
10 most popular coding fonts - oduvan
https://blog.checkio.org/top-10-most-popular-coding-fonts-5f6e65282266
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dannyobrien
A shoutout to Iosevka:
[https://be5invis.github.io/Iosevka/](https://be5invis.github.io/Iosevka/) ,
which is not only extremely configurable with presets for other popular coding
fonts so you can mix and match your preferences, but each glyph is composed
from a set of underlying components, defined in a glorious and hackable
lispish DSL. It also has a splendid set of ligatures. I think it's a work of
art, and have been supporting the creator's patreon:
[https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5787198](https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5787198)

~~~
arvinsim
Does the creator hate javascript? The preview for the language only shows a
big array, not blocks of code :)

~~~
dannyobrien
I believe the DSL compiles to JavaScript, so it may be that he sees it as
fancy assembly :)

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

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

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pamqzl
Did he learn the Javanese alphabet just for this purpose?

~~~
SimbaOnSteroids
It's a font that's really annoying.

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AstralStorm
Misnamed. This is not a popularity list but someone's opinion listicle of
worthlessness. If it were based on popularity we'd probably see staples like
DejaVu Sans Mono, Liberation Mono, Consolas and Courier New in there. Which
are perfectly serviceable. Or probably some interesting CJK fonts even.

Heck, some people I know don't even use monospace fonts for coding.

~~~
chmaynard
> Heck, some people I know don't even use monospace fonts for coding.

As I recall, the first Apple IDE (MPW) used Helvetica. You had to use tabs to
indent source code. Drove me crazy.

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rjbwork
No consolas? How is that non in the top 10??

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drivingmenuts
Because the article isn't actually a popularity list - it's an opinion list.
Down at the bottom, the author mentions that last bit. There's no numbers, no
statistics, no nothing. Just some opinionated designer regurgitating what
we've read many times.

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abritinthebay
Fira Code for me. It's based on Fira Mono but with a ton of useful ligatures
for coding.

Much better, and justifies the use of a special font, which IMO is not really
worth it without ligatures.

[https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode](https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode)

~~~
SwellJoe
I switched to Fira Code a couple months ago, as well, and now when I don't
have it I feel sad. The ligatures make my Perl and JS code so pretty. It's
just more satisfying when I have to stare at the same project for hours.

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er0k
I'm still using profont
[http://tobiasjung.name/profont/](http://tobiasjung.name/profont/)

~~~
borzale
I thought I was the only one. I much prefer small fonts and I am often made
fun of for it. This font is still great, but I often have problems on OSX with
the font becoming blurry and not being able to set anti-aliasing properly.

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brandonmenc
I've switched programming fonts about a million times in the past 20 years,
and just recently settled on what I now consider to be the perfect font, and
one that was hiding under my nose the whole time:

Courier New.

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Ironchefpython
Comic Sans Mono is far superior.

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JoshTriplett
Bitstream Vera Sans Mono is obsolete at this point; DejaVu Sans Mono is a
complete replacement for it, with better language coverage.

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adontz
I use "DejaVu Sans Mono" for a few years because of number of supported
languages. It may seem that software developer needs only English, but I
actually have to view files in at least three languages, like HTML, XML, JSON,
other data files, including localization files. So it is nice to have all
symbols rendered with the same font.

~~~
thomastjeffery
It's also a lovely font. Just enough serif. Clearly distinct characters.
Characters take up their space without filling it.

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dheera
Droid Sans Mono is great but I like a dotted-zero variant for coding:
[https://github.com/AlbertoDorado/droid-sans-mono-
zeromod](https://github.com/AlbertoDorado/droid-sans-mono-zeromod)

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dsego
Roboto Mono for some time, then Fira Code, now Hack, although that zero is
fugly as hell. But it's got good spacing. Would love to find something with
more character. Fira Code has it, but something about it is constantly making
me nervous, it's not soft, it's more like a typewriter font. Mononoki and
fantasque also look really cool, but keep dancing in front of my eyes, hard to
read. Monaco is nice, but too goofy for my taste, akin to comic sans for code.

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mxfh
The article is missing to mention the most important change, when it comes to
on screen fonts, in recent years: HiDPI displays.

Before that, only a few monospaced fonts, like _Consolas_ , with proper pixel
hinting worked for me, or I had to go for absurdly high point sizes (16 or
above) to not be irritated by uneven lines and dotted zeros with no gap.

Since switching to _Retina_ -like displays anything on that list works pretty
well to personal preference and eye strain seems to have much reduced.

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steinuil
I've been using Fixedsys Excelsior for months and I love it; it's pretty big
compared to most bitmap fonts and it being bitmap keeps me from messing with
fontconfig's hinting more than necessary. The only flaw is that it doesn't
have an italic or bold version.

It does have a variant with programming ligatures though, if you're into that:

[https://github.com/kika/fixedsys](https://github.com/kika/fixedsys)

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chank
"10 fonts that I think most people writing code are using but I really have no
idea..." should be the title of this. There's no way to know for sure, but
realistically the most used fonts are probably Consolas, Inconsolata, Office
Code Pro D and Monospace since these are the default fonts on the likely most
used code editors (VS, Atom, Notepad++, Sublime, VSCode, Eclipse). Most
vim/emacs users likely change their font from the default.

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oduvan
why people think that title of every article should have "I think" prefix?

~~~
chank
Why do people use titles as a statement of fact when it's really an opinion
piece with no actual data to back up it's claims?

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hprotagonist
I can't tell the difference in any of the static images between fonts; only
the animation.

apparently i'm a font heathen, though, because i use menlo or consolas.

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arvinsim
I use Menlo on MacOS and Consolas on Windows. Pray tell me why we are regarded
as heathens.

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hprotagonist
ah there's more than one of me. now we are font sectarians. come, brother!

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toggle
Hah, I always thought M+ 1m was my little secret that I had discovered;
apparently it's the fifth most popular coding font. It's significantly more
narrow than most monospaced fonts while still being easy to read, allowing for
more side-by-side editor windows.

I really like the way Fira Sans looks, and I used it for a while, but M+ 1m
has a huge practical benefit. And it still looks great, too.

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motyar
Roboto Mono Light is my favorite

[https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Mono](https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Roboto+Mono)

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fimdomeio
I've been using office code pro (source code pro fork) at 10pt for a few years
now. I try other fonts every 6 months or so but keep coming back

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nkcmr
my personal favorite:
[http://input.fontbureau.com/](http://input.fontbureau.com/)

~~~
platz
It's high quality, but I think the squarish-look of the letters makes it hard
to read at smaller sizes.

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platz
Bitstream Vera Sans Mono has been my goto for a long time.

I've recently switched to Iosevka ; it's a little quirkier but also good.

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barrkel
Still on Dina. Using a hinted ttf version where bitmap fonts are no longer
supported. No other font scales down better.

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arrakeen
i decided to give Go Mono[1] a chance when they released it almost a year ago
and i love it! and to the HN commenter who said i wouldn't last a week with
the font, i thumb my nose

[1] [https://blog.golang.org/go-fonts](https://blog.golang.org/go-fonts)

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Splendor
It would be nice to know what methodology (if any) was used to compile this
list.

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timrichard
My favourite has to be Hasklig, with ligatures support enabled in WebStorm.

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grafelic
Dina font forever.

~~~
jennius
Love this kerning

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elderK
Raize FTW :)

