Favorite Programming Fonts

[Einherjer]

Perhaps this thread will end up in F&B, but hopefully not.

I was just wandering around StumbleUpon, and landed on a page that had a "top 10" list of programming fonts. Nothing to be too surprised about, considering how popular (and easy) a top-10 list is for bloggers to make when they have no /real/ content to deal with, but the list gave me pause because the number 1 programming font they had was Arial.

Yes, you read that right, they listed Arial (aka, Comic Sans Jr.) at number 1.
www.sitepoint.com/blogs/2009/05/01/top-10-programming-fonts/

Yes, they DID just list 4 proportional fonts as good programming fonts which, for myself, is pretty close to heresy.

So what fonts do other programmers use? Myself, I prefer Bistreams Vera Sans Mono and Dina. They both are nice (and both are listed at that site, listed at 3 and 5, respectively) but both have their own little quirks that force me to switch back and forth occasionally.

The worst part about Bistream Vera Sans Mono, in my opinion, are that the < and > marks are too narrow in regards to their height. I prefer the marks to take up the full height of the line. As well the . and , can look similar at a glance.
From Dina, my biggest complaint is the & looks too much like an 8, and that the @ and $ can be a bit difficult when tired or stressed.

Otherwise, I consider both to be near-perfect (though Dina is Windows-only).

So what are your favorite coding fonts? What is good about them, and what, if anything, irks you about them? If any of you know of "THE" programming font, by all means, let the rest of us (or at least myself!) know about it.

[The Lazy One]

I like Courier New, personally. It's easy to read, and I rather like the aesthetic of it. However, my computer science teacher absolutely despises it and likes to use Times New Roman, which gives me a headache if I try to use it to program.

The only thing I don't like too much about Courier New is that it's a little on the large side, but that can be nice when looking for errors.

[GodIsRealUnlessDeclaredInteger]

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono is the only font you ever need. If I feel like changing it, there is Fixedsys Excelsior 3.01 though

Proportional fonts for Programming‽ That IS heresy!

[Yahweh]

Comic Sans FTW!

[Einherjer]

May 24, 2009 12:14:46 GMT -5 Yahweh said:

Comic Sans FTW!

You have GOT to be kidding. People actually use Comic Sans for anything anymore? At least, anything serious? That's almost as bad as Arial. And Arial is the new Comic Sans!

[Distind]

I have programmed for almost seven years now, I've never even thought about what font I should be programing in until I looked at this.

And my only thoughts on it seem to be if you're looking at the code long enough to care someone has already screwed up.

[Haseen]

Oh, definitely Wingdings.

But yeah, it should be pretty obvious I'm joking. Wingdings is not a monospaced font.

[The_L]

May 23, 2009 20:30:00 GMT -5 The Lazy One said:

I like Courier New, personally. It's easy to read, and I rather like the aesthetic of it. However, my computer science teacher absolutely despises it and likes to use Times New Roman, which gives me a headache if I try to use it to program.

It gives me a headache when people use Times New Roman for ANYTHING. Even Office doesn't have it as the default anymore!

[Undecided]

My default font for many programmes is Junicode. It's serifed, but less wide and more tall than Times New Roman. I find it very pleasing.

[lumberjackninja]

Whatever the standard console font is. I only use vim to edit code because it's faster for me, so I don't really have a preference to font, so long as it all lines up correctly.

[Magnizeal]

May 23, 2009 21:07:11 GMT -5 GodIsRealUnlessDeclaredInteger said:

Proportional fonts for Programming‽ That IS heresy!

Interrobang! I am now considering offering you my body... /derail.

[RavynousHunter]

May 24, 2009 16:17:36 GMT -5 Distind said:

I have programmed for almost seven years now, I've never even thought about what font I should be programing in until I looked at this.

And my only thoughts on it seem to be if you're looking at the code long enough to care someone has already screwed up.

Quote for fucking truth. So long as I can read it, I don't care, I just use whatever is the default for the compiler.

[lonelocust]

I too am in the I don't give a flying fuck camp. I'm not a font nerd even for graphic design, but I can appreciate some nice typography for graphic design even if I don't obsess about it. For programming, as long as it's fixed-width I really couldn't care less, and even variable-width is fairly unlikely to bug me in 99% of situations.

[RavynousHunter]

I do, however, change the syntax highlighting scheme to match Visual Studio's (if it doesn't already). What can I say? Microsoft knows how to do it right.