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Ask HN: What's your current favorite programming font?

27 points by iwebdevfromhome ↗ HN
I recently discovered "FiraCode Nerd Font" and I've been using it everywhere as I setup a fresh new laptop.

Which programming font you currently swear to? I'm always interested in knowing cool fonts to use in my IDEs and terminals.

55 comments

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adgjlsfhk1
If you use a language that has a bunch of unicode (especially Julia), JuliaMono is really good. It does a lot of very nice symbol alignment.
DwnVoteHoneyPot
I also use Julia Mono. Used monospaced san-serif fonts for so long, but just recently found that serifs is just a little bit quicker to read.
luckman212
JetBrains Mono
neetrain
> JetBrains Mono

Same. It requires least amount of energy to read.

paradaux
100%. I love this font, I've switched my terminal emulator and GEdit to use it too.

It's available under the SIL Open Font License as well, which is pretty neat — not that I have any use for a monospaced font outside of personal use

mrath
I switch between Fira Code, mononoki and Cascadia Code
bitwize
I'm partial to bitmap (or bitmap-like) fonts, esp. those derived from computers I once had or aspired to have. Current favorites are the Tandy2K font from the Ultimate PC Font Pack, the Atari ST 8X16 font, and Amiga Topaz (all variants).

For graphical Emacs, Iosevka.

LanternLight83
> For graphical Emacs, Iosevka

Seconding Iosevka! It's great font, and I've been meaning to check out the customization available online. (Though o do have a folder of my favorite PC Font Pack fonts, just not for everyday use :p)

5e92cb50239222b
Bitmap fonts also look great on low-quality, low resolution monitors (like my 82 DPI crap). Vector fonts give blurry text on medium to low sizes, and are simply unreadable with really small text.
bitwize
That's the wonderful thing about bitmap fonts: they're designed to be readable even in less than ideal display conditions because they were made for old-school CRTs and some of them even for dot matrix LED signs and the like.

And I don't really mean in the "reading for pleasure" sense, you don't want to curl up with a New Yorker article rendered in Atari ST 8x16. But in the "all characters are visibly obviously distinct" sense, so when you are scrutinizing a piece of code, it's absolutely clear what character is what, so you can find and fix bugs and follow the flow.

twalla
In order of preference/reverse chronological order - all patched w/ NerdFont:

- Fira Code Mono

- Inconsolata (This is basically Consolas w/ a permissive license and slightly different spacing)

- Consolas (MS Font so not free per se but easy enough to find floating around)

smilekzs
After all these years, I still find myself preferring NF-patched Consolas to newer code fonts. It has a pleasantly "unoffensive" look that tends to not divert my attention to the font itself --- can't take this quality for granted when it comes to other fonts, IMHO.
twalla
Give Inconsolata a try, I moved on to that from Consolas after I got tired of hunting down a copy of the font and manually patching it each time I set up a new workstation.
schainks
Inconsolata is my programming font.

Also! This game was mentioned recently here to help the undecided or those looking for something new: https://www.codingfont.com/

iwebdevfromhome
That is a great resource! Thanks for sharing. I was looking for a website that helped me compare two different fonts but this works too.
ab_testing
Source Code Pro
ncmncm
SCP is basically just Consolas with one scan line in the middle dropped.
__d
fixed, aka 6x13.
jessikat
It's non-free, but I really love Operator Mono.
JamesLeonis
I've used Code New Roman for a while now, though I'm unironically looking at that Comic Mono now...
fzil
Absolutely in love with Iosevka!
sharmi
JetBrains Mono. Previously <=Fira Code <= Fantasque Sans Mono <= Source Code Pro

When I don't have access to these, Dejavu Sans Mono or Ubuntu Mono