…and the Award for Best Programming Font Goes To…

ProFont.

It is the best programming font I have seen and I use it all the time (for most stuff - not just programming), both on Windows and Mac - even though it looks slightly better on Mac. Do not antialias it and use 9 pt (else it looks awful). Before I switched to ProFont I had to use at least 12 pt (Monaco for Mac and Consolas on Win) - I am getting old I guess - but ProFont is very readable at only 9 pt.

Here is a screenshot so you can get the feel of it. For example, see how it clearly distinguishes between “0″ (number zero) and “O” (capital letter O) and between “1″ (number one), “l” (lowercase letter L) and “I” (capital letter I) - something many fonts (including Monaco) have a problem with. But you should really try it out yourself.

ProFont sample screenshot

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You’re currently reading “…and the Award for Best Programming Font Goes To…,” an entry on Jonas Bonér

Published:: 01.11.07 / 8am

Category:: Tools

Rick Evans 01.11.07 / 2pm

Shucks, you thought you were getting old at 12pt?

I use Monospaced… but at 24pt. At 24pt, it is really easy to tell the difference between an 0 and an O, a 1 and l, etc.

But really, 9pt? What is the benefit of 9pt? Is it the (dubious) value of being able to have lines of code that stretch to 400 characters in length but still fit on the screen? 120 characters at 24pt fits nicely on my screen, and lines ~120 characters long kinda feels right in terms of roughly how much info I can absorb from a single line of code at any one time before having to refactor variable names or break up the constituent parts of the line.

Jonas 01.11.07 / 2pm

Hey Rick.

24 pt? That is huge. I just tried it and can not fit more than between 60-70 characters on my laptop with the code browser open (MacBook Pro 15″). If I run 12 pt then I get about 140 characters with the code browser open on the left hand side => if I use 9 then I have room for another window (file browser, preview etc.)

Do you have a 30″ monitor? But if it works for you then great.

/Jonas

oktokie 11.30.07 / 8am

interesting screen shot. Which editor are you using? I like how brackets are marked next line number.

Jonas 11.30.07 / 12pm

oktokie, the editor is TextMate: http://macromates.com/ great editor for Mac

Jonas Bonér

…and the Award for Best Programming Font Goes To…

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