10 most popular coding fonts

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

Wow! Thank you. Love it. And built-in Powerline glyphs so no need for a custom font.

Thanks for this. Beautiful font.

I've had different opinions on fonts over the years, sometimes with little to no preference and other times trying to use a single font across all my devices. I finally decided the only real preference I had was not seeing the same font all the time for a long time. Seeing a similar pattern with my preferences toward color themes, I finally decided to stop letting myself worry about it and set up [1] for my fonts and [2] for color themes. Every time I launch emacs it chooses at random from up to 22 available monospace fonts, 4 font sizes, and 38 color themes. This has proven very useful for juggling large numbers of sessions on the same desktop (especially with window translucency).

[1]https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L120-L1...

[2]https://github.com/dwringer/emacs/blob/master/.emacs#L210-L2...

It depends, I try to choose something that's easy to read to avoid confusion between some characters and numbers. Also some programming fonts offer symbols ligatures. I don't like them, maybe it's just an habit but, if I have to write something, I don't want to think about the meaning of a symbol into another font. I find my self comfortable with the Ubuntu fonts, these are my system & browser defaults. Being everywhere in the interface I forget about them and concentrate on the code. Color palettes and code highlighting are also my concerns, I change them depending on ambient light. But I usually prefer bright palettes.

To me, both fond and colour are important. I want a good, clean[1] monospaced font with a nice set of ligatures.

[1] What I mean by this is that characters (and especially symbols) are easily identifiable, which usually means they should not have much unnecessary detail. They also should not bee too thick or thin. I mostly use Fira Code currently, which is like Fira Mono but with ligatures.

>Are people really that conscious about coding fonts?

Probably not as much anymore, most IDE's in the past 5-10 years have default font and color schemes that are pretty good for most people. It used to be that the first 30 minutes after installing any IDE would be spent customizing the color scheme. And since no IDE's had export/import functionality, and most programmers having almost no background in graphic design, they all looked hideous. Today, the only thing I feel compelled to change is selecting whether I want a light or dark colored theme, and they're all way better than anything I could come up with myself.

Agreed.

FWIW, after trying out many fonts (some are mentioned here) I settled on Cousine and PragmataPro depending on the terminal application. One uses Bash, other one Fish. One's for serious work, one's for quick work or backup. Etc etc. Both have the same color palette though (Solarized Dark).

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

Yes. I care a lot about the font. One of the first things I install in Windows is DejaVu Sans Mono. A good font has clearly distinct characters. Can you tell these apart without trying? ijtlI|!?[{(

A good font is clearly readable, even when bold and small.

A bad font can be headache inducing, and requires extra brainpower from the reader, especially when spelling is important.

Operator Mono

> 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.

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.

I don't mind that Consolas wasn't featured (even though it is my personal choice), but not mentioning it in the Inconsolata listing seems like a huge oversight, to say the least.

Honestly, I'm not a fan. Too boxy.

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.

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.

Comic Sans Mono is far superior.

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

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

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

The most obvious difference is probably in the 0s. For example, I would never use Droid Sans Mono (#8) because it lacks a clear distinction between O and 0.

Me too. Everytime I try these, I come back to Menlo. Now I don't even try others anymore.

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

Love this kerning