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Good List of "Programming Fonts"
keithdevens.com — Programmers have very particular font needs. A font for programming must be mono spaced, extremely readable, and must sharply distinguish between similar characters, such as capital O and zero and the number 1, capital I, and lowercase L. In addition, good programming fonts allow you to view more lines of code on screen at once.
mbuchetics- 1518 diggs
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- koweja, on 10/12/2007, -2/+14Even though there are better alternatives, I'm so used to coding with Courier New that anything else just feels weird.
- phpirate, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5You code in what you're comfortable with. Not what some website tells you to do. You can try something new, but in the end you shouldn't have to struggle to get used to a new font. I code with "Monospace" and after reading this article I see no reason to change my preferance.
- onixxino, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2I agree that this is very personal. I always use Courier New since it's consistent and available in every systems so that I can use it whenever I want.
Nevertheless, nice list though
@phpirate: monospace is different in different systems. It might be Courier in one system but Terminal in other. - Syntaxis, on 10/12/2007, -4/+19Pink 16pt Cominc Sans MS is my favourite still.
- debug42, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Borland TE
- TenebrousX, on 10/12/2007, -4/+63I code in pure Wingdings
- Justus, on 10/12/2007, -3/+3Actually got a laugh out of me there :P
- deadfones, on 10/12/2007, -4/+33When I was around 10-11, I'd open up an exe in wordpad and think "how the hell do they write this stuff?"
- Smily, on 10/12/2007, -4/+1deadfones I did exactly the same thing! I wondered how hard it must have been to write that :D
- arnar, on 10/12/2007, -4/+3@deadphones and smily: It's not that hard if you have the right fonts.. :o)
- brentzilla, on 10/12/2007, -13/+0@deadphones: Opening an exe was probably not a good place to start considering what you really wanted was the CODE, but you did say you were 10-11 so I guess that's ok.
- dork101, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I opened a few files from the system dir in Notepad and concluded Windows source code is actually 'encrypted'.
- comeonpriitk, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I have gotten used to using variable width fonts when programming, you can fit so much more on one line that way too. I use an editor called Scite, it uses a different font for comments and code.
- Urusai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I'm astonished more people aren't doing the variable-width thing. I never looked back.
- sedd, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3you guys obviously aren't doing the vim-style block selection thing.
- isalpha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Verdana 8 is a lovely proportional font for coding. However, while proportional fonts have many advantages (easier to read when you've been staring at a screen for hours, more text fits horizontally on the screen), the main problem occurs when other coders have tried to align their code into columns (variable assignments with the = lined up, comments on the same line as code lined up etc)...
- theone3, on 10/12/2007, -0/+18Best damn programming font ever?
"consolas" with cleartype.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolas
Downloads are available, google it to find one.- mbiesz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Agreed! I use it everyday at 9 pt. size (optimal for XP Cleartype — not 10 pt.) within Notepad2. Don't look at the example in the Wikipedia article, which looks like it was bolded.
- drizek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2ya, thats my console font in linux. I use corbel and calibri for the rest of the system. The fonts are one thing that MS did right for vista.
- dwoloz, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8Anyone looking for Consolas, it can be found here
http://www.techtoolblog.com/archives/consolas-as-my-new-ide-font-for-visual-studio-2005 - rompom7, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2yeah, that is a pretty nice font.
- posure, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Consolas is spectacular, I never knew a monospaced font could be so sexy and crisp. All of the Vista fonts are awesome though (although I think I read that some of them were virtual carbon copies of other fonts).
- segosa, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I use Consolas too. For almost everything. Notepad, EditPlus2, Visual Studio, mIRC, IE/Firefox's monospace font. I used to use it in Winamp too.
- sedd, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Bitstream Vera Sans Mono owns you all
- Clearz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Yea Consolas is a nice font but that Wikipeada article doesn't do it justice at all. Check out the guy behind the cleartype fonts on channel9. His name is Bill Hill and all I have to say is the guy has passion and is a pleasure to watch.
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=54978
http://channel9.msdn.com/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=114 - captaindan, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Looks a lot like Monaco.
- FlorentG, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I use Bitstream Vera Sans Mono or Consolas, depending which editor I use.
On jEdit, font antialiasing makes Consolas looking weird. I have to use Bitstream Vera Sans here, looks more crisp. On other editors (which use Windows' Cleartype antialiasing), Consolas is better.
- unfletch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I've been using ProFont, the first one in the list, for years in my terminals and IDEs. Very readable when very small. http://www.tobias-jung.de/seekingprofont/
- sp0rk, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2That font reminds me of my TI-89 calculator.
- SilentNoOne, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1yeah i've been using it for years, but i gotta check out the rest on the list.
- b7j0c, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7still using bistream vera sans mono. once i went to xft/smoothfonts, i couldn't go back.
