programmingfonts/blog.md

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Anka/Coder

"The Anka/Coder family is a monospaced, courier-width (60% of height; em size 2048x1229) font that contains characters from 437, 866, 1251, 1252 and some other code pages and can be used for source code, terminal windows etc." ...

It features true bold an italic variants so this font looks good all the time. Those requiring Greek and other character sets should look elsewhere though, Anka/Coder currently only supports common Latin characters. The open source files are hosted on code.google.com. There are narrow and condensed versions for printing lots of code on little space, and it features a slashed zero.

By Andrey Makarov (2010)
License: SIL OFL
https://code.google.com/p/anka-coder-fonts/

#modern #sans #2010 #free #programming #fonts #typography

Average Mono

"AverageMono is an average of thirteen different fonts which are all derivatives of the public domain "Courier" typeface. Or, rather, a subset of the Western Latin characters in it, minus punctuation, are thus. Everything else is imported wholesale from the GNU FreeMono typeface." ...

The origin story for this font is mind boggling, as is its coverage of languages (Urdu or Runic anyone?). Not unlikely one enabled the other. Bold and italic are also in. Basically, it may not have the most character (being Average and all that), but it's hard to find a situation where it won't work.

By Richard Alexander Hall (2013)
License: Bitstream Vera License
http://openfontlibrary.org/en/font/average-mono

#serif #courier #2013 #free #programming #fonts #typography

Fixedsys

"Fixedsys is a family of raster monospaced fonts. The name means fixed system, because its glyphs are monospace or fixed-width (although bolded characters are wider than non-bolded, unlike other monospace fonts such as Courier). It is the oldest font in Windows, and was the system font in Windows 1.0 and 2.0, where it was simply named "System". For Windows 3.x, the system font was changed to a proportional sans-serif font named System, but Fixedsys remained the default font in Notepad."

Switch to black on white, turn of anti-aliasing, set it to 10 pixels and imagine yourself back in a time when Madonna was ground-breaking and you could get shoes with lights that would blink as you walked. Awesome? Yes. Would you want to go back? Definitely, but perhaps not indefinitely. Retro has its place though and this might bring you there without giving up modern niceties like good coffee and phone you can fit in your pocket.

By Microsoft (1980's?)
License: GNU GPL
http://www.moviecorner.de/en/font-fixedsys-ttf/description
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fixedsys

#pixel #retro #1980 #free #sans #programming #fonts #typography

Input

"Input takes its aesthetic cues from monospaced fonts and pixel fonts designed for consoles and screens, but casts off the technical limitations that constrained them." [...](http://input.fontbureau.com)

With this font Font Bureau has created a complete type system for programming. As demonstrated in the interactive preview it comes with a wide range of styles, sizes, weights and even a whole host of Open Type features. This means you can even choose between a dot or a slash in your zero. If you like you can even opt for proportional instead of monospace.

By David Jonathan Ross (2014)
License: SIL OFL
http://input.fontbureau.com

#sans #professional #2014 #free #programming #fonts #typography

Liberation Mono

"On May 9, 2007, Red Hat announced the public release of these fonts under the trademark LIBERATION at the Red Hat Summit. There are three sets: Sans (a substitute for Arial, Albany, Helvetica, Nimbus Sans L, and Bitstream Vera Sans), Serif (a substitute for Times New Roman, Thorndale, Nimbus Roman, and Bitstream Vera Serif) and Mono (a substitute for Courier New, Cumberland, Courier, Nimbus Mono L, and Bitstream Vera Sans Mono)." ...

Red Hat sponsored Steve Matteson in 2007 to create a set of fonts it could package with its Linux distribution. The family features metrically compatible replacements for Arial and Times New Roman, as well as a monospaced Courier replacement. While it lacks a distinct zero, this is a solid font with 665 glyphs and true bold and italic.

By Steve Matteson (2007)
License: Red Hat Liberation License
https://fedorahosted.org/liberation-fonts/
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Liberation-Mono

#2007 #steve matteson #sans #professional #linux #free #programming #fonts #typography

Meslo

"Meslo LG is a customized version of Apples Menlo-Regular font (which is a customized Bitstream Vera Sans Mono)." ...

This font was created to tweak the already wonderful Menlo font. Recent updates enhance Windows compatibility with special tweaks to hinting for ClearType.

By André Berg (2010)
License: Apache
https://github.com/andreberg/Meslo-Font

#bitstream vera #2010 #sans #github #free #programming #fonts #typography

Monofur

Not much is known about this font, that is available freely from services like dafont.com. It looks great though, has distinct zeros and features a character all its own.

By Tobias Benjamin Köhler (2000)
License: Freeware
http://www.dafont.com/monofur.font

#free #sans #2000 #programming #fonts #typography

NotCourierSans

"NotCourierSans is a re-interpretation of Nimbus Mono whose design began in Wroclaw at the occasion of the Libre Graphics Meeting 2008." ...

NotCourierSans was created by the OSP collective by taking Nimbus Mono and chopping of the serifs. While that doesn't seem like a realy good idea, it has created a quite servicable font. It doesn't feature italics or a distinct zero, but does cover 658 glyphs.

