My FAVORITE Font for Coding & Terminal Use

[@HiAdrian]

As a Linux user, I must say I quite enjoy the current monospace fonts by Microsoft and Apple, namely Cascadia Code and SF Mono. They're nicely square (I dislike condensed glyphs) and very easy to read, even at small sizes. I've been using SF Mono for several months now.

[@iSolate77]

As an apple sheep for the best part of a decade. Switching to Linux 3 years ago didn’t feel right till I switched to SF Mono, it just made feel comfortable and fuzzy inside.

[@NF30]

Yesssss! SF Mono is my favorite monospaced font ever! It's wild how Apple still hasn't made this the default font in TextEdit-I had to switch it myself. I even went back and made it the Terminal font on my 2014 Mac mini running OS X Yosemite, because SF Mono didn't exist back then. My biggest issue with many other sans serif fonts is that the 6 and the 8 are almost impossible for me to tell apart at small sizes. I really appreciate how SF Mono has very distinct numbers. And of course the serifs on letters like l and r are nice too. I go back to Menlo and cringe.

[@moublini2418]

I’m a student and I have started to use IntelliJ and since I saw JetBrains Mono I fell in love with it. Since I really hate the color palette every JetBrains IDE gives you, I always pair JetBrains Monk with Atom One Dark color theme, it’s just fire.

[@zestynotions]

Im also a happy FiraCode Nerd font user. But great to see so many concepts around fonts covered in this video, great stuff !

[@brunesi]

For future reference: FiraCode Nerd Font Regular has better Unicode support for terminal environments, especially because of the Nerd Font patches, which provide extra symbols like Powerline characters, Devicons, and others. This is very useful for terminal setups, prompts, and development environments that rely on additional iconography. JetBrains Mono offers solid Unicode support for general coding use, but lacks the icon and glyph support that FiraCode Nerd Font offers. If you don’t need those icons and symbols, JetBrains Mono is a clean and professional choice.

[@alnahian2003]

I've been using Fira Code with ligatures enabled since I started learning to code. That font fits in any IDE/Code Editor and ngl, I never thought of switching my font ever! Most probably PHPStorm's default font is Jetbrains Mono. That's a cool font too btw 😀

[@oldforestroad]

Same, Fira Code has been great, and so much so that using it has removed the distraction of wanting/needing to change fonts much. Agreed that JetBrain Mono is cool too, so is 0xProto.

[@alnahian2003]

@@oldforestroad I've been using MonoLisa font for almost a year now, and I'm liking its ligatures. The font face seems kind of identical to Fira Code, but it has more premium and royal looks. So I'm really into MonoLisa now. It's a paid font, btw :3

[@MichaelAlderete]

Going on 20 years with Consolas, myself. It ticks many of your boxes, but misses on ligatures and weights. I don’t care about the ligatures, myself (for a programming font), but the weights is an interesting consideration. Consolas also seems to be harder to obtain than it used to be. It used to be a font that Microsoft distributed for free, but the last time I looked, now it only comes as part of Office? That’s what I seem to remember. I’ll have to give this one a try!

[@aixuu]

I do find consolas to be my favorite in terms of balancing function and form. It's monospaced so it works well for multi-line editing, but it does have a lower x-height. a great balance of style and readability imo

[@slavfoxman]

Oh hey, what a pleasant surprise it was to get recommended a video praising my own font! FWIW, I don't actually use bitmap fonts for coding either - I use Fira Code and JetBrains Mono interchangeably in editors (can't make up my mind about which one I prefer) - but in terminals, where the information density is often much larger than in source code, I love the aesthetics and compactness of bitmap fonts, and Cozette was designed with that in mind. Unfortunately, compatibility is a nightmare with bitmap fonts - they won't work in most browsers, electron-based editors, some terminal emulators, etc etc. Bitmap font users are a small community but we love our pixels :) Great video; thanks for the shoutout, and I'm glad you like Cozette!

[@tech_craft]

Hey! Thanks for taking the time to comment, and thanks for sharing such a great font with the community.

[@FiZ]

I've been using Comic Code for a while and enjoying it, but I also appreciate changing things up after a minute. I appreciate your attention to detail, and I'll likely be giving JB Mono a test run in the future. Cheers!

