I made a microsite one time that showcased fonts designed for coding. I had some standards for it — it wasn’t just any ol’ monospace font. They were all monospace and of good quality, and in most cases, specifically designed with code in mind.
Still, there were 46 of them all told, and to be perfectly honest, I probably wouldn’t actually use most of them. No shade, just a matter of aesthetic preference.
So here’s a quick smaller collection of coding fonts that I’d actually use. I like switching it up from time to time just for funzies.
Mono Lisa
My favorite at the moment.
Operator Mono
I used this forever and still love it. The typeface that broke the ice on cursive characters in a monospace font (typically used for code comments).
Comic Code
I know this probably seems like a joke but it’s really not. It’s not only fun but super legible and perfectly usable for day-to-day coding. Toshi Omagari’s Codelia is also awesome.
JetBrains Mono
I didn’t really think about it until I had chosen these four here, but good news: all four of those (and the four below) are available to use on CodePen. Just pick whichever you want in your Editor Settings.
Runners Up
There are all also very good, but I decided to be ultra-picky with this post and admit to myself I just don’t prefer them over any of the above.
Hey! Love stuff like this. David Jonathan Ross once gave a great talk on the topic of how changing a font can change the comfort of your coding environment … well basically (hard to sum up a 45 minute talk in a sentence). The talk is from 2016, but stuff like this does not age. Here it is, if you like to watch it: https://beyondtellerrand.com/events/dusseldorf-2016/speakers/david-jonathan-ross
I am well pleased you included Comic Code. It’s my favorite!