece of the screen", which is going to be the same for all monospace fonts (at the same font size, anyway)

W0lf 4y ago

I have switched to Operator Mono about 10 years ago. This font is not free though. However it was the only font (at the time I was looking at at least) that had a monospaced italic version which I found looked slick. So I ended up buying that font and used it ever since.

keeganpoppen 4y ago
operator mono has always been my goto since i first went into a deep dive on this topic, and i LOVE it. in the interest of full disclosure, i... torrented it... many, many years ago, but now that i'm thinking about it i will go buy a copy-- i definitely owe them at this point. highly, highly recommend operator mono-- i just feel like if you are optimizing for pure aesthetics it wins out. the italic version is definitely a big part of that.

__mharrison__ 4y ago

I used Envy Code R for a long time and switched to Iosevka a few years back. Most mono fonts feel too spread out. (From the looks of the fonts, most folks probably feel the opposite of me...)

replwoacause 4y ago
Love Envy Code R.

rwalle 4y ago

> I’ve just finished setting up a new Mac (14" MBP, M2 Pro, 32G, 4T) I am curious what processor, RAM or storage size have anything to do with this article.

fredoliveira 4y ago
Not sure the obvious needs to be stated, but it feels totally up to the author to add any detail they like. And perhaps frequent readers are interested in the tools the author uses besides their programming font?
satysin 4y ago
It isn't important to the article but whenever someone writes an article about doing something new/different because "I got a new computer" the first comment is always "what computer did you get?" I guess the author knows this and so pre-empted the question and decided to just answer it before anyone asks (although someone will no doubt still ask).

montroser 4y ago

Of his existing incumbent choice, Inconsolata, the author says: > Unfortunately I am failing to find the words to explain why this pleases my eyes so much; a screenful of it makes me happy. One theory about why would be that he has been looking at it day in and day out for years, and we tend to think that things we are more familiar with are more beautiful. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mere-exposure_effect

markdoubleyou 4y ago
This describes me. Every couple of years I read an article like this, download a handful of monospaced fonts, and try to use each one for at least an hour. Inevitably, every one of them has some little problem that rubs me the wrong way, and I go back to my old standby: Consolas, the dad jeans of programming fonts. I've been using it for 15 years, and I think I'm doomed to use it for the rest of my career.
- jmnicolas 4y ago
  Then there are people like me that will use the default font provided by the software they use. I have absolutely no idea what coding font I use (and it varies between IDE anyway).
  - Semaphor 4y ago
    Similar for me. Sometimes articles like this motivate me to find a new font. I spend some hours deciding on one and then use it. Until I wrote my device (I use windows, so once a year), lose the font, and don't even realize it. This repeats with the next article.
- replwoacause 4y ago
  Have you tried Menlo? It's pretty great. It manages to make you look stylish without sacrificing comfort.
  - rofrol 4y ago

themadsens 4y ago

I swear by "Monaco Nerd Mono" It was a revelation to discover "Monaco" when I first got started on the mac. So casual yet stylish and refined.

daneel_w 4y ago

I've completely fallen for Cascadia Code - https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code - which I think deserves a mention.

yes_but_no 4y ago

Few more fonts that lesser known, but worth to take a look imo - Basically a Mono https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/ https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/ - Messina Sans https://www.luzi-type.ch/messina-sans https://www.luzi-type.ch/messina-sans - PP Fraktion Mono https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/ https://experi.mentallydesigned.com/type/bam/

samwillis 4y ago

I really don't get the current trend of font ligatures for things such as !=. It seems to me you loose the fundamental structure of the code. I get it looks good in screen shots on Twitter but when I tried a font with them it just seems to make me have to pause and think more. What have others experience been?

