Me too! Discovering ligatures has made me shun fonts without support for them now. Used Hack, Inconsolata, Source Code Pro and Consolas before but it's Fira Code everywhere now.
I prefer the Source Code Pro look. There's a version of it with ligatures called Hasklig, which I use right now in VSCode and it's rendered super great.
Caveat: I've not tried it, but question: why would you want ligatures in a mono-spaced font? I'm assuming it's mono-spaced? (Not intended as any sort of knock on your choice, I'm just truly curious.)
Answering my own question: I see that you are (probably) referring to the "ligatures" for various symbol character combinations -- not the traditional typographic ligatures for sequences such as "fi" or "tt". (I worked at a typesetting company many years ago. :-) )
I use Monaco in the terminal and the Atom default in Atom.
One time I accidentally deleted the font I was using for my terminal and the terminal became non-monospace (impossible to work with), so I hastily switched to the first monospace font I could find. That font was Comic Sans and I let it stay as my terminal font for way too long.
Another programmer font list, with 100+ fonts: Best Programming Fonts. Doesn't have an interactive display of the fonts, but has an extensive list, and provides some pro/con bullet points on each font, and a link for getting the font.
I use Fira Code as well. I also like Input, which is a proportional font designed for programming (supported in IDEs such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, Xcode).
Font Playground lists a lot of popular fonts for programming. Didn't list Fira Code, Consolas, nor Input though.
I use Source Sans. I started with Source Code but it doesn't read as easily (kerning was invented for a reason) and it turns out that I never actually benefited from the monospace so I switched.
Both versions though are attractive, easy to read fonts. I try new ones when I see them and always go back.
Software Engineering, Economics, and Philosophy. Ex-Silicon Valley, interested in tech for empowerment more than profit.
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I use Comics Sans, just for the look on people's faces when they realise.
More seriously, I use Comic Neue, which isn't an ideal font for coding in some languages because it lacks a glyph for "`", which is rather useful in Markdown, and some variants of Bourne Shell and Python. I switched, though, to using a proportional font years ago and never looked back. Comic Neue, unlike it's Sans cousin, is a reasonably well designed sans font.
I've looked at Fira Code, and besides the fixed-font thing, the ligatures on operators give me the wibbles. Ligatures on variable names, though, wouldn't worry me at all.
Proportional fonts are great. The textual parts of the language compress visually much better - this also allows the developer to use more width for identifiers. It's much faster to read, too, and you're less likely to misread identifiers as well. The resultant code tends to have better-named identifiers, too, I find, and the comments... Well, there's absolutely no comparison between reading a block of text in monospace and a block in proportional font.
The only problem comes when some project I'm working on has an arbitrary line length in characters. I can never get along with those, since with a proportional font they're impossible to judge and largely irrelevant anyway.
Yes, it's a proportionally spaced font, and yes it has serifs. I have to look at code all day, might as well be a pretty font.
Unfortuantely my console is still stuck in the ugly monospaced land. There I use DejaVu Sans Mono. I'm still waiting for a good Unicode console that can deal with proportional fonts and varying font sizes.
Top comments (124)
Most Fira Sans on GUI elements and Roboto for the editor itself.
I use FiraCode, mostly for the ligatures but I do also like the look of the font.
Me too! Discovering ligatures has made me shun fonts without support for them now. Used Hack, Inconsolata, Source Code Pro and Consolas before but it's Fira Code everywhere now.
I prefer the Source Code Pro look. There's a version of it with ligatures called Hasklig, which I use right now in VSCode and it's rendered super great.
Hasklig is awesome with VS indeed! Thanks for sharing it.
Nvm. Guy answered below.
Why would you want ligatures in your editor font? Seems hard to read to me. Can you give examples of what you mean?
This readme has good samples
Ditto. ligatures FTW!
FiraCode ligatures are the way to go! :)
I concur!
Hell yes, FiraCode. I use it in VS 2017 and VS Code. First thing I install in a brand new environment.
Once you go FiraCode, you don't go back or something.
Ooh, never seen FireCode before but it looks really good - excited to try it in VS 2017 tomorrow!
