Recommended Fonts for Programming

Question

What fonts do you use for programming  and for what language IDE   I use Consolas for all my Visual Studio work  any other recommendations

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I have been using Proggy Clean TT with Visual Studio for a couple of years now. I like the ability to choose a zero slashed font so when management decides to program instead of manage they don't confuse 0101 with 0101(zeros).

http://www.proggyfonts.com/

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1 for Consolas  together with a proper Color Scheme  I use the white one at the first screenshot

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For VS nothing beat  Fixedsys

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I like consolas too

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In bash and vim I use Lucida Typewriter  but in Kate  Scintilla  Eclipse  and Netbeans I  currently  use Lucida Casual  i e   a proportional font  Ten years ago I started using proportional fonts in Visual Studio  MS Comic Sans  and it works very well for me  Colored syntax highlighting in said IDEs provides excellent readability and for text-heavy languages like HTML and LaTeX a proportional font is a natural choice

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Its already been said a few times but http   www proggyfonts com  is just awesome  Im a big fan of the Proggy Clean Slashed Zero Bold Punctuation  I do most my work in c  so the bold punctuation is very nice for it

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I like Consolas too  but I also like Anonymous   http   www ms-studio com FontSales anonymous html

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I just use Courier New  or whatever monospace font I have available   However  I sometimes like using sans-serif  currently Comic Sans MS  for comments in Notepad     However  I now tend more to switch everything to monospace just for consistency in spacing and such

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Don t forget the colours   For some reason Delphi 7 in Twilight does not render Droid Sans Mono well  but in Visual Studio with an orange on black theme it is excellent  Deja Vu Sans Mono is the best all rounder  I use it almost everywhere  Consolas would be excellent apart from its ugly Q glyph    One other thing I have found since I entered the world of work is that even though I have great eyesight I like to keep my code font around 12 or 13pt size both to reduce eye strain and to make sure I can t put too much text on screen  It s sort of an incentive to keep code blocks vertically short   I note that this edit box does not respect my browser s default monospaced font  It s giving me Monaco  I m on OSX   Monaco is horrible  It s glyphs have poorly angled elements and it s capitals are not well proportioned   Oh  and it almost doesn t matter on Windows because your font will not look right anyway   me dons flame retardent suit

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I don t use Consolas  though it does look good on LCD  but sometimes I m not on LCD  like when I m giving presentations and then it looks crap   My current font of choice for programming is the Liberation Mono font   Oh man  just discovered why the text on Stack Overflow looks like crap  it forces Consolas which is a cleartype font  and on my current setup which didn t have cleartype enabled  it looks very bad   Going to make a bugreport on uservoice

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Adding a vote for Consolas  It feels very easy on my eyes

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My favourite is ProggyClean at 11px  I ve been using it for 2-3 years and it s great for getting lots on screen without being painful to read  It deserves even more attention than the couple of mentions it s had so far   Proggy Clean http   www proggyfonts com download example proggy clean gif  The site has many variations including slashed zeroes  bold for function marks etc   Proggy Square http   www proggyfonts com download example proggy square bp gif   As an aside  my most-loved favourite text editor  TextPad  allows you to have different fonts and font sizes for different file types  which is a really great feature

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Consolas for me as well

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I m a happy user of ProFont originally available on the Mac  now available for everyone

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Another vote up for Dina  As long as you use it at its optimum size  9 pt   it looks great

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1 Verdana -- agree with pauldoo  A variable width font for coding is probably not to everyone s taste but I really like Verdana s legibility with ClearType

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Bitstream vera sans  a Gnome font  I find its much clearer than Consolas  which is pretty good too

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try Lucida Grande   Amazing

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It must be noted that the text editor IDE that you use determines how good a font will look   I love UltraEdit  but the only font it renders properly is Courier New   It blurs out about all other useful monospace fonts   However  Visual Studio does a great job rendering any font accurately   Currently  I will vote Consolas   Though  I will try some of the others listed in the responses   Thank you   Btw  please post links to download

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I use Inconsolata in both Linux and Mac OS X

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Consolas  works great for various font sizes  and I can t find anything better

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I use Consolas for everything  including Notepad    SQL Studio  Eclipse  etc  I wish there was a Mac version  Also  if you notice  the text area field on Stack Overflow uses Consolas  so we have some other fans out there as well  p

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Lucida Sans Typewriter

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Another vote for Consolas   My favorite IDE font at the moment