[@GergiH]

Comic Code looks sooo nice on people's screenshots. Too bad it's paid, I'm too afraid to pay for a font since I always change fonts almost daily.

[@keco185]

@@GergiH You can try Comic Mono which **is** free but is a reduced character set

[@GergiH]

@@keco185 Yea I've tried it but it's not the same sadly. Even the creator of Comic Code states in his description that it's built from scratch, only following the stylistic features of the Comic fonts.

[@peri231231]

I really like ComicCode too! It provides great readability to me and just livens up the coding experience for me a little. It's really nice!

[@douglee650]

Bro code like a REAL MAN and raw dog Comic Sans straight up

[@ikixox5054]

Come back to youtube!! I love your videos!!

[@gristlelollygag]

Amazing analysis and comparison, useful for those of us not familiar with fonts, thanks!

[@somdobomk]

Used Fira code for about 5 years before switching to Dank Mono with Victor Mono NF for ligatures for about a year now. Really enjoying that font combo.

[@maurolimaok]

I 've neve seen a so complete study of fonts. I think now I REALLY know much more about fonts. Thanks for the video.

[@michazaremba897]

Victor Mono is my fav. Great looking and ligatures out of the box.

[@eksortso]

That's my favorite, too. And for the same reasons that JetBrains Mono stands out, especially the height and the multiple weights. Victor Mono Semibold is my go-to for editors.

[@jaysonbunnell8097]

My fav is Fira Code, but jetbrains mono is also pretty good!

[@avery2274]

I didnt know font ligatures were a thing, but after leaning about that I am definatelly going to grab this font, having that is going to make me so happy! Thanks for the new info!!!

[@aguythateatsnoodles]

My favourite coding font is MonoLisa, it's not free but it ticks all of the same boxes JB Mono does and it's just a little more refined design-wise. It's a little easier on the eyes, more friendly in a way.

[@wasimpatel2618]

how much MonoLisa cost?

[@bassamsaleh8034]

wow great explanation of concepts of fonts. I'm using Jetbrains mono now, and it's really great.

[@DavidEvenson]

Check out Essential Pragamata Pro. It’s expensive, but it’s far and the most thought I’ve seen go into designing a monospace face.

[@irondsd]

Couple of years ago, I spend a great amount of time trying different fonts. I even found versions of paid and expensive fonts, like dank mono or mona lisa. I stuck with Jetbrains Mono though. It's indeed one of the best fonts to use as a programmer. I would also highlight Cascadia Mono and Fira Code. Great fonts as well. And all completely free. I would pay for them if they were not though.

[@yakob-g]

I currently use and am in love with Cascadia Mono. Used JetBrains before that.

[@GottZ]

lol. that feel when you read "JetBrains Mono" from the thumbnail and it actually is.. dope font!

[@davidmarshal6729]

i've been also using JetBrains Mono for a year and half now and i LOVE it. (+ i use the NF one)

[@PhilipStubbs]

I have been using IBM Plex for a bit. That has loads of weights, and they do similar fixed and variable fonts that match, so can have a consistent style across different situations.

[@tech_craft]

That's a new one for me - I'll have to give it a try, thanks!

[@ditchcomfort]

I’ve been using the same font for over a year, and I have it everywhere code is important. JetBrains Mono is really great and beautiful in my opinion.

[@Blockyheadman]

The more I watch, the more I start to realize how hard it could be to make a font really well. Great video by the way!

[@neilmarshall5087]

U getting into fonts is a fount of knowledge..... Thanks.

[@uzimonkey]

I've used variable width fonts for coding, and it works quite well. I find it a lot more readable and comfortable. The only type of alignment that you really need, indentation, works just fine. Though you'd better be using tabs or 4 spaces, because 2 spaces in a variable width font is basically nothing.

[@xc13z829]

Excellent breakdown of what makes a good font. It's amazing how we all have our preferences, too. I taught math for a number of years, and I started writing slashed zeros before I ever touched a computer. So fonts with a dotted zero just do NOT work for me. The only thing I can add to your excellent discussion is that ligatures work well for me EXCEPT in JS. The triple equals is a little too close in size to double equals, == is 100% larger than =, but === is only 50% larger than ==. It's just too hard to distinguish == and === with ligatures, at least to MY tired yes. Also, what is the theme / color scheme you use in your terminal, midnight commander, etc. I love it! Thanks!