- s4nt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4bistream vera sans mono ftw!
its what i use on my konsole and kate - Wireddd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Bitstream Vera Sans Mono is the best.
- s4nt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4bistream vera sans mono ftw!
- apantomimehorse, on 10/12/2007, -4/+4Not all of us agree that font must be monospaced. Even with a monospaced font, lining up comments and declarations is too much bother to be worth it.
I've settled upon Tahoma (and its nearest equivalents on non-Windows). The biggest requirements for me are horizontal compactness of words but with standout operators. The semi-colon must be easily distinguishable from colons, and the curly brace must be easily distinguishable from parentheses. Colons and periods should be big, almost bold, really.- posure, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3Good luck with your independent programming because no one is ever going to want to read your code nor work with it if you don't maintain even basic structure.
- apantomimehorse, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5Total nonsense. Plenty of programmers use non-monospace fonts.
By 'lined-up declarations' I mean this:
Elephant foo;
Cat bar; //(er, use your imagination and imagine that 'bar' lines up with 'foo' above)
Rather than...
Elephant foo;
Cat bar; // (as shown)
If you have a large such list of declarations, the spacing can be worth the effort, but in those cases, you don't have to have a monospace font to get acceptable results. In my experience, half the Java code out there bothers with this alignment, the other half doesn't. Other languages have different usage patterns (I know it's more common in C/C , for instance).
In regards to comments, I meant blocks of end-of-line comments which are split over multiple lines and share lines with code, e.g.
foo() // hello
// there (pretend this comment lines up with the one above)
Some programmers favor editors/macros where they can line up end of line comments (it's tedious to do manually, even with monospace fonts). I personally just try to avoid mixing multi-line comments with code.
If you think lacking perfect alignment in these two regards makes for unreadable code, you're on crack. - posure, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3My apologies, based on what you said I assumed you meant that you were too lazy to line up code period. As far as lined-up declarations, I agree that they are unnecessary, although I usually do it for any code that I'm going to look at more than once.
I'm a whore for white-space. - apantomimehorse, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1apology accepted :D
Your response did seem odd, but yeah, not using formating basics is a crime. That's not me, though, as I favor Python, so I have no choice in the matter anyway.
- AdverseEntropy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Could have used at least an image example of each font so I don't have to go through all of them.
- av4rice, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I code using a slightly modified Pixel Carnage (I re-did the zero to my liking)
And yeah, that list presentation leaves much to be desired. The reviews/lists he links at the bottom are way better guides. - olegk, on 10/12/2007, -2/+2Nothing beats Courier
- CubiX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Might give a couple of these a test run.
- selmo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I also use variable width fonts for code--arial narrow usually (although I'm not that happy with it, and looking for better options, and sometimes mix it up just to nudge the brain marbles around). Maybe I'll try Slabface or Bajoran next.
and Lucida console for fixed width windows.- apantomimehorse, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Above, I recommended Tahoma (an MS font) for a variable-width font. A lot of people I recommend it to grow to like it. You get the compactness of variable-width but without the look-alike characters of most fonts.
- BioCS.Nerd, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I use Monaco, 14pt, in TextMate and the terminal. I find it to be more pleasing to the eye than Courier New whilst retaining high legibility.
- zephc, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Monaco 9 in Terminal and BBEdit - i also run at 1680x1050 on my powerbook :-) Monaco is one of the few original Mac OS fonts
- aquax, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Monaco 10 is what I started with when I used to MUD way back in the day.
I still use it for the terminal, and my IRC client.
I'm no programmer though. - dfunked, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Another vote for Monaco, I'm new to OS X, but dig this font highly for all my fixed-width work.
For Windows I'm with unfletch on the ProFont tip. - d4rkn1ght, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1I’ve been using Monaco since my early days programming on my Mac 512k. By the way, my 1984 Mac 512k still in use for old floppy games, and it is also in my LAN talking nicely with my other Macs!
- Crusty, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Another vote for Monaco. I use it with TextMate. There's nothing cleaner and easier to read in my opinion.
- t3hX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2Yet another for Monaco 10... :)
- cubiculum, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm a .Net programmer and I've been using Proggy Clean for quite some time in VS.Net. I have to say - it's quite nice. Very readable at high res and I'm able to fit a lot of code on the screen at once.
- deadfones, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Here's a visual comparison that was posted on digg awhile back: http://www.digg.com/programming/Visual_Comparison_of_18_Monospaced_Fonts
From it, I started using Andale Mono with cleartype on. I'm gonna check out Consolas though. Note that Andale Mono looks fine even with cleartype off (unlike Consolas). - torindkflt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I use a font on my computer that is an exact pixel-by-pixel replica of the font used by the TI-86 graphing calculator, monospaced, each character five pixels wide by nine pixels tall. I really like this font (I'm the one who made the replica, that's how much I like it). Yeah it's missing a lot of those funny symbols and stuff a normal ASCII character set has (Most of which have been replaced by math-related symbols), but all alphanumeric characters, other symbols (&, #, *, etc) and foreign accent characters are still there. If interested, a pic of this font can be found at http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y278/torindkflt/TI86Font.gif
Is this a sign of ultimate geekdom? Devoting several hours into making my own font based on a font from a calculator just because of how much I like it?- torindkflt, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Or rather the characters are 5x7, not 5x9. Man, three minutes isn't enough time to edit comments on here.