By Open Source Publishing (2008)
License: SIL OFL
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/NotCourierSans
http://openfontlibrary.org/en/font/notcouriersans

#sans #2008 #free #nimbus #programming #fonts #typography

Nova Mono

"I created the NovaCut font about 14-15 years ago for making inscriptions on stone. Initially the font contained only capitals and digits and existed only on paper and stone inscriptions. In 2010 I decided transfer this font to a computer, and made the missing lowercase and some basical signs; it was initially named Gothica." ...

This is a unique font with lots of character. The rounded flourishes really make it stand out. It does have all the most important features for programming (like a slashed zero), so why not spice up your debugging with Nova.

By Wojciech Kalinowski (2010)
License: SIL OFL
http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Nova+Mono

#sans #2010 #display #free #programming #fonts #typography

Quinze

"Quinze is a narrow monospaced font, for programming and terminal emulators. It is designed to be narrow, and allow 132 columns to be comfortably fitted on a screen The 1, l and I are clearly distinguished, as are O and 0. The ascii circumflex is presented as an arrow, consistent with its use as exponentiation operator." ...

Like Fifteen, Quinze was made to fit lots of code on a line. It's very narrow but still readable. Where Fifteen is a faux bitmap font that only really works at 15 pixels, Quinze is a true outline font. It has all the features required of a programming font, but lacks true bold and italic and its character set is a bit limited. A bit of a specialist font perhaps, but well executed and usefull.

By James Kilfiger (2013)
License: SIL OFL
http://openfontlibrary.org/en/font/fifteen

#sans #narrow #2013 #free #programming #fonts #typography

saxMono

Not much is known about this font. It features 495 glyphs, only in regular. Also, its zero and capital o are almost equal, as are the one and capital i. So, saxMono might not be an obvious first choice for programming, but it's a well made and modern typeface.

By s.a.x. Software
License: custom
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/saxMono

#sans #free #programming #fonts #typography

VT323

"This font was created from the glyphs of the DEC VT320 text terminal, which I used in college, and for which I have retained an unaccountable nostalgia." ...

VT323 is the recreation of a classic pixel font, converted to outlines. As a result, it doesn't cover that many characters or anything fancy like italic. It may however scratch that itch if you find yourself longing for the days of yonder.

By Peter Hull (2014)
License: SIL OFL
https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/VT323_Fonts
http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/VT323

#retro #pixel #2014 #sans #programming #fonts #typography

Anonymous

Anonymous Pro is an updated version of this font, also by Mark Simonson. The original has the same character shapes but is more limited in coverage and styles, making the newer Pro version prefable all around.

By Mark Simonson
License: requires permission
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Anonymous
http://www.marksimonson.com/fonts/view/anonymous-pro

#free #2001 #mark simonson #professional #programming #fonts #typography

Audimat Mono

Audimat covers 247 glyphs in bold and italic as well as light and smallcaps. Sadly, one and capital i, and zero and capital o are quite similar.

#sans #professional #2008 #programming #fonts #typography

By SMeltery (2008)
License: requires permission
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/Audimat-Mono
http://www.smeltery.net/fonts/audimat-mono

Creep

This pixel font (really only works at one size, no antialiasing) is great for tiny text. It's a bit specialized at that, but perfect if it's what you're looking for.

By Romeo Van Snick
License: MIT
https://github.com/romeovs/creep

#sans #pixel #free #github #active development #programming #fonts #typography

Crystal

Not much is known about this seemingly freely available font. It has a slashed zero, but lacks bold and italic. Also, it's character set is very limited and omits things like the euro and copyright signs (although it does include box drawing characters).

By Jerry Fitzpatrick
http://www.dafont.com/crystal.font

#sans

Gohu

"Gohufont is a monospace bitmap font well suited for programming and terminal use. It is intended to be very legible and offers very discernable glyphs for all characters, including signs and symbols."

With bitmaps for two sizes, normal and bold, this is a very simple and practical font. All character shapes are different, so no confusion between o's and zeros. If you're up for tiny aliased type, you can fit loads of code on a screen with Gohu.

By Hugo Chargois
License: WTFPL
http://font.gohu.org

#free #sans #pixel #programming #fonts #typography

Klartext Mono

"As a special feature, Klartext contains a bunch of uncommon glyphs like the German capital sharp S, a nice arrowset and a complete phonetic alphabet."

While only the light version is available freely, this is a very extensive family also including thin, regular, medium, and both (and an italic for all). It's character includes a few uncommon features, in addition to distinct shapes suitable for coding.

By Heimatdesign
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/klartext-mono

#commercial #sans #professional #programming #fonts #typography

MonospaceTypewriter

No distinct zero, 240 glyphs. A typewriter font does not a programmers font make, but a good typewriter font can be great for reading (and writing that blog in markdown).

By Manfred Klein Fonteria
http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fonts/MonospaceTypewriter

#free #writing #sans #fonts #typography

Nimbus Mono L

Nimbus Mono has been packaged with Ghostscript and many Linux distributions. The Ghostscript fonts were licensed under the LPPL, enabling a number of derivative fonts like TeX Gyre Cursor. Like Courier it lacks a distinct zero, but it does come in bold and italic.