[@tech_craft]

The triple equals ligature is lacking in disambiguating features. I’ve been doing more JS/TypeScript work again just this last week and I’d forgotten how close it was to == The theme is Dracula. draculatheme.com/

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

Fascinating. I've been using computers for ages (I'm 72) and, once past punch cards, never really thought about the font. Well, I did, but not with any understanding beyound 'mono' and 'sans serif'. I shall experiment. Thanks for that.

[@chrissaltmarsh6777]

Well, I did try. That font does work better. I'm coding on Debian, using neovim. Discriminators are very good, very clear. I might look further. But probably not....

[@khatdubell]

I've gotten so used to using a ligature font that i was genuinely shocked when i saw one without it the other day on a different computer.

[@cmyk8964]

Iosevka’s condensed width is essential if you work with Chinese, Japanese, and Korean characters. Since Iosevka’s letters are in a 1:2 rectangle, and CJK letters take up a perfect square (in mono), 1 CJK character is exactly 2 letters in Iosevka.

[@cerulity32k]

I really like the lowercase L. It looks really neat. I actually recently switched to JB Mono, and it's funny that this popped up.

[@pavelperina7629]

Same. Since I tried JetBrains Mono, I always returned to it when I tried something else for coding. However, Monoid is more readable at smaller sizes. JuliaMono contains more math symbols. Iosevka is great for larger sizes, otherwise it's too condensed. Other font I kind of like, but can't use for coding is IBM Plex Mono and that font family is my favorite. I know people who prefer Consolas, Cascadia Code.

[@moltony]

I switched to using Cascadia Code this year and i absolutely love it. I mainly started using it because of the ligatures.

[@murtadha96]

I've been using Comic Code Ligatures and it's fantastic! But I might give JetBrains Mono another go

[@dimofamo]

Noice insight! I've been obsessed with Fira code for quite a while.

[@barjo_]

I still use Roboto Mono after spending many many hours looking for an alternative. I wanted to switch to a different font because of Roboto's association with Google, but I've yet to find one that comes close. My second choice is IBM Plex Mono but it's not quite at the level of Roboto Mono for me. I would say that JetBrains Mono is an excellent choice as well though

[@halemmor]

I never thought about my fonts like this, but you make a good case for JetBrains Mono.. I may give it a try

[@simonced]

Great video about font selection. I have been using alternatively a couple font, and Jetbrain Mono was one of them. Some others that I really liked as well are: - DejaVu Sans Mono - IBM Plex Mono You might like those as well :)

[@joaomendoncayt]

Been using JB Mono for the last year too. I'm that guy that can't settle with any environment, but JB Mono was that thing that 10 minutes after using just turned seamless, and still to this day I sometimes read code and unconsciously think "Damn, nice font" 1 year later. The most recent thing close to that was poimandres color theme for vscode... Just 👌👌

[@SteveTheNerd]

I use FiraCode for my coding and I always disable ligatures, because I feel like I always have to think about what characters a ligature is made out of when I want to change it. That adds some cognitive load I don't want to have. It's just a personal preference, though.

[@versace_dinner]

This

[@henryt9871]

You can look for Fira Code Mono, mono is disabled ligature version.

[@JajaihxbslalaiHja]

Iosevka provides “extended width” version which is similar to jetbrains width

[@tech_craft]

Did not know that - will have to try it, I really like Iosevka.

[@atam3977]

I like monospace fonts, I use it everywhere! I fall in love with Anonymous Pro - on my laptop (i3wm) for years (coding, work and hobby). For my home media center desktop (Gnome) I setup Ubuntu Mono Font - my second fav font and a little bit better readability on big screen from my sofa ;)

[@salmorreale7900]

Very infomative, thank you for posting.

[@DamianRou]

There is another beautiful font out there - Victor Mono

[@cameronscofield2382]

I prefer monoid, great font, got me wot switch from Monaco which I used for almost a decade. Been on monoid for about 3 years.