capableweb 4y ago
Agree with you, tried it a couple of times and found it more distracting than anything. One gripe is seeing one character, hitting backspace and instead of removing one character, it changes to another character rather than deletes it ("≠" -> hitting backspace expecting "" but instead seeing "!" now).
masklinn 4y ago
I love ligatures. I find that well crafted ones make code look more coherent without detracting in any way from the structure (unlike proportional fonts which I abhor). They're also very useful for languages which have operators which are easy to confuse, like the triple equal of PHP and JS (in which case having a ligature that's really distinct from the double equal is very convenient).
- capableweb 4y ago
  Monospace font on HN seems to do good enough, at least for me, or you think these are too similar as well? == vs === On my machine(s), the difference is quite obvious, with the space in-between each equal sign and all.
  - WorldMaker 4y ago
    The difference is obvious when paired together next to each other like that, but the issue with code is often you are looking at examples (often with weary eyes) that are "miles apart" or the only one in a file and trying to spot the difference. The ligatures that stack a third bar vertically across the space of three characters do jump out at you as much more meaningfully distinct in isolation. You don't have to just count width or whitespace, you have a third "clue" to work with, and sometimes that extra "clue" is incredibly important when you are tired and staring a bunch of code you expected to work and has a subtle bug and need to visually spot the subtle bug.

sfpotter 4y ago

Monaco until the day I die.

deckard1 4y ago

> Uh, no, it smells of mainframes. Look at some of those 90° serifs, right out of the 1950’s. maybe that's why I like IBM Plex Mono so much. My go-to font has always been DejaVu Sans and before that Bitstream Vera Sans, which are pretty much the same font. But I like IBM Plex after using it for awhile. I'm not that anal about serifs or whatnot. But a font has to "feel" right with a page of code open. And the very minimum they have to get the O (letter "O") vs. 0 (number zero) right as well as I (letter "I") vs. 1 (number one). If you can't get that right then it's a useless coding font.

macrael 4y ago

I don't know why this gets me so hot but you really don't need to be using a monospaced font for code anymore. Monospaced fonts are an abomination created because it made programming early terminals easier, we've long since outgrown our use for them and yet they are entrenched in programming culture because we still use terminal emulators based on those same standards to this day. Give your eyes a rest and look at your code in a variable width font. I've been using Avenir for years and it is so nice.

Freedom2 4y ago
Are there any variable width fonts with ligatures? While a bit of a debate on their usefulness, I quite enjoy fonts with them. In addition, how well does block-editing work with variable width fonts? I don't do it too often, but it does massively speed up my workflow when I have to.
ricardobeat 4y ago
What about alignment? The space character is much narrower in most fonts, making code have a terrible rythm.
- macrael 4y ago
  I've found I don't miss the ability to carefully align stuff outside of the initial indentation. I actually use a slightly modified Avenir that prints a wider space if it's the first thing in a line, making the indentation stand out more. The rhythm of a general line of code I think is improved because it reads like regular text.
- Narishma 4y ago
  That's what tabs are for.
- Stratoscope 4y ago
  The key to using a proportional font is to give up alignment completely, and only use indentation. Once you do that, it no longer matters whether you use a proportional or monospaced font. The Black formatter for Python is an interesting example. It strictly uses indentation only and never uses alignment. As a result, Black-formatted code is equally readable in any font, monospaced or proportional. I use my own customized proportional font called Trebuchet++, and Black code looks great in it. If you didn't know I was using a proportional font, you might not even notice that it wasn't monospaced. As you may guess, Trebuchet++ started out as Trebuchet MS, which I found I really enjoy reading on a high-DPI display. Then I started tweaking things in FontForge: Trebuchet MS has a terrible tilde character that looks too much like a minus sign. So I put in a better defined glyph for that. One problem in a proportional font if you use names_with_underscores as required by too many coding standards: the underscore character is much too wide compared to a period. This gives a visual grouping that is the opposite of what you want, for example in foo_bar.moo_car(), "bar" and "moo" are closer together than "foo" and "bar" or "moo" and "car". This is misleading visually. So I used FontForge to add a bit of space on each side of the dot, and add negative space on each side of the underscore. In the example above, this pulls the "foo" and "bar" in "foo_bar" closer to each other, and similary for "moo_car". At the same time, it adds some separation between "bar" and "moo". The difference is subtle, but in terms of visual grouping it avoids having the code read like this: foo bar moo car So it reads more like this: foo bar moo car I have a couple of other tweaks I haven't gotten to yet. In particular I want to add a bit of margin on the inside of parentheses and square brackets. In my own code where I get to choose the style, I've always uses a space inside those. I find this offers a real improvement in readability. But if I can't do that, at least I can fix it with some font tweaks!