By URW++ Studio (1984)
License: GNU GPL
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nimbus_Mono_L

#serif #1984 #writing #nimbus #commercial #professional #fonts #typography

Selectric

This font, that seems to be available freely, has a name that refers to the IBM Selectric. Like Courier before it, it seems to be derived from that typewriter. It might not be the best choice for coding (no distinct zero), but good typewriter fonts are still great for writing.

By Paradox 2005 http://www.dafont.com/paradox-2005.d961

#sans #writing #fonts #typography

Terminus

"Terminus Font is a clean, fixed width bitmap font, designed for long (8 and more hours per day) work with computers. Version 4.39 contains 891 characters, covers about 120 language sets and supports ISO8859-1/2/5/7/9/13/15/16, Paratype-PT154/PT254, KOI8-R/U/E/F, Esperanto, many IBM, Windows and Macintosh code pages, as well as the IBM VGA, vt100 and xterm pseudographic characters."

Terminus is a very complete bitmap font, with very clean and clear rendering at a number of sizes. It's coverage is impressive, and even features a bold weight. The zero is slahed to set it apart. Sadly the links on the sourceforge site are broken.

By Dimitar Zhekov
License: SIL-OFL
Format incompatible
http://terminus-font.sourceforge.net

#pixel #free #sans #programming #fonts #typography

Consolas

This may be the single best programming font for Windows. It was created specifically for ClearType and is included in Windows Vista and onward. Consolas features true bold and italic, a slashed zero and great coverage (2736 glyphs).

By Lucas de Groot
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolas

#sans #commercial #professional #consolas #programming #fonts #typography

Everson Mono

"Everson Mono is a simple, elegant, monowidth font. I started designing it in 1994 primarily to make glyphs available to support the non-Han characters in Unicode and ISO/IEC 10646, though I hope that users may find it a pleasant alternative to Courier and Monaco for general purposes, e-mail, and so forth. I have found it quite legible at sizes as small as 4 points. It is lighter and a bit looser than Courier."

Michael Everson's project has been running for over 20 years. As a result this is a well rounded font with impressive coverage. In recent years it has been updated with bold and italic versions. The interests of the creator of Everson Mono are reflected in the many languages in Evertype Publishing's portfolio. As a writer's font, it lacks a distinct zero.

By Michael Everson (1994)
http://www.evertype.com/emono/

#shareware #1994 #sans #active development #programming #fonts #typography

Letter Gothic

"Designed for IBM between 1956 and 1962 for use on the Selectric typewriter, Letter Gothic is a monospaced, sans serif face."

A classic, designed for typewriter font, that's still great for reading and writing. It's a complete set of regular, bold and oblique, 253 glyphs in each. It doesn't have a distinct zero, but it's a wonderful retro typeface none-the-less.

By Roger Roberson (1956)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Letter_Gothic
http://www.fonts.com/font/monotype/letter-gothic

#retro #1956 #sans #commercial #writing #professional #fonts #typography

Lucida Console

It has been extended to include mathematical characters for TeX. First created almost 30, Lucida Console has been updated in 2014 to include bold and italic, and it's now the default Notepad font in Windows 8.

By Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes (1985)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucida_(typeface)

#1985 #latex #bigelow #holmes #sans #commercial #professional #programming #fonts #typography

Monaco

While superseded in 2009's Snow Leopard by Menlo, Monaco has always been present in OSX. While it lacks bold and italic styles, letterforms like i, 1, o and 0 are all distinct.

By Susan Kare and Kris Holmes
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monaco_(typeface)

#holmes #sans #commercial #professional #programming #fonts #typography

Menlo

Designed, like the Bitstream Vera Mono it was based on, by Jim Lyles, this has been the default programming font for OSX since Snow Leopard. The design seems to have drawn upon the DejaVu project and to be tweaked for rendering on modern OSX systems. Menlo also features a slashed zero (Vera has a dot). It's like the definitive Vera version for OSX, simple and extremely well excecuted.. a good match for a Mac.

By Jim Lyles
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menlo_(typeface)

#bitstream vera #commercial #professional #sans #programming #fonts #typography

Nu Sans Monospaced

Inspired by the IBM Selectric, Nu Sans was designed as a sans alternative to Courier. It features a slahed zero and has in later years been upgraded with bold and italic versions.

By Scooter Graphics (1996)
http://www.scootergraphics.com/nusansmono/index.html

#sans #courier #commercial #1996 #programming #fonts #typography

PragmataPro

"PragmataPro™ is a condensed monospaced font optimized for screen, designed to be the ideal font for coding and engineering"

An impressive font with over 4500 glyphs covered (2000 in bold and italic), it has been hand hinted and features distinct shapes in all the right places. Notable features also include math and phonetics. It is quite narrow to fit a lot on a screen, but it maintains readability quite well.

By Fabrizio Schiavi (2009)
http://www.fsd.it/fonts/pragmatapro.htm#.VGmwnYfUk_M

#sans #2009 #commercial #programming #fonts #typography