6 ms·
What Makes a Good Programming Font?
- tdavis 18y agoI'm a big fan of Pragmata. It's the only programming font I've tried that hasn't had nagging annoyances.
- nailer 18y agohttp://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fsd/pragmata/ http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fsd/pragmata/. Ooh, a bit Star-Treky.
- rebelde256 17y agoknight
- ashleyw 18y agoI'm not a big fonts person, but when I found Bitsteam Vera Sans Mono I knew I loved it: http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/1897/picture68gr5.png http://img376.imageshack.us/img376/1897/picture68gr5.png It just looks fantastic to me — I simply don't get the attraction to fonts which look like they came directly from a 1970's typewriter! :) (good anti-aliasing on OSX helps too...)
- tdupree 18y agoI like your syntax coloring, what editor/color scheme?
- ericmc 18y agoMost likely Textmate with the railscasts theme (http://railscasts.com/about http://railscasts.com/about).
- GHFigs 18y agoIf you're on OS X and like Vera, you might take a look a Panic Sans, included in the app bundle of Coda. It's a tweaked version Vera Sans Mono. I can't put my finger on what they tweaked, but it's been my preference for some time now.
- nailer 18y agoLinux: Liberation Mono (already in your distro as 'liberation-fonts'). See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts Windows: Consolas (install the Word 2007 viewer and you get it for free).
- smoody 18y agoI second that. Liberation Mono rocks. And it is updated somewhat frequently, so it might be worth checking for a newer version or to install on a Mac. (they put a dot in the middle of zeros a while back, for instance) https://fedorahosted.org/releases/l/i/liberation-fonts/ https://fedorahosted.org/releases/l/i/liberation-fonts/
- kentosi 18y agoAgreed. I can't go past consolas on windows. With linux I wasn't aware of liberation (thanks for that !!), but I've always downloaded courier new.
- manvsmachine 18y agoFor linux, I've switched from Liberation to Inconsolata, which was inspired by Consolas; you might want to check it out: http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html
- nailer 18y agoThanks dude.
- kristiandupont 18y agoI have been using verdana for two years now and I love it.I also use black on grey background, so my editor looks much like these comments.
- ComputerGuru 18y agoWait. You code in a sans-serif non-fixed-width font!?
- kristiandupont 18y agoYes. I guess it was Bjarne who convinced me to try it (The C++ Programming Language book was set with a variable width font). I find it pleasing to the eye and the sacrifice is .. well, what? Indenting still works and I don't do the block-style formatted comments etc.
- swombat 18y agoThat's crazy talk!
- scott_s 18y agoHe convinced me for presentation, but I still code in a monospaced font.
- lallysingh 18y agoIt's a really good point -- not since punched cards & F77 has column number meant anything... So why the monospaced font (I'm guilty of this as well)? Maybe it just sets our minds up for reading code instead of prose?
- nailer 18y agoMost programmer's fonts are sans-serif - eg * the Bitstream Vera Sans Mono in Linux distro terminals * Default terminal.app font in OS X * Powershell / Visual Studio use Consolas in Windows Those silly bars on the end of your typewriter font distract from the true shape of the character. Agreed re: variable width being unusual.
- johnm 18y agoClean sans serif, monospaced. Consistent baseline. Distinguished forms (i.e., 0/O, S/$, (/{, 1/l, etc.). Good weighting at various sizes.
- tremendo 18y agoAgree with these criteria. I personally like also some "airiness" so the Bitsteam Vera Sans Mono mentioned seems a bit too compact for me, but the Liberation fonts were a nice surprise. Personal favorites include Andale Mono, Dina and Consolas (Inconsolata is sometimes adequate except it doesn't seem to scale well to different sizes). For some reason I've always used Crisp for javascript, even if it too does not scale well at all, and is in fact too small for my tired eyes.
- dimitar 18y agoterminus by Dimitar Zhekov (we aren't related). "Terminus Font is designed for long (8 and more hours per day) work with computers." http://www.is-vn.bg/hamster/ http://www.is-vn.bg/hamster/
- mattdennewitz 18y agoimo, monospaced and something i dont have to think about
- rw 18y ago-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-*
- tlrobinson 18y agoCodingHorror has some discussion on this: http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000157.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000157.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000969.html http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000969.html Personally, I used ProFont (http://www.tobias-jung.de/seekingprofont/index.html http://www.tobias-jung.de/seekingprofont/index.html) for awhile, but when I got a new computer I forgot about it and reverted back to Monaco.
- astrec 18y agoI use Inconsolata as an alternative to Monaco: http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html
- deleted 18y ago[deleted]
- ralph 18y agoOne where __ looks like two underscores and not a single line.
- DanielBMarkham 18y agoWe've done this before. http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=328670 http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=328670 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=255257 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=255257 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=206686 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=206686 I'm of the opinion that the third or fourth time a topic is repeated, it (and supporting comments) should be added to a HN Wiki. I think it would make a great resource for us.
- vincentpants 18y agoHonestly, I think Droid Sans Mono is my favorite. so clean