amelius 4y ago

You really have to use a font for a few days before you can judge it. I personally use Iosevka, but it took some time to get used to.

ilyagr 4y ago

I wish the article mentioned Fira Mono, which is the same as Fira Code but without the ligatures.

globalreset 4y ago

In my experience on every setup: different OS version, different screen, etc. the rendering of fonts gives slightly different results, to the point, I just choose whatever works best at a given moment, and don't get too attached to it.

fictorial 4y ago

I fell in love with Recursive (Casual Mono). To me, it's the perfect blend of slightly casual, slightly serif-ish, and not too skinny. https://recursive.design https://recursive.design Screenshot: https://freeimage.host/i/HE6AFfV https://freeimage.host/i/HE6AFfV

tbolt 4y ago

If you're on MacOS, SF Mono is available out-of-the-box pretty sure. I use it in Terminal.app and text editors (mostly Nova.app) and it looks great.

WatchDog 4y ago

The screenshots look really poorly compressed and noisy, not great for comparing fonts.

Narishma 4y ago
You can click them to get the full version.
- WatchDog 4y ago
  I'm aware of that thanks. The images have been scaled, to varying degrees. It makes them basically useless for comparing fonts. You can see obvious signs of this by comparing the below two screenshots, the macOS window UI elements are different sizes. https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/inconsolata-light.png https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/inco... https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/droid-sans.png https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2023/02/09/-big/droi...

deevus 4y ago

I thought this was going to be about C#. I was a little disappointed that it was about fonts, heh.

mafuyu 4y ago

For my mono font, I converted the Atkinson Hyperlegible[0] font into mono, and have been using it as my terminal and editor font for over a year now. It's pretty janky, but it's surprisingly lasted longer than many of the other fonts I've tried over the years. If you want to try it: https://github.com/Hylian/atkinson-monolegible https://github.com/Hylian/atkinson-monolegible [0]: https://brailleinstitute.org/freefont https://brailleinstitute.org/freefont

amacbride 4y ago

As a traditionalist, I swear by good ol' X11 "fixed" (6x13) -- great density and legibility, with pretty much any glyph one would want. https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs-fonts.html https://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mgk25/ucs-fonts.html

ElderKorihor 4y ago
Yup. I emailed myself the string "-misc-fixed-medium-r-semicondensed--13-120-75-75-c-60-iso8859-1" a couple decades ago just to make sure I didn't lose it. Not sure what I'll do when I finally get a HiDPI display. I think it's part of the reason I haven't made the jump yet.

amake 4y ago

Oh boy time for this again: > To all the people complaining about how they don't like ligatures: > Nobody cares. If you don't like them, then don't use them. They are optional. > Lots of people like them. Let people like things. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34589338 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34589338

durandal1 4y ago

If you had asked me 1 year ago whether I would pay $75 for a coding font I would have laughed at you. And yet, here we are, my font of choice is Berkeley Mono any day, everyday.

panda88888 4y ago

I like iA Writer Duospace. It is not a strictly monospaced font, but imo the additional half width really makes m/w much more readable.

sjm 4y ago
It's such a great font. I've been through them all, and even hacked together my own custom version of Office Code Pro, and while I switch every now and then, the iA Writer fonts are my favourites. I pair them with the Quatro version for code comments.

