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Comment by jamesaguilar | Hacker News Reader

It's hard for me to imagine ever finding anything better than Ubuntu Mono, but for those who haven't found a love of their font-life, now might be a helpful time to relink to the one slant article I ever saw: http://www.slant.co/topics/67/~what-are-the-best-programming...

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I'm using DejaVu Sans Mono and for me it looks cleaner on 11pt than Ubuntu Mono, but you're right: that article is amazing.

I'm surprised how close is DejaVu Sans Mono to Source Code Pro.

Have been using DejaVu Sans Mono for years, it's fantastic and really easy on the eyes.

I'm not sure I'd care to code with this: http://i.imgur.com/Pu4FHi4.png

I like to code with about a 9 point font, in order to maximize the amount of code per screen without going too far into the illegible. At that size, the proportions of even a single pixel are large enough to make any anti-aliasing annoying. You lose the sharp contrast that every good font needs to have along its edges.

Bitmap fonts are my favorites.

At that size I would disable anti-aliasing in .fonts.conf. It still looks legible, though I wouldn't code in it (much less any font at that size).

That isn't what it looks like on my computer. I suspect this image has been resampled because even aggressive hinting wouldn't generate such rough forms at 11 pt.

"Bitmap fonts are my favorites."

Mine too. Dina is my font of choice for now, also because it does a good job "to maximize the amount of code per screen without going too far into the illegible", among other things. If you code just with ASCII, maybe you'd like to try it if you haven't already.

Seconded. I used to use Menlo, then Incosolata. Ubuntu Mono is by far the absolute best available for programming. Love it!

Still prefer inconsolata at the moment, any particular feature of ubuntu mono that you feel puts it far ahead of others?

Can't say, just how it looks. It looks incredibly smooth and well thought out. I don't know, specifically. Just like how it looks.

The letter l on it's own at small font sizes resembles the number 1 in other fonts too closely. In fact, my default sans font (DejaVu Sans) has the 1 shaped just like the Inconsolata l. I'm sure it's something you get used to but I personally prefer the style used in DejaVu Sans Mono or Ubuntu Mono, where the l shape can't be mistaken for anything else.

The italics are amazing - very visible and distinct from the regular font, making it a great tool for validation. E.g. it's very noticeable when a CSS rule is not italic all of a sudden (misspelled). It adds a nice layer on top of colors to distinguish between different states.

The lack of bold weight for inconsolata really kills its utility for me.

FYI Inconsolata was (also) designed by a programmer: http://levien.com/type/myfonts/inconsolata.html

It has a very different look and feel though.

I'm quite partial to Liberation Mono, myself. But in looking at it side-by-side, it's very similar to Ubuntu Mono.

Liberation: http://cl.ly/image/2y2E3m211H1V/Image%202013-09-09%20at%2010...

Ubuntu: http://cl.ly/image/000u0s3E2b2V/Image%202013-09-09%20at%2010...

Quite often use Monaco myself, it has a very similar look to Ubuntu Mono but less seems less 'rigid'

Anonymous Pro is another excellent choice, very crisp.

I like Ubuntu Mono too, but only in terminal. However for IDE I cant find anything better than Consolas.

ubuntu mono doesn't seem to scale well, at least on my tests in notepad++ on windows. Once I get to 12 point it starts acting like it's bolded. Source Code Pro and Consolas don't seem to have this problem.

I've always used Consolas since it's been out, but after seeing Source Code Pro, that does seem easier to read.

Ubuntu Mono renders superbly in Ubuntu, but I agree with you that it doesn't render particularly well on Windows; when on Windows, I sadly go back to DejaVu Sans Mono.

Don't know if it's only me, but I keep changing/cycling fonts and color schemes of my terminal every few weeks or so. Currently using Source Code Pro with ZenBurn. Will give Ubuntu Mono a try tonight.

I resist making any changes to my fonts/themes. I can spend hours sitting there tweaking them instead of just sticking with something I know (Menlo + Monokai for instance) and then just getting to work.

My go to is Bitstream Vera Mono

http://www.dafont.com/bitstream-vera-mono.font

Thanks, Source Code Pro looks pretty good to me.

I've been using gohufont for most of this year, and it looks better on my system than it does on that website.

Can you fix up the screenshot on Slant for me? It's not rendering properly on my computer.

The most confortable font for me is Lucida Console.

Am I the only one who likes OCR A Extended?

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