[@JoseMVelazquez]

JetBrains Mono is a really nice font, it's in my top 3, next comes a very customized Iosevka I built using their customizer (changed some glyphs and made it wider too) but my absolute favourite has always been Input (you can customize some glyphs too), one of the main reasons being it has big punctuation characters like the dot, coma, quotes, etc. I'm not really a fan of Cascadia Code and I hate Fira Code with a passion.

[@wasimpatel2618]

which top 3 , can you please name them? and where to download?

[@ninayjchen]

JetBrains Mono is really great and beautiful in my opinion.👍

[@doriphor]

Sarasa Mono Light is my go to font!

[@json17]

My personal favorite font for terminal/code is comic mono. It's basically just really easy for me to read.

[@ARMadillo18]

Thanks Rob for this video. Could you make a another video about coding on the iPad with you trying out different code editors/IDEs like CodeSandbox , Scriptable, Runestone, NodeJs Lab, Replit, Code Editor, Koder, and CodeSnack IDE?

[@jomy10-games]

I used to use JetBrains Mono, but I switched to Monaco. I don't know why, but for me JetBrains Mono is not as readable. I've noticed that with Monaco I can scan through my code much more easily.

[@tonogram]

At the moment I'm a big Victor Mono fan, there's also a NerdFont version available.

[@voidmice1669]

I've been using JetBrains Mono for so long now that I can recognize it from a mile away.

[@freddyflares2757]

Fixedsys Excelsior 3.01 @ 12pt for me. I try everything but always go back to this for programming.

[@vbifusful]

I think, that programmers' ligatures is just a gimmick. It don't make code more clear, especialy if you got used to «!=» instead of «≠». Also, I prefer to use different fonts for IDE and terminal. For IDE I use font with classical proportions, but for terminal ultranarrow font, like Iosevka, or original VGA font is better, in my opinion.

[@tech_craft]

Different fonts for different use cases is definitely interesting. I might have to give that a go!

[@theperfectionist1607]

I'm lowkey obsessed with fonts

[@tonicktv951]

I just started learning PowerShell. I've tried quite a few of the popular fonts, including Jetbrains. I'm pretty sure I like 'DM Mono' the best, I just wish the features were as modernized as the newer ligature and .otf fonts.

[@kj_sh604]

I've been using this font, pretty much, since it got released. Really great font! Although, I'm not a big fan of how close the 0 and O looks, since the dot in the middle of the 0 can get pretty unseen on smaller font sizes (I code and use a terminal at 9pt-10pt). That's my only gripe with it though, JetBrains Mono looks good wherever you put it and it remains the most readable monospace font for me.

[@FreyrDev]

I have different preferred fonts for different use cases. For actually writing code I love JetBrains Mono, but for basically any other situation (e.g. code snippets on the Internet or my notes) I use Cascadia Code, I find the letter forms of CC are more similar to proportional fonts so when mixed together I prefer it to JBM. JBM just doesn't work when written inline with things other than code.

[@kenan2386]

I use JetBrains mono too and it's just comfortable to code, I no longer find myself switching fonts every week or something

[@StealerSlain]

Also JetBrains Mono has the best parentheses out there, they're not entirely round and perfectly match the letters

[@igorfil4587]

Very nice, thanks! Love the font! Btw, what is your ZSH theme?

[@Virbox]

Comic Mono is also worth mentioning

[@ZeroSleap]

Seems im stuck with Consolas,it just looks so good for me.Also tried Aneliza and it's also pretty good for me.

[@NewsSphereNetwork]

Yes, Its the greatest font I ever used too

[@acubley]

Fira Code Light here, but JetBrains is nice looking.

[@MurraySilber]

Jet Brains Mono is just perfect. Thanks for another great video. Are you using Dracula as your primary theme?

[@tech_craft]

Yes, Dracula everywhere for me. Nothing beats the combination of being widely-supported and looking great IMO.

[@tiran133]

Try Operator Mono. Excellent font!

[@txkos]

It’s nice to know I’m not the only one that thinks about these things.

[@saxtant]

No one uses bitmap fonts, quality anti-aliasing is a must though. My favourite fixed width coding font is inconsolata, it's like a sans serif courier.

