Best Programming Font

AceInfinity

AceInfinity

Emeritus, Contributor
Joined
Feb 21, 2012
Posts
1,728
Location
Canada
Wow... I just paid for this font, and it is simply the best I have ever used. Very clean, it's monospaced, zero's are distinct, linespace is conserved and width. I can't stand some that add extra line padding as it just means more scrolling... No fancy tails on any of the characters which makes it easy to read. And the Pro version supports many Unicode characters as well. It is not limited like most other "good" programming fonts.

This font is literally amazing though. Here is what a beautiful programming font looks like:

5jZlGR3.png


Well worth it to make sure that you have a good programming font to look at. It makes a difference if you program a lot.
 
It's PragmataPro: PragmataPro?, coding font designed by Fabrizio Schiavi

pr+coding.png


Lots of the development community out there I have been hearing about this from... So I decided I'd better check it out. The fonts I had before that I found good were ProggyFonts, Anonymous Pro, and Mensch. All of those are good. This one is the cleanest though, and conserves horizontal and vertical space better than all the others I have tried. Plus it comes with support for more characters...

I didn't like some of the others for how tall their line spacing was. It would force me to turn down the font size smaller so that I didn't have to scroll as much, but things would be harder to read.

:beerchug2:
 
Last edited:
What makes it so much better than the default fonts? I don't really program enough for the font to make much difference to me, I've never really noticed the fonts before.
 
Will Watts said:
What makes it so much better than the default fonts? I don't really program enough for the font to make much difference to me, I've never really noticed the fonts before.
Click to expand...

Some editors, especially designed for programming will notice the requirements and give you a suitable font, which makes it so that you may not notice. However, a good programming font is fixed width as a minimum... In this case, the font above, also has slashed 0's to differentiate between an "O" (oh), and a "0" (zero). This font also minimizes the line height, and character width, so you can make the most of your codeview itself with minimal scrolling to see the same amount of text, although some other fonts designed by programmers also bold the essential characters such as "(){} ... etc..." to make them more visible. It's ergonomics in my opinion, you don't want to have to read a calligraphic script style font for programming as it's just probably not good on the eyes, and char columns probably will not match up depending on which characters are in the lines above and below the current. It makes a world of difference.

If you'll notice in the above font in the image I have posted. Line spacing is minimal, same with character width, 0's are slashed (distinct?/unique?), and it's monospaced as the characters line up vertically. :)
 
AceInfinity said:
pr+coding.png
Click to expand...

It's interesting. I personally find code like that very hard to read, but I can see exactly what you are saying about fitting as much code as possible onto one screen, and it would be very useful.

But personally, and this is just me, I need to see the shape of almost anything to be able to use it best. It doesn't matter whether it is programming, reading CBS.logs, or personal notes to myself - I make use of whitespace shapes. Then if statements etc. have a much more distinctive whitespace pattern, and I can differentiate further by putting multiple or single linespaces in various places. I can then scroll by really fast without reading anything and still know the structure of the code. Same as I do with CBS.log. I can scroll a CBS.log in ~6 seconds, and at the end be able to tell you whether: a) SFC has been run, b) a service pack has been installed, c) whether the service pack install was cut considerable short, d) any massively repeating errors. All very useful analysis for ~6 seconds, and all from whitespace shapes only.

I guess I need to stop my eccentric whitespacing before working in a team/sharing my code though, else everyone will hate me :p
 
AceInfinity said:
Will Watts said:
What makes it so much better than the default fonts? I don't really program enough for the font to make much difference to me, I've never really noticed the fonts before.
Click to expand...

Some editors, especially designed for programming will notice the requirements and give you a suitable font, which makes it so that you may not notice. However, a good programming font is fixed width as a minimum... In this case, the font above, also has slashed 0's to differentiate between an "O" (oh), and a "0" (zero). This font also minimizes the line height, and character width, so you can make the most of your codeview itself with minimal scrolling to see the same amount of text, although some other fonts designed by programmers also bold the essential characters such as "(){} ... etc..." to make them more visible. It's ergonomics in my opinion, you don't want to have to read a calligraphic script style font for programming as it's just probably not good on the eyes, and char columns probably will not match up depending on which characters are in the lines above and below the current. It makes a world of difference.

If you'll notice in the above font in the image I have posted. Line spacing is minimal, same with character width, 0's are slashed (distinct?/unique?), and it's monospaced as the characters line up vertically. :)
Click to expand...

I get that, I'm just wondering what made you buy this font over the default Sublime Text font - they're different, but have many of the same features that make them easy to read for programmers.
 
Default for SubLime I believe is just Consolas isn't it? It's not bad if you want something free I think it has the qualities, and supports lots of unicode characters too, but I got tired of it after a while. I found it too rounded, I like my fonts a bit more square; programmer's preference is either one or the other.
 
FixedSys is horrible to read. The Windows 7 default Consolas is nice, but as for the rest why settle for ancient fonts if there are others that are easier to read?

It's personal preference, and even font design progresses over time.
 
I figure these are just as easy to read and don't cost out the rear to buy.

I use Terminal so I can view ASCII art in .nfo files.
 
Cayden said:
Is Fixedsys, Courier, Courier New or Terminal not good enough???
Click to expand...

Terminal for instance has a larger line spacing, it looks like they took courier new which is very wide, and squished that font horizontally which made it more of a taller font. There's no slash or indication for zero's vs. "oh"'s either. Courier is really wide, so if you're a programmer that uses long lines, you'd better hope you have a wide monitor... And last but not least, I found FixedSys just too bold and "choppy" to look at. It's bulky...

Trust me I've tried all the fonts in the book before including all of the fonts in the Windows collection by default, so it's not that I find paid fonts are always going to be better, but this font is actually.. Well.. good. I liked various things in the fonts you have mentioned, but there's always been things I didn't like. PragmataPro doesn't have anything I don't like however, so it's best for me.

Just swapping fonts in Visual Studio, will show you what I mean between these fonts and their vertical and horizontal spacing. Aside from that, the readability of the fonts and numeric vs. char characteristics are also important, in addition to unicode support. PragmataPro has the best of all of this for my preferences.

There is a free version of this font, it just doesn't come with as much unicode support as the Pro, so if that's not a concern to you, then you can get it without paying a dime I believe.
 
Last edited:
Unfortunately, I am in no way a coder, so I've no need for even a free font.

It's good to know that there's someone who caters to you, however.
 
Cayden said:
Unfortunately, I am in no way a coder, so I've no need for even a free font.

It's good to know that there's someone who caters to you, however.
Click to expand...

There are lots of programmers out there, so there's bound to be someone that has a good font for the hobby. :)
 

Has Sysnative Forums helped you? Please consider donating to help us support the site!

Back
Top