James Quick
This tutorial is out of date and no longer maintained.
Developers are extremely passionate about certain things: developer tools, tabs vs. spaces, CSS in JS (or not!), and FONTS! I started a Twitter thread asking for developer’s favorite fonts for writing code, and here’s what we came up with.
There are 10 monospaced fonts listed here, most of which are free. There are a couple of paid ones, so you’ll have to decide whether or not it’s worth it or not to pay for one. So, without further adieu, here ya go!
Cost - FREE
Fira Code is hands down my favorite, and seemed to be the favorite on the twitter conversation. It’s incredibly easy to get started with and incorporate with VS Code, my favorite editor. It’s free and includes some pretty sweet font ligatures!
Cost - FREE
I didn’t take specific stats from the Twitter conversation, but I’m pretty sure Source Code Pro came in a strong second. It was designed “to work well in user interface (UI) environments”, and developers are really high on it.
One friend of mine, Joe Ferguson, loves it so much he even got it tattooed on his arm (there’s a backstory)! If this doesn’t let you know it’s worth a try, I don’t know what will!
Cost - FREE (but you can donate)
This font comes with font ligatures as well as “semi-connected cursive italics”. With these two features and the fact that it’s free, there’s no reason not to give it a shot. Then, if you like it, consider leaving a donation!
Cost - FREE
Another free font with font ligatures designed for a great coding experience. It is the open source alternative to Consolas listed below.
Cost - FREE (and included with Mac)
Monaco is a monospaced sans-serif that comes with OS X. I’ve come across a few articles and videos explaining how to install on Linux, but it doesn’t seem like the license legally agrees with that. So, Monaco is worth a shot but only if you are running OS X.
Cost - $40
Honestly, I want this font just because of the name! Chris, founder of Scotch, first introduced me to this, and I highly value his opinion. I haven’t heard of as many other people using it, but at a pretty low price point, if you’re looking for an amazing new font with ligatures to work with, check it out!
Dank was created by Phil Pluckthun who works on styled-components.
Cost - FREE
Can’t find a ton of information on this one, honestly, but had lots of comments in the thread. The good thing is that you can get it easily from Google Fonts. Just a quick download and there you go!
Try it out! Cost - FREE
Consolas is another monospaced sans-serif that just so happens to be included with Windows, specifically within Microsoft Office. Looks like it is available to include on Mac as well.
Try it out! Cost - FREE
I’ve seen this one listed more recently in several “Top Font” lists, so I figured it would be a good include here as well. It’s available for Windows, Mac, and Linux, so you’re good no matter what!
Cost - $200
This font has lots of support, but it does come at a pretty steep price tag at $200. For me personally, this is a big pill to swallow, but I did feel it was worth sharing because of the comments. I’ll let you gauge this for yourself.
Operator Mono is the favorite font of Scotch.io founder Chris on Code.
One cool takeaway for Operator Mono is that it will display code a bit differently in different contexts. For example, variable names are italicised to differentiate them from other pieces of code. With the amount of time that developers stare at code, these differences might just be worth it!
Screenshot is taken from a YouTube video by Paul Halliday in a review of Operator Mono.
Developers are passionate. They love their tools and think no other tool can do the job. There’s lots of equally strong opinions about fonts, so hopefully this list helps you up your development game!
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