kristjansson 4y ago

Just pay the man for PragmataPro[1] and turn off anti-aliasing in Emacs and iTerm. The font is legible and beautiful at every size on any screen. [1]: https://fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/ https://fsd.it/shop/fonts/pragmatapro/

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
jamestanderson 4y ago
I'm a big fan of this font, I use it every day and have never regretted the purchase. Unfortunately the OP noted they didn't like Iosevka, which I think is pretty visually similar.
- DiabloD3 4y ago
  Pragmata Pro is a huge influence on Iosevka, the author has admitted it. What makes Pragmata Pro work, afaict (since I've yet to actually buy the damned thing), is it is insanely well hinted... this is the one thing Iosevka will never have (it depends on ttfautohint, which although acceptable, will never be good as a talented font hinter producing his art). Having tried, and evaluated, basically every mono font in existence worth using here, I may end up just buying Pragmata Pro. My current daily driver is Input, and not set as a compressed or condensed style. Input is only hinted for the weights Light, Regular, Medium, and Bold, for normal width; the other three more narrow widths are not hinted at any weight. At the sizes I prefer text, Input requires the hinting supplied by the author.
cranium 4y ago
I finally bought it a month ago after years of "trial". It's an expense that student me would never had approved, but now I'm glad to give back because the font makes me so happy.
blipmusic 4y ago
I love PragmataPro. It's not just the look, but also the character support and many of its design features. I work with linguists in academia and get to work on a lot of plain text data - transcriptions and what not. PragmataPro's IPA support is something I make use of every, single day, not just for coding. If I had to pick a single font to use for anything and everything for the rest of my life, this would be it - including reading.

forrestthewoods 4y ago

Consolas is the old best. Cascadia Code is the new best.

mikl 4y ago

Shame he apparently only tries one of the very light weights of Iosevka. I love my Iosevka Slab. The “light” weight works great on retina displays imho.

dancemethis 4y ago

Iosevka is glorious.

xyproto 4y ago

I've been using JetBrains Mono NL for some time, but after reading the article I want to give Hack a shot, since it's more vertically compact.

okasaki 4y ago

I tried Scientifica as a joke, and have ended up using it both in the terminal and editor: https://github.com/nerdypepper/scientifica https://github.com/nerdypepper/scientifica The blockiness just works for me. Reminds me of old DOS fonts. Coworkers hate looking at my screen though.

djha-skin 4y ago

I like old mono. I was reading Guy Steele's Common Lisp book and loved the font so much I looked it up. Turns out it's called Letter Gothic Standard, and it looks awesome in code: https://www.wfonts.com/font/letter-gothic-std https://www.wfonts.com/font/letter-gothic-std

computerfriend 4y ago
Wow, this typeface is delightful. Thanks.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

localhost 4y ago

I'm a big fan of Lilex and use it currently: https://github.com/mishamyrt/Lilex https://github.com/mishamyrt/Lilex. I think it looks quite a bit like Inconsolata which I used to use a long time ago.

rubyist5eva 4y ago

last year I made a custom build of Iosevka using the customizer on the website and building it on my machine, and I can't use any other font now. If you like the general look of Iosevka, but prefer certain glyph variants over others - highly recommended to look into creating a custom iosevka build for yourself

joshu 4y ago

6x13 or gtfo

magios 4y ago

unifont http://unifoundry.com/unifont/index.html http://unifoundry.com/unifont/index.html

djha-skin 4y ago
Ugly as sin but works on everything everywhere. Truly a font built for a war zone.

