I’m a typeface geek, and when it comes to selecting a font I’ll stare at all day, I tend to be pretty picky. Recently, when I discovered that a friend was using a sub par typeface (too horrible to name here) for his Terminal and coding windows, my jaw dropped, my heart sank a little, and I knew it was due time for me to compose this article.
What follows is a round-up of the top 10 readily-available monospace fonts. Many of these fonts are bundled along with modern operating systems, but most are free for download on the web. A few, notably Consolas, are part of commercial software.
A note about anti-aliasing
In the past, we’ve had to decide between tiny monospace fonts or jagged edges. But today, modern operating systems do a great job of anti-aliasing, making monospace fonts look great at any size. It’s not 1990 anymore. Give your tired eyes a break and bump up that font size.
If you have any doubt that anti-aliased fonts are apropos for code, note that even the venerable BBEdit — which for years has shipped with un-aliased Monaco 9 set as the default — has made the jump. The app now ships with a specially licensed version of the Consolas font from Ascender, bumped up in size, and with anti-aliasing on by default. Panic includes a special anti-aliased font (Panic Sans, which is actually just a version of Deja Vu Sans Mono) with its popular Coda application.
Unless otherwise noted, I’ve used a larger size font, 15-point in fact, for the examples here to illustrate their legibility at larger sizes and with anti-aliasing turned on.
10. Courier
All systems ship with a version of Courier (sometimes Courier New), and unfortunately, many have it set as the default font for terminal and editor windows. It does the job, but it’s a bit dull and boring, lacking style and class. I don’t recommend this font if you have any other choice — and fortunately, you do. If you use this font, please bump the size and turn on anti-aliasing.
Read more: Hivelogic
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