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Anarch  32 points  ofcourse  Code with style   anarch http   img525 imageshack us img525 1584 ss42po1 jpg

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Consolas and Courier New under Windows  Inconsola under  nix  I really miss the old IBM terminal fonts  though  The one from green orange terminals

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I have to agree with Kevin Kenny  Proggy fonts all the way  though I prefer Proggy Clean  But either way you have to go with a font that clearly shows the difference between the number 0 and the letter O  Which the preview font here doesn t really show that

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Verdana - Once I realised that I didn t HAVE to use a mono-spaced font  -

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I use Lucida Console for years and never find anything better    However I tried a few times Consolas fonts and simply -- I prefer Lucida Console

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I never found a reason to stray from Courier New  I don t think I d have a problem with any font so long as it s sans-serif  Mono-spaced fonts are nice for coding  too    Courier New has serifs

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Another vote for Consolas for code editing  and Dina for console output

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Two pages where there s a long list of programming fonts are these pages on keithdevens com and lowing org  dead link  but it s in the internet archive   Some other discussions of programming fonts that may have more suggestions are the comments to this blog post on typographica and this topic on a text editor s forum   Personally I like Triskweline   alt text http   www netalive org tinkering triskweline shot gif

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I use Consolas on my mac  BTW  here s a link to download the consolas TTF files if you want to install this  Mac Win Linux     mp

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Tahoma is very readable           If you need it larger then use Verdana

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-2 for Bitstream Vera Sans Mono -- it has an dotted zero - released this font as an free download after an modification   2 for Prima Sans Mono -- lacks an dotted zero - need an free download for RapidShare to extend the font to an terminal

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Any monospace font  really  I honestly don t find it matters too much past that

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I prefer Profont

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I use Inconsolata with UltraEdit on Windows  With TextMate  on the Mac  I prefer Monaco  it s the default font

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I ve been using Anonymous  but I ll need to check out some of these other fonts

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DejaVu Sans Mono  sometimes known as Panic Sans   size 11  anti-alised  Previously I only used fonts that weren t anti-aliased  but it just seems to work for this font

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Verdana  Easy to read  and  very imporetant  easy to distinguish similar characters like O and 0    and    1 and I and l etc

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I use MonteCarlo  which is based on ProFont but has a bold face too  That way IDEs editors that use bold as part of their syntax highlighting leave your text still properly fixed width   java example http   bok net nyud net MonteCarlo images java-example png quick brown fox example http   bok net nyud net MonteCarlo images screenshot-small gif  Like ProFont  Proggy  amp  others  its quite small   amp  being bitmap based  obviously doesn t scale   but I like a small font for coding and its still extremely clear and easy on the eyes

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I d also have to add another vote for Android s  Droid Sans Mono   It s a very crisp  clear coding font

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arial is best

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I m going to make some enemies with this  but I actually use -- gasp -- a non-monospace font  I occasionally switch back to a monospace to disambiguate something  but mostly find that a good clean sans-serif font is easiest to read and doesn t waste screen estate   An IDE with good syntax colouring helps

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I like Terminus for some command line stuff  at least scrolling log files and irssi irc  TTF versions available   Screenshot of the terminus ttf in action below  PuTTY on Windows XP with ClearType enabled    Screenshot of the terminus ttf in action below  PuTTY on Windows XP with ClearType enabled   http   misc nybergh net pub fonts terminus 2008-09-08 terminus ttf in gnu nano putty windows xp cleartype screenshot png

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Either Consolas  download  or Andale Mono  download   I mostly use Andale Mono  I wrote an article about programming fonts a long time ago  I think Consolas wasn t even out yet   http   www deadprogrammer com photos fonts gif  I find that typing Illegal1   O0 is a good test of suitability

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Lucida Console every time   I ve never found a font that can pack as many lines of code onto the screen at the same point size without looking cramped   And it looks nice too

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I use Bitstream Vera http   www gnome org fonts  for Visual Studio 2008 paired with the Darkness Theme because my eyes can t deal with white backgrounds

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Fixedsys Excelsior 2 00  Raize  and the usuals   http   kaishaku org codefonts

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I love consolas  especially with italics for comments  The little italic curlicues are so cute  P

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I just recently switched from Bitstream Vera Sans Mono to Inconsolata  but reading the answers here  I m going to give Consolas a chance for a bit  Looks really nice so far