29athrowaway 4y ago

Iosevka has a large number of variations, weights, widths and styles. He just cherry-picked one and decided he didn't like it. Based on his preferences, he should try Iosevka Term SS10 Extended instead.

pstadler 4y ago
Whenever I‘m trying a different font, it doesn’t last for long. Not only does Iosevka support all kind of variations (as in: there’s a style for everyone), it‘s also very narrow. I always find it odd when looking at different fonts taking up 1.5 times the horizontal space, especially in terminals. I‘m using a mixture of SS10 and SS05.
- 29athrowaway 4y ago
  The Extended width is not narrow.

irdc 4y ago

Seeing as everybody's using this space to plug their favourite font, and the one I use hasn't been mentioned yet: I'm partial to Generic Mono II (http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-75172.html http://luc.devroye.org/fonts-75172.html & https://github.com/organicplanning/hackedfonts https://github.com/organicplanning/hackedfonts). It has slashed zeroes and, with a reduced character spacing, just looks nice and otherwise doesn't distract from what I'm doing. Though it's coverage outside of the Latin character set leaves a bit more to be desired.

foreigner 4y ago

Is there some sort of organisation or society for people who just don't care about fonts? I think we need a secret handshake or a bumper sticker or something.

hahamaster 4y ago
Yes, they're called peasants.
adastra22 4y ago
The secret “handshake” is just using Comic Sans for everything.
- foreigner 4y ago
  No, those people went out of their way to choose a font. They're not members.
- paldepind2 4y ago
  I use Comic Code for programming[1]. At some point I got bored of all the squarish typewriter-like fonts that makes code look boring and mechanical. Comic Code is fun and human. 1: https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code https://tosche.net/fonts/comic-code
  - pkphilip 4y ago
    This is actually surprisingly nice! :)
  - adastra22 4y ago
    This looks really good! Now I want a mono spaced Papyrus font.
  - Doxin 4y ago
    I used monofur[0] for the longest time, which is squarely in the category of quirky fonts, though definitely more regular than comic sans. It has basically no confusible characters in it at all which is a nice property. [0] https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font https://www.dafont.com/monofur.font

rcarmo 4y ago

I use Fira Code wherever I can (have done so for years) and Inter as a system font. I find the combination extremely readable.

eterevsky 4y ago

I did a similar comparison for all the mentioned fonts, but optimized more for the legibility of source code. I ended up selecting Source Code Pro.

KronisLV 4y ago

Looking at the screenshots, to me the fonts with the stronger and more defined lines seem slightly better than others: - Go Mono - JetBrains Mono - MesloLGS NF In comparison, there are some that are clearly harder to read: - Iosevka Term - Inconsolata Light I actually commented on the fonts that I use (Liberation Mono for readability and PT Mono for stylistic preferences) a while ago, with my own example images, but I'll also agree with the statement that most modern fonts look a bit samey: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34588312 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34588312 However, I can't help but to wonder how exactly one would measure how light or heavy a font is, when compared against other fonts. Maybe some measurement of how much contrast there is to the edges of the strokes (e.g. the font doesn't appear blurry and is readable, given a certain quality of eyesight, at a particular size and distance), or just how much of the image is made up by dark tones, or how clear the strokes are? Comparing the histograms seems borderline useless, for example, even between Go Mono and Inconsolata Light the differences are very slight: https://imgur.com/a/BWbzJzj https://imgur.com/a/BWbzJzj

professoretc 4y ago
> - Iosevka Term Iosevka comes with about a million different variations (and you can build custom variations by building the font from source). From the screenshot, it looks like the author was using the light weight; I almost always use medium. Similarly, if you don't like serifs, you can turn them off; I use the "hooky" variant which adds loopy tails to some letters.

arh68 4y ago

The tournament thing is kinda fun, but deep down I think we know which we like best. For me, it's serif fonts 1. Triplicate A Code 2. NSimSun 3. Courier Prime Sans serif fonts certainly have their own appeal 1. The Sans Mono (the O'Reilly book font) / Fira 2. APL385 Unicode (this font's got maybe the best numbers) 3. Mononoki Pixel fonts, classics (but maybe best on low DPI) 1. Fixedsys Excelsior 3.01 2. 6x13

hahamaster 4y ago

Andale Mono - one for the ages. Tried a lot of others and always come back to it. How can anyone use anything else is beyond me ;-)

