
What Makes a Good Programming Font? - theoneill
http://andersnoras.com/blogs/anoras/archive/2008/12/21/what-makes-a-good-programming-font.aspx
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ashleyw
I'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>

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...)

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tdupree
I like your syntax coloring, what editor/color scheme?

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ericmc
Most likely Textmate with the railscasts theme
(<http://railscasts.com/about>).

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nailer
Linux: Liberation Mono (already in your distro as 'liberation-fonts'). See
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberation_fonts>

Windows: Consolas (install the Word 2007 viewer and you get it for free).

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kentosi
Agreed. 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.

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manvsmachine
For 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>

~~~
nailer
Thanks dude.

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kristiandupont
I 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.

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ComputerGuru
Wait. You code in a sans-serif non-fixed-width font!?

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kristiandupont
Yes. 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.

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lallysingh
It'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?

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astrec
I use Inconsolata as an alternative to Monaco:
<http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html>

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tlrobinson
CodingHorror has some discussion on this:

<http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000157.html>

<http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000969.html>

Personally, I used ProFont (<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.

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rw

      -*-fixed-medium-r-normal-*-18-*-*-*-*-*-*

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johnm
Clean sans serif, monospaced.

Consistent baseline.

Distinguished forms (i.e., 0/O, S/$, (/{, 1/l, etc.).

Good weighting at various sizes.

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tremendo
Agree 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.

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tdavis
I'm a big fan of Pragmata. It's the only programming font I've tried that
hasn't had nagging annoyances.

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nailer
<http://new.myfonts.com/fonts/fsd/pragmata/>. Ooh, a bit Star-Treky.

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dimitar
terminus 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/>

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ralph
One where __ looks like two underscores and not a single line.

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vincentpants
Honestly, I think Droid Sans Mono is my favorite. so clean

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mattdennewitz
imo, monospaced and something i dont have to think about

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DanielBMarkham
We've done this before.

<http://apps.ycombinator.com/item?id=328670>

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=255257>

<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.

