

Ask HN:  What programming font do you use and why? - j_baker

Title says it all.  I'm just curious as to what fonts other hackers like to use.
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j_baker
I use anonymous pro: <http://www.ms-studio.com/FontSales/anonymouspro.html>

Admittedly, I use it because it's pretty. Hence why I started a question to
find out more about what makes a good programming font.

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adamzochowski
For code and console I love pixel fonts, so: Terminal 6px (included with all
Windows) Envy Code A 7px <http://damieng.com/creative/typography/envy-code-a>

I can't stand blurry fonts for code (especially since, at small sizes, text
looks a blotch of blur). So, if I want small fonts (such as 6pixels by
8pixels) it better be pixel crystal clear hand tweaked. A font can do anti-
aliasing or LCD based sub-pixeling, but that is more towards book reading /
open office, than coding.

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r11t
I recently started using Inconsolata which looks fantastic at both large and
small sizes <http://www.levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html> and also
made the "Top 10 Programming Fonts" list here :
<http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts>

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seegate
I just read this article: [http://nickgravgaard.com/cgi-
bin/elastictabstopsnews/blosxom...](http://nickgravgaard.com/cgi-
bin/elastictabstopsnews/blosxom.cgi/2009/12/22#programming-fonts)

He compares proportional fonts with monospaced fonts for programming, and
after looking at his screenshots I think I'm going to have to try it for
myself.

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c_allison
I use Proggy Clean (Slashed Zero) 12pt from: <http://www.proggyfonts.com/>

~~~
tom_b
second proggy fonts here

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geeksam
TextMate is currently set to Inconsolata at 15pt. Comparing screenshots of
that vs. Monaco 13, it looks like the anti-aliasing adds a lot of bulk to the
characters in Monaco -- Inconsolata's characters seem a little clearer to me.

But thanks for the link, seegate -- maybe I'll try a proportional font for a
few days and see what I think. (=

~~~
geeksam
...except that TextMate seems not to support proportionally-spaced fonts.
Never mind...

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nailer
Any sans-serif monospaced font with good 'eye' and 'el' / 'zero' and 'oh'
distinction.

\- Microsoft's Consolas is generally quite good on Windows

\- Bitstream Vera Sans Mono on Linux

\- Whatever OS X comes with by default (yaay, no need to change anything)

are all good.

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hga
Since 1993 it's been Lucida Sans Typewriter or Lucida Console; I've not found
anything better to my eyes, although I'll check out this discussion.

The only issues I've found with this font family are that the differences
between l and 1 and . and , can be subtle.

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nek4life
Here's a pretty nice list of programming fonts.

<http://hivelogic.com/articles/top-10-programming-fonts/>

I like DejaVu sans and Monaco

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dthakur
I love CodingFontTobi (<http://www.proggyfonts.com/>). It's all over my system
(Visual Studio, vim, cmd/cygwin etc).

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grayrest
Monaco at 11pt

on windows

Droid Sans Mono at 11pt with a dotted 0:

<http://www.cosmix.org/software/>

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parbo
DejaVu Sans Mono for me. It looks great and it's freely available for all
platforms I use.

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artagnon0
Emacs23 XFT default. They're very pretty as it is imho.

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andrewcooke
schumacher clean. fixed width. easy to read. and the "a" looks like an "a"
should.

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keefe
eclipse default because I don't particularly care

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sidmitra
Consolas at 10pt.

