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  3. What is the best font for programming?

What is the best font for programming?

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  • L Lost User

    I just use the visual studio option that makes it look and feel like version 6. My work is mostly linux there days and more and more I'm using vi to edit and just building in VS occasionally to make sure it still builds with their crappy c++ compiler.

    Movember![^]

    B Offline
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    Brady Kelly
    wrote on last edited by
    #36

    Josh Gray wrote:

    I just use the visual studio option that makes it look and feel like version 6.

    Eeew!

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    • H Hans Dietrich

      If you like programming on a dark background, check out Tomas Restrepo's VS2008 color schemes: http://winterdom.com/2007/11/vs2008colorschemes [update] And my friend just reminded me of more color schemes here: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/VisualStudioProgrammerThemesGallery.aspx

      Best wishes, Hans


      [Hans Dietrich Software]

      modified on Friday, November 27, 2009 2:24 AM

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      Vikram A Punathambekar
      wrote on last edited by
      #37

      Nice, long-forgotten links, Hans :) I've been using a heavily-modified version of Zenburn for 2+ years now, in both VS and SQL Server Management Studio. Very pleasing on the eyes.

      Cheers, Vikram. (Cracked not one CCC, but two!)

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      • C Christian Graus

        Well, sure. BUT, there's a ton of fonts out there, which would satisfy that problem. Just setting the colour scheme and font size, will do that. To suggest there's an optimal programming font, is the height of ignorance.

        Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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        Johann Gerell
        wrote on last edited by
        #38

        Well, that lies in the eyes of the beholder, and so on, yada-yada.

        Christian Graus wrote:

        To suggest there's an optimal programming font, is the height of ignorance.

        Isn't that more ignorant? ;)

        -- Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time - Bertrand Russel

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        • C Christian Graus

          He's an idiot. And he's taken to creating you tube videos that slander me. "I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming. " This is ridiculous, I am sorry. The font that suits you, is a personal choice. There are no fonts created FOR programming, or universally the BEST for programming.

          Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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          AspDotNetDev
          wrote on last edited by
          #39

          Christian Graus wrote:

          you tube videos that slander me

          Link?

          Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.

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          • C CaptainSeeSharp

            I've just rediscovered the beauty of color on black for programming environment. More information can be expressed with this type of color scheme. I like how numbers, strings, operators, identifiers all have a unique color that makes things much easier to sort through. The massive reduction of strain on the eyes is good also. Now I am looking for the best font to go with it. For those who customize their programming environment, what font do you use? What color scheme do you use? What is the best? I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big. I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming.

            Watch the Fall of the Republic (High Quality 2:24:19)[^]

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            A Offline
            Antonino Porcino
            wrote on last edited by
            #40

            I totally agree on having code on black background: much less strain for the eye and the quality of the display used is less important. For those who have always programmed on white background it's difficult to turn to black, but once switched it's forever. I also agree the importance of having proper designed fonts. In my 20 year programming experience I've always drawn myself the fonts I used for coding. I did that in DOS and do now in Windows. In Visual studio I designed a bitmap font that is two pixel wide in x and y so that it has a bold appearance making code very readable even on high resolution displays. Unfortunately bitmap fonts are no longer supported Windows/.NET so some modern editors won't accept bitmap fonts anymore; in this case I use a custom font derived from "Consolas bold" making it 75% wide than normal (so that it doesn't wast too much space in horizontal) Here is an example of Visual studio with my bitmap fonts And here an example of C Sharp Develop and custom Consolas Bold 75% wide

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            • C CaptainSeeSharp

              I've just rediscovered the beauty of color on black for programming environment. More information can be expressed with this type of color scheme. I like how numbers, strings, operators, identifiers all have a unique color that makes things much easier to sort through. The massive reduction of strain on the eyes is good also. Now I am looking for the best font to go with it. For those who customize their programming environment, what font do you use? What color scheme do you use? What is the best? I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big. I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming.

              Watch the Fall of the Republic (High Quality 2:24:19)[^]

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              P Offline
              Plamen Dragiyski
              wrote on last edited by
              #41

              CaptainSeeSharp wrote:

              I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big.

              That highly depends on your resolution. Since I use 1680x1050, fixedsys (the original, not the TrueType one) seems to be quite good. You may try Courier New - it can be resized. However if you are using very small resolution - you may try some smaller bitmap fonts. For 640x480: 3x5 would be good. You are a programmer, it will be not difficult for you to make your own font :)

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              • A AspDotNetDev

                Christian Graus wrote:

                you tube videos that slander me

                Link?

                Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.