- kalphegor, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Lucida Console is the best
- OrangeTide, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'm very happy with Terminus. I have it setup on Linux and MacOSX. I don't think Courier New or Lucida Console are all that great, but they will do in a pinch.
http://www.is-vn.bg/hamster/jimmy-en.html and http://fractal.csie.org/~eric/wiki/Terminus_font
I also use the font as a debug font in my OpenGL-based graphics library, it looks nice and I don't have to worry about ambigious characters.- kflasch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Terminus is by far my favorite programming font.
- panique, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Andale Mono 11.0
I really tried a lot of fonts, including the ones in this article. I like Andale because it reminds me of the font on the old HP Terminals, which was just a dream compared to a TeleVideo 912, which I used in High School while teaching myself C. - ChiKoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is a very great list of fonts. I haven't tested any out yet, but I'm pretty pumped about having one central location to find new fonts from.
- Rickard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I use Consolas. Before that, I used my own bitmap font: http://punbb.org/stuff/font_sample.png
Here's a download if you're interested: http://punbb.org/stuff/kennel.fon.zip- v4m21, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1thanks man.
- KissCool, on 10/12/2007, -3/+1Kind of pointless for all of us VIM and Emacs coders...
- kflasch, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Umm.. not really. You can use plenty of different fonts with those programs, including many from the dugg page.
- veracon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1What? I use Dina (font) inside Emacs (both on Windows and Linux), works perfectly. Here's a line in my .emacs:
(set-default-font "-raster-Dina-normal-r-normal-normal-12-90-96-96-c-*-iso10646-1") - klang, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1as long as font-lock-mode is on, I don't really care
(set-default-font "-*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-11-*-*-*-*-*-fontset-standard")
Diana is nice and clear .. I might start to like it. Normally I use Courier New at 8 point on a 1400x1050 monitor (which gives me about 70 lines in each buffer) .. but, depending on what I work with, I change the size of the fonts. Sort of "overview" and "detailed view" in different buffers/windows ..
- Haplo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lucida console here (at 8pt), but I'll check out the others mentioned.
- artur.ventura, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Does any one can tell me how to install the MonteCarlo font in linux??
I am trying this for a while and i can't figure out how! - rvalles, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Pearl 8x8.
Best font ever... used it on the Amiga, I'm still using it on GNU/Linux :) - shteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I find SimSun to be the most pleasant font for programming. I know it's just meant to be for typing Chinese characters but the monospace Latin characters are really nice!
- Sundae, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"In addition, good programming fonts allow you to view more lines of code on screen at once."
Why? Of course, some want it that way. Personally I use font size 11 (Lucide console), which on my monitor equals to around 50 lines of code. And I like it, because larger fonts reduces eye strain for me. - MioTheGreat, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Consolas is amazing.
- tweakr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Gotta say, I've been addicted to Anonymous for the last 8 months. Wouldn't change unless the alternative was really amazing.
- ebola, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Back in the Unix / SGI days I used to code with Emacs on X-windows, and used to go mad choosing various fonts. In those days I landed up with lucida typewriter, which was a pretty cool looking font on the giant 21" SGI Indigo display. Now my NT-emacs has a huge list of crappy windoze fonts including hieroglyphics, scrawls, comic, and other stuff which would probably look nice on a kid's coloring book. Courier new is still there, and works fine on my display.
- echoic, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Just set everything I have to Consolas. Cheers MS, it's perfect.
- IncognitoCraven, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Wooo a bunch of links, not even samples (lifted from the linked pages). Lame.
- pentomino, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1"You'd think this font was a joke, but it's not." http://www.arcavia.com/Software/ProgFont/
If you scrolled too fast and saw the sample code before the alphabet, how long did it take you to figure out what the backwards E was supposed to be? - pyroh, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1DejaVu Sans Mono is great for programming and it has excellent Unicode coverage
http://dejavu.sf.net - ubica, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I really need a font that displays the ascii control codes,
eg: [a] [b] [c] [n] [ ] - ubica, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0that was supposed to read [ backslash n ] [ backslash 0 ]
- teenwolf, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Consolas Rocks!
http://www.digg.com/programming/Consolas_as_the_New_IDE_Font_of_Choice - geezusfreeek, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I use Osaka-Mono 11pt anti-aliased. I searched for a couple _hours_ for a font that I liked, and this one is my ultimate favorite.
- gaech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Thanks!
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