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I ve been hanging on to this link for more than a year  it s an article entitled  Five great programming fonts   The five are good fonts  but the article includes comments with a dozen more interesting answers   http   forums programming-designs com viewtopic php pid 3338

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Instead of just chiming in with another vote for a particular font  I d recommend reading these comparisons of programming fonts where you can learn a little more   Jeff Atwood s excellent  round-up     http   www codinghorror com blog archives 000157 html  Another review of 5 fonts with nice screenshots    http   blog hamstu com 2008 02 03 the-typography-of-code

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I use Terminuse in almost everything  Eclipse  putty and other terminals   http   fractal csie org  eric wiki Terminus font  I must say that I don t get it why most people use small fonts like 9pt  do you have 14  monitors or what   For me the best way is to use font size that makes my monitor display at most one 30-40 line method  this way I need to create smaller methods

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I have been using the Dina - http   www donationcoder com Software Jibz Dina index html - font for awhile now for text editing and it seems to be doing the job nicely

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Consolas for me  These were specially developped for LCD   MS hint engine  Also you might find ClearType tuner  MS PowerToy  a great addition as it gives you more control over how your fonts look

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ProFont   Am I the only one still using it

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Nobody s mentioned it yet  so let me just mention DejaVu Sans Mono  which is a fork of Vera Sans Mono  and is included in most Linux distribs  It supports most of Unicode

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I m digging the DejaVu Sans Mono  it s supposed to be the same as Panic Sans  on my Mac

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Consolas - recently switched over to it and it s lovely

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Any sans-serif

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For quite some time I ve been using ProFont  mainly because it allows a lot of lines fit into a given height  a lot more than say Consolas or others   Consolas is not bad either  though

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Courier New for me as well  it s well spaced

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I m on PanicSans 12pt w  AA on TextMate  but loving Inconsolata on Terminal vim     debating changing my TM font to this one    but point size 14pt

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Consolas unless I m runing over a slow RDP connection with font smoothing turned off  then Lucida Console

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I m amazed nobody has mentioned Pragmata  It s the BMW of programming fonts  Condensed  readable  and the pinnacle of simple elegance   alt text http   www fsd it fonts imm pr abc gif  There is now a fundraising project going on for PragmataPro  which covers a larger portion of Unicode than Pragmata  to make it available for free under a Creative Commons license

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Raize Font      The Raize Font is a clean  crisp  fixed-pitched sans serif screen font that is much easier to read than the fixed pitched fonts that come with Windows  Ideally suited for programming  scripting  html writing  etc   the Raize Font can be used in any IDE or text editor

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Consolas I use it everywhere  I use it for everything  Advice  stick to it

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Consolas for Visual Studio   It is the first thing I change when getting a new install setup   The second is inverting the main colors  white text on black background is much easier to stare at for hours in my opinion   Black text on white background http   college-code com stackoverflow black on white PNG  Versus  White text on black background http   college-code com stackoverflow white on black PNG  The second one tends to make my eyes bleed less after long coding sessions   Could be my code however

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ProFont is a great font for code  Consolas a 2nd runner up   You could always go retro with a little Terminal font for a little nostalgia  customize the background color to black and foreground font to green for the full effect

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modesty      I wish there was a Mac version    You can install the font on a Mac  I use it all the time  everywhere  without any problem  The only thing to pay attention for is to set nomacatsui when working with GVIM  or better yet  switch to MacVim

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I second Consolas  Inconsolata  DejaVu Sans Mono  and Droid Sans Mono  with my preference going towards the Droid one

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I recommend Lucida Console for Windows users and Adobe Courier for Linux Unix  with a size of 10pt these fonts looks great  and very legible  Edit   I ve been saying that using Lucida Console was a real good option  well  now I know Consolas

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Consolas  Italic for comments  Only way  Nahh just kidding  the best programming font is this  Here s your first C program  The image link must not be working  tell me in a comment http   img40 imageshack us img40 8008 picture1iqv png  Recommended for high readability

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I like Envy Code R

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I like ProFont TT  tweaked lt  It s clean and there is a clear difference between 1  l and I and 0 and O It works best at 9pt  It doesn t scale up very well

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I use a proportional font too   They seem good for the same reasons they work in books and magazines  the more variation between characters  the easier it is for the brain to distinguish them  and you can fit more on the screen   Indentation still works fine  6 leading spaces is still twice as wide as 3 leading spaces   I use a version of Georgia that I hacked to make the lower case  l  look less like the digit  1   and put a slash through the zero