                H Offline
                H Offline
                HimanshuJoshi
                wrote on last edited by
                #42

                Click[^]

                A 1 Reply Last reply
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                • H HimanshuJoshi

                  Click[^]

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                  A Offline
                  AspDotNetDev
                  wrote on last edited by
                  #43

                  Hilarious! A shame that annoying computer generated voice made me completely uninterested in what was actually being said, or I might have learned something.

                  Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.

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                  • C Christian Graus

                    Well, sure. BUT, there's a ton of fonts out there, which would satisfy that problem. Just setting the colour scheme and font size, will do that. To suggest there's an optimal programming font, is the height of ignorance.

                    Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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                    J Offline
                    Jecc
                    wrote on last edited by
                    #44

                    There may not be an optimal font, but there are fonts meant specifically to be tailored for programmers. For example, the Proggy Programming Font family: http://www.proggyfonts.com/index.php?menu=download[^] (I recommend Proggy Clean Slashed Zero Bold Punct) Or the Dina Programming Font: http://www.donationcoder.com/Software/Jibz/Dina/index.html[^] [Just read your comments below] I'd go about criticising his lack of Google skills instead.

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                    • A AspDotNetDev

                      Some of my fondest memories of my early programming involve white on a blue background, but I rather like the default colors/fonts for C# in Visual Studio. Whatever you do, just make sure to choose a fixed width font, which further helps scan through code.

                      Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.

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                      Russell Jones
                      wrote on last edited by
                      #45

                      I'm a huge fan of proportional spaced fonts, makes the whole thing read better for me

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                      • A AspDotNetDev

                        Hilarious! A shame that annoying computer generated voice made me completely uninterested in what was actually being said, or I might have learned something.

                        Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.

                        L Offline
                        L Offline
                        Lost User
                        wrote on last edited by
                        #46

                        aspdotnetdev wrote:

                        or I might have learned something.

                        No, just confirmation of what a jerk CSS is. Only someone so totally unable to argue his case coherently needs to create something like this video, where he puts a load of lies into the mouth of his protagonist in order to try and show his superiority.

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                        • C Christian Graus

                          He's an idiot. And he's taken to creating you tube videos that slander me. "I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming. " This is ridiculous, I am sorry. The font that suits you, is a personal choice. There are no fonts created FOR programming, or universally the BEST for programming.

                          Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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                          C Offline
                          c2423
                          wrote on last edited by
                          #47

                          Hey Christian, I watched the video and it was hilarious. But I'm not sure I took it quite the way that it was intended by CSS... Chris

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                          • A AspDotNetDev

                            Hilarious! A shame that annoying computer generated voice made me completely uninterested in what was actually being said, or I might have learned something.

                            Visual Studio is an excellent GUIIDE.

                            H Offline
                            H Offline
                            HimanshuJoshi
                            wrote on last edited by
                            #48

                            aspdotnetdev wrote:

                            Hilarious!

                            was that supposed to be funny? I thought captain was "cereal"

                            1 Reply Last reply
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                            • C CaptainSeeSharp

                              I've just rediscovered the beauty of color on black for programming environment. More information can be expressed with this type of color scheme. I like how numbers, strings, operators, identifiers all have a unique color that makes things much easier to sort through. The massive reduction of strain on the eyes is good also. Now I am looking for the best font to go with it. For those who customize their programming environment, what font do you use? What color scheme do you use? What is the best? I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big. I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming.

                              Watch the Fall of the Republic (High Quality 2:24:19)[^]

                              C Offline
                              C Offline
                              ChrisHinde
                              wrote on last edited by
                              #49

                              I like Inconsolata an use it frequently. On another note (to all that has participate in this thread): Calling people idiots etc is not solving anything. Why can't you (as group) just keep to constructive criticism?? Or is this another community heading the same way as YouTube and other communities where people slander, call other idiots and ignorant etc, just because they don't agree.. Is this not a community where people should help each other in different ways (as becoming better programmers/developers/technicians/people)?? I wish you all the best..

                              Why do as everyone else, When Everybody else does it.

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                              • C Christian Graus

                                He's an idiot. And he's taken to creating you tube videos that slander me. "I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming. " This is ridiculous, I am sorry. The font that suits you, is a personal choice. There are no fonts created FOR programming, or universally the BEST for programming.

                                Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

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                                M Offline
                                MatthysDT
                                wrote on last edited by
                                #50

                                Christian Graus wrote:

                                He's an idiot. And he's taken to creating you tube videos that slander me.