SLWW 4y ago

> I got a huge number of suggestions, of which I downloaded 16, basically all the ones that are free. In general I prefer to pay for things and am suspicious of anything that’s free on the Net, but when there are so many good free options I just don’t think there’s a business model. This sentiment is quite odd; given that who would ever pay for a font? I get being suspicious of "free" but if you use Google, or have a gmail account. Heck even Mastodon is a free software package. I see this a lot with older development communities; even though I've been writing code for many years; while working on an old application I was met with a prompt to purchase a license to use a library. It took me aback because while I've heard about buying and selling libraries, I've never (ever) ran into it before working at my current job. It's odd, and thankfully a dying way of making money since every dev license is at minimum $500 for a year; to $5000 annually to use those libraries in production, not even just the time to develop with them. Never buy a font please

TurboHaskal 4y ago
You’re glad it’s a dying way to make money but I remember developing and selling software tools and libraries was fulfilling and a lot of fun. Definitely beats writing hundreds of yaml configuration for open source libraries and fishing for thumbs up in GitHub issues so they get more attention :)

TomMasz 4y ago

I'm currently using Menlo in VS Code (on Mac) since SF Mono is too restrictive for my needs. I like Fira Code but the ligatures, while very nice, would be confusing for my students and probably best not used.

rofrol 4y ago
Looks great https://imgur.com/a/5zPQ09F https://imgur.com/a/5zPQ09F

TacticalCoder 4y ago

Anyone know of a similar comparison of screenshots using subpixel-AA instead of "monoscale"? (it's not really "grayscale" as the color used is not gray). I know OS X dropped subpixel-AA but, to me, the only criticism about subpixel-AA is long gone: on monitors with low DPI it could make letters a bit blurry in some kind of a psychedelic way. But now all monitors have higher DPI and I'm devv'ing on Linux only, which does support subpixel AA, and I turn subpixel-AA on where I can. If anything it makes rendering less blurry.

TacticalCoder 4y ago
Answering my own question, user "cornellion" posted in this HN thread a link to a site which uses your system to actually render the fonts in order to compare them, as opposed to screenshots, so as my system uses subpixel-AA I can see what they're going to actually look like on my system: https://devfonts.gafi.dev/ https://devfonts.gafi.dev/

shadowofneptune 4y ago

Go Mono is a favorite of mine. The serifs give more of a book feel than most monospace fonts. Each character is also quite visually distinct.

fire 4y ago

I dislike most mono fonts, but I found a monospace version of Atkinson Hyperlegible a while back and was using it until the author made a new monospace font they call Unolexic[1]; I've been using it since. They also have done posts comparing different parts of different fonts[2], making quasi-monospace fonts[3], etc., which are fascinating to read. 1: http://thedarnedestthing.com/unolexic http://thedarnedestthing.com/unolexic 2: http://thedarnedestthing.com/monolexic%20timeline http://thedarnedestthing.com/monolexic%20timeline 3: http://thedarnedestthing.com/quasimono http://thedarnedestthing.com/quasimono

junon 4y ago
It's a beautiful typeface but I find it exceptionally hard to read on mobile at least, which doesn't bode well for terminal work.

Terretta 4y ago

Andale Mono since 1993 -- it's on your Mac, and in Windows "Core Fonts for the Web", try it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalé_Mono https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andalé_Mono Author criteria was free. This has been free, and even without MacOS, can still be legally gotten free: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_Web https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Core_fonts_for_the_Web // Lucida Console is not the same.

alexeiz 4y ago

The font rendering engine affects the font appearance significantly. Fonts that look good on macOS don't necessarily look as good on Linux or Windows and visa versa. There are also fonts designed specifically for macOS, Linux or Windows. For example, the rendering of Iosevka Term on macOS looks quite bad, but on Linux it's rendered very well both in 96 dpi and hidpi. So there are no "best" fonts. You have to try them all and decide for yourself which one looks the best.