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I ve really fallen in love with Droid Sans Mono

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If you re like me and only swear by serifs try Kourier with a K  a somewhat more compact Courier

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I never considered changing my font  I have always been happy with Courier  This thread has truely opened my eyes  if only I could upvote it    Went with Droid Sans Mono

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monaco 12pt  is there any other way

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I swear by DejaVu Sans Mono

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Neep Alt 13 17 is very good

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Lucida Console or Lucida Sans Typewriter  as small as possible so I can maximize the amount of code on the screen  Occasionally Courier or Monaco  e g  Monaco in TextMate

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I think the anti-aliasing blur on Consolas is caused by monitors which do not have ClearType enabled  Consolas was designed for ClearType    Jeff A  indeed  you can see screenshots of this in a post I wrote on this topic

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I d never heard of Droid Sans Mono before  but I installed it and tried it at 9 points  and I must say it s by far the highest quality mono font I ve seen on Linux   On my Mac it s Panic Sans all the way  using it at 11 or 12 points allow anti-aliasing that actually works on monospace  which I ve never seen before

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Back in my Mac LC days I swore by Monaco 9pt  mostly for it s slashed 0  I never quite got used to the default line-height though   monaco sample http   www k8zt com ham fonts monaco jpg  It s a little hard to track down in the original non-OS-X version

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1 for Monaco  alt text http   img skitch com 20080908-nmjji28uerreqpprs1h86gxna9 png  Just beautiful and I find I can read it for hours on end

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bitstream vera sans mono

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Bitstream Vera Sans Mono   http   www dafont com bitstream-vera-mono font

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I prefer Consolas as well  and obviously cleartype helps when using other fonts

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Consolas all the way

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Inconsolata 14pt in TextMate

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I actually bought The Sans Mono Condensed  which is  was  the goto code font in O Reilly titles  It s by the same guy as did Consolas for Microsoft  but Consolas wasn t available when I bought it     It s a really nice  tight  clear face - works really well on slides if you re doing that sort of thing as well

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Verdana - Variable width and easy to read on screen at small sizes

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I never found a reason to stray from Courier New  I don t think I d have a problem with any font so long as it s sans-serif  Mono-spaced fonts are nice for coding  too

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I like Fixedsys in Visual Studio   It s a classic   No anti-aliasing blur

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I just tried Consolas and Envy - Envy seems  too narrow  to my eyes  but Consolas looks great  I am on a mac   Thanks for the tips

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I use ForMateKonaVe  which is a merge of Bitstream Vera Sans Mono and a half-width d Konatsu  I use a lot of Japanese here and there and this is the best way to display it in TextMate

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I like Profont  I first came across it when Jeff blogged about programming fonts

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For UltraEdit and anything for that matter  I use the good old Courier New   alt text http   www identifont com samples microsoft CourierNew gif  I ve found Consolas to difficult to read with it s over anti-aliasing

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Until I found ProggyTiny  I always made my own fonts using Softy  It s surprisingly easy  and might increase your productivity if you re annoyed by some features of your current font  like  Q is too similiar to 0

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Monaco 10pt for me

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I really really like DejaVu Sans Mono  It is very clean and easy on the eyes

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I experimented with Myriad until I realised using a variable-width font was a fools game   Courier New here  although I am going to try out Envy after seeing it here

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Monaco  11pt  antialias  on Mac OS X  Looks ever better  and crisper on darker backgrounds   alt text http   www fabernitor net ayaz monaco11pt png

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Lucida Console isn t so good because the bold text takes up more room than the non-bold text   Consolas overcomes this

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I like Consolas myself  but when it comes to monospaced fonts there are quite a few other options to choose from

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1 for Monaco  although this blog post is making me think about switching to Inconsolata   I m curious as to what point size y all use  I use the TextMate default size of 12pt

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6x13   You can get two terminal or editor windows across a 1024x768 and three onto a 1600x1200 screen   A windows version of this font can be found Here

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I use Bitstream Vera Sans Mono  but you need to activate ClearType to get it readable    I like the  Illegal1   O0  readablility test  mentioned earlier in this thread  thanks for that

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A excellent CodeProject article that list 33 fonts for programming  With examples of each   http   www codeproject com KB work FontSurvey aspx

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Yet another vote from me for Consolas  I use it since I learned about it from Jeff s blog post  Thanks to you for this advice   It made me improve an aspect of my daily programming life  which I didn t think about much before

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