                                I'm not picking sides here, but you would most probably respond negatively towards anything he posts. I find nothing wrong with the OP, some font's read easier, albeit for programming or for ebooks, and there's nothing wrong in asking fellow-programmers which font they prefer, if any.

                                Doggy treat[^]

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                                • C CaptainSeeSharp

                                  I've just rediscovered the beauty of color on black for programming environment. More information can be expressed with this type of color scheme. I like how numbers, strings, operators, identifiers all have a unique color that makes things much easier to sort through. The massive reduction of strain on the eyes is good also. Now I am looking for the best font to go with it. For those who customize their programming environment, what font do you use? What color scheme do you use? What is the best? I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big. I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming.

                                  Watch the Fall of the Republic (High Quality 2:24:19)[^]

                                  M Offline
                                  M Offline
                                  MatthysDT
                                  wrote on last edited by
                                  #51

                                  Haha, just for kicks, I changed my VS2008 default font to one of our barcode fonts. It crashed, hard, restarts, crashes, restarts, crashes, restarts, crashes.... Luckily, I had another session open in which the font changes hadn't yet taken affect, so at least I was able to change it back. Probably would have wasted a LOT of time if that wasn't the case. :laugh:

                                  Doggy treat[^]

                                  1 Reply Last reply
                                  0
                                  • C CaptainSeeSharp

                                    I've just rediscovered the beauty of color on black for programming environment. More information can be expressed with this type of color scheme. I like how numbers, strings, operators, identifiers all have a unique color that makes things much easier to sort through. The massive reduction of strain on the eyes is good also. Now I am looking for the best font to go with it. For those who customize their programming environment, what font do you use? What color scheme do you use? What is the best? I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big. I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming.

                                    Watch the Fall of the Republic (High Quality 2:24:19)[^]

                                    H Offline
                                    H Offline
                                    Hooga Booga
                                    wrote on last edited by
                                    #52

                                    I'm partial to the Dina font. Very clear with good distinguishment (is that a word?) between 1/l, 0/O, etc. Take a look here <Font Survey: 42 of the Best Monospaced Programming Fonts[^] >

                                    1 Reply Last reply
                                    0
                                    • C CaptainSeeSharp

                                      I've just rediscovered the beauty of color on black for programming environment. More information can be expressed with this type of color scheme. I like how numbers, strings, operators, identifiers all have a unique color that makes things much easier to sort through. The massive reduction of strain on the eyes is good also. Now I am looking for the best font to go with it. For those who customize their programming environment, what font do you use? What color scheme do you use? What is the best? I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big. I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming.

                                      Watch the Fall of the Republic (High Quality 2:24:19)[^]

                                      J Offline
                                      J Offline
                                      Jcmorin
                                      wrote on last edited by
                                      #53

                                      I like Consolas, compact and easy to ready....

                                      1 Reply Last reply
                                      0
                                      • C CaptainSeeSharp

                                        I've just rediscovered the beauty of color on black for programming environment. More information can be expressed with this type of color scheme. I like how numbers, strings, operators, identifiers all have a unique color that makes things much easier to sort through. The massive reduction of strain on the eyes is good also. Now I am looking for the best font to go with it. For those who customize their programming environment, what font do you use? What color scheme do you use? What is the best? I kind of like fonts that remind me of programming in DOS, however fixedsys and terminal are too big. I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming.

                                        Watch the Fall of the Republic (High Quality 2:24:19)[^]

                                        L Offline
                                        L Offline
                                        lancsDavid
                                        wrote on last edited by
                                        #54

                                        dunno. but it reminds me of a thread some guy had started about the best font for resumes, in which some applicant said 'dingbats' - adding that if they can't take the time to decipher it they can't be that bothered about u (he was joking, obviously)

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                                        • C Christian Graus

                                          He's an idiot. And he's taken to creating you tube videos that slander me. "I'm looking for something really really great that is specifically designed for programming. " This is ridiculous, I am sorry. The font that suits you, is a personal choice. There are no fonts created FOR programming, or universally the BEST for programming.

                                          Christian Graus Driven to the arms of OSX by Vista. Read my blog to find out how I've worked around bugs in Microsoft tools and frameworks.

                                          N Offline
                                          N Offline
                                          Nish Nishant
                                          wrote on last edited by
                                          #55

                                          Christian Graus wrote:

                                          There are no fonts created FOR programming

                                          Not true CG, there are quite a few created just for that. Though, other than Consolas, I haven't really tried any of the others.

                                          Regards, Nish


                                          Nish’s thoughts on MFC, C++/CLI and .NET (my blog)
                                          My latest book : C++/CLI in Action / Amazon.com link

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