[@h0ph1p13]

I agree with most of what you say but I don't like the look of JB mono. Also I prefer to disable ligatures right away on any font. I feel like ligatures have me thinking about one more thing when I edit a symbol that certainly becomes another symbol when I edit it :D

[@ErmandDurro]

I found this video really useful. Thanks a lot for the great content 😃

[@abhiramakella7146]

Best of all, JetBrains Mono is a free font.

[@michaellatta]

I like Fira Code for the ligatures.

[@512Squared]

And that just happens to also be the font I also prefer.

[@sqwert654]

Have used Comic Sans forever, maybe 20 years. I like it because it's close to a hand written font.

[@109Rage]

Have you checked out Comic Code?

[@sqwert654]

@@109Rage not yet

[@johngeverett]

I always liked Consolas. Not one of the LOTR Elves. It worked across a few platforms.

[@carlosswiftdev2703]

Great video 👍Have you tried Berkeley Mono? it's a paid font but they do a trial. Would love your opinions on it.

[@wasimpatel2618]

wow , thats an amazing font , but its not free , i dont have 75$ for font, anyways but i appreatiate your choice.

[@sfuoncall]

Great video. Question: Did you mean to have the side view for on the last two times in the video to be less vibrant?

[@tech_craft]

I'd like to say it was an artistic choice and not just that I forgot to apply the colour grade 😂

[@sfuoncall]

@@tech_craft 😄

[@eurechinu2276]

Any chance you can share yout configuration files for kitty and emacs? Would be so helpful for people getting started with the apps...

[@keyboard_g]

I’ve been using Cascadia Code Semi-Bold on a hi dpi monitor.

[@ChrisHalden007]

Great video. Thanks

[@pnguyen45]

Great video. Do you have any tools that standardizes the initial setups of new machines? Like you want to create a virtual machine or set up a new raspberry pi.

[@tech_craft]

I'm in a constant state of flux with this. On Linux I'm using Nix more and more and I _think_ I'll finally standardise on that once I can get the Pi setup working well. I've tried Nix on Mac and had some success, but I've been using a mix of Ansible and custom scripts there. I think I need to really double down on Nix and get that working properly.

[@wpherigo1]

Difficult subject well done!

[@howuseehim]

I am honestly more interested in that terminal and how it is setup

[@balkeep]

I was constantly in search for some years and I've settled for Dank Mono

[@tech_craft]

Great font. It was the first one I dropped from the discussion when tightening up the script.

[@haccks.]

I tried Fira Code and Iosevka along with other mono fonts but settled with JetBrains Mono recently. I too found Fira is too much for me and Iosevka has "l" competing with "1" when used alone. Btw, what font size do you use in your terminal vs your code editor?

[@igornikolov964]

Have you seen warp? Great terminal as well written in Rust

[@tech_craft]

Only just today for the first time - does look very nice.

[@roya1jr]

My favourite font is JuliaMono

[@JohnJTraston]

It's usually people that are not good coders that worry about fonts.

[@TimschneiderSchneider]

My Favorit Font is JuliaMono the font of the julia programming language

[@voltflake]

I use cascadia code, great font

[@ozy8916]

Hi there,,can we coding using VSCode on ipad? i hope can do frontend developer on ipad

[@Iurivalencamatos]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2K8l5R9npV5ps0si=WfiTlarf5kRLovxf

[@ARMadillo18]

Hey Tech Caft, can we expect any new video soon?

[@NathanielHarari]

I messaged him on Twitter about 5 or 6 months ago and he replied saying that he was very busy with some projects and couldn't commit to making more videos for the time being. Since then, however, I deleted my Twitter like many others. I, like you, am checking periodically to see if he is going to upload more stuff.

[@mastercode7851]

i use menlo for vsocde and Jetbrains for lunarvim

[@lophixarts]

Whats your vsc theme?

[@alphabennyrosy5068]

Bitmap fonts ftw. Spleen is the best.

[@giosoak24]

I usually use Cascadia Code but I think is time to try with JetBrains Mono

[@klokibril]

Used it for quite a while, but eventually switched to Iosevka. It's more narrow. Once you're used to it, all other fonts feel too wide.

[@bx_h23]

I’m going back and forth with this one as well, in addition to JBM.

[@AuctorisVideo]

Here to say that I’m a Comic Code fan. But I’m dyslexic - so your mileage may vary…

[@tech_craft]

That's a lovely font - very fun.