Caveat: I've not tried it, but question: why would you want ligatures in a mono-spaced font? I'm assuming it's mono-spaced? (Not intended as any sort of knock on your choice, I'm just truly curious.)
Answering my own question: I see that you are (probably) referring to the "ligatures" for various symbol character combinations -- not the traditional typographic ligatures for sequences such as "fi" or "tt". (I worked at a typesetting company many years ago. :-) )
I never heard of ligatures before. They look rad. I'm going to give them a try.
I've been using Monaco as my font otherwise.
I use Monaco in the terminal and the Atom default in Atom.
One time I accidentally deleted the font I was using for my terminal and the terminal became non-monospace (impossible to work with), so I hastily switched to the first monospace font I could find. That font was Comic Sans and I let it stay as my terminal font for way too long.
🙃
Wait, is there a monospace version of Comic Sans?
That's pure evil, Ben.
After a long time with Monaco, I've been trying a few fonts with programming ligatures, currently testing out:
github.com/tonsky/FiraCode
Perhaps one day I'll pay the $200 for:
typography.com/blog/introducing-op...
Another programmer font list, with 100+ fonts: Best Programming Fonts. Doesn't have an interactive display of the fonts, but has an extensive list, and provides some pro/con bullet points on each font, and a link for getting the font.
I use Fira Code as well. I also like Input, which is a proportional font designed for programming (supported in IDEs such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, Xcode).
Font Playground lists a lot of popular fonts for programming. Didn't list Fira Code, Consolas, nor Input though.
Try PT Mono (macos). Not as good as Operator, but a very good and free alternative.
A co-worker used this font. It was super nice to look at, and the ‘fancy’ comments are easier on the eyes.
A bunch more programming suitable fonts (50+ fonts) and a nice browser comparison at Programming Fonts. Each font has a link to where to get it.
Source Code Pro
I use Source Sans. I started with Source Code but it doesn't read as easily (kerning was invented for a reason) and it turns out that I never actually benefited from the monospace so I switched.
Both versions though are attractive, easy to read fonts. I try new ones when I see them and always go back.
I am a very happy Source Code Pro user too :)
I use Haskling, it's basically SCP but with ligatures ✔
Some favorites are Inconsolata and fira code.
Here's a gallery of pretty much every free use code font for your browsing and downloading pleasure:
github.com/chrissimpkins/codeface
cover_image: i.imgur.com/KPRX64A.jpg
FiraCode and Operator Mono with this cool theme
I used Source Code Pro and Ubuntu Mono long time ago.
I use Comics Sans, just for the look on people's faces when they realise.
More seriously, I use Comic Neue, which isn't an ideal font for coding in some languages because it lacks a glyph for "`", which is rather useful in Markdown, and some variants of Bourne Shell and Python. I switched, though, to using a proportional font years ago and never looked back. Comic Neue, unlike it's Sans cousin, is a reasonably well designed sans font.
I've looked at Fira Code, and besides the fixed-font thing, the ligatures on operators give me the wibbles. Ligatures on variable names, though, wouldn't worry me at all.
Proportional fonts are great. The textual parts of the language compress visually much better - this also allows the developer to use more width for identifiers. It's much faster to read, too, and you're less likely to misread identifiers as well. The resultant code tends to have better-named identifiers, too, I find, and the comments... Well, there's absolutely no comparison between reading a block of text in monospace and a block in proportional font.
The only problem comes when some project I'm working on has an arbitrary line length in characters. I can never get along with those, since with a proportional font they're impossible to judge and largely irrelevant anyway.
I've made a progression among three that have been named here
Source Code Pro - I love this font.
Fira Code - Ligatures FTW!
Hasklig - This is a fork of Source Code Pro that also does ligatures - the best of both worlds!
I use "Bitstearm Vera Serif".
Yes, it's a proportionally spaced font, and yes it has serifs. I have to look at code all day, might as well be a pretty font.
Unfortuantely my console is still stuck in the ugly monospaced land. There I use
DejaVu Sans Mono
. I'm still waiting for a good Unicode console that can deal with proportional fonts and varying font sizes.