- Something I never liked about this game is its showing it in your browser at your chosen font size.
Chrome (assuming you're using Chrome) draws it a specific way. This does not match how Freetype (using typical tuning) or DirectWrite draws it. Chrome's choices in font renderer tuning and blending makes it kind of split the difference between Windows-style and OSX-style, and isn't native to either.
What it should be doing is showing you lossless screenshots of actual in-app renders at different sizes. Some in Chrome (to represent the Electron apps), some in DirectWrite, some in OSX post-Retina, etc.
Some fonts look amazing at larger sizes, but are unreadable at smaller ones. Some perform exceptionally well at smaller sizes. Some look great on every font renderer but OSX's, but some only look right on OSX and look bad everywhere else.
I've sorta played this game with myself, in a semi-objective way: take a bunch of fonts, ignore the subjective art nature of them, and throw them at a bunch of common renderers and see what the optimal size is, and then sort by smallest legible size.
If we define Fira Code, the most popular code font out there, as the bare minimum, 8 of the ones I tested beat it, while 17 were worse.
https://github.com/Diablo-D3/dotfiles/blob/master/fontsizes....
- Going through this, I was introduced to <= being converted to a ligature which immediately ruled it as a nope for me. No monkey business with the characters of my code thank you very much.
by torgeros
12 subcomments
- Knowing that everything in here is people asking why their font is missing:
I highly recommend having a look at
[ MAPLE MONO ]
(on Github https://github.com/subframe7536/Maple-font).
It has amazing readability, looks nice, is compatible with NF if you use that.
I received compliments from people looking over my shoulder for my f'ing font?!
Huge shoutout to subframe7536 ^^
- Berkeley Mono, Iosevka, and Cascadia Code are missing which are my favorite fonts. The game handed me Roboto Mono instead.
What I noticed while playing was that when fonts are similar, I really pay attention to the rendering of "m" and "r". When they look off, the whole font looks off to me.
by spankalee
1 subcomments
- I love this, but I really wish it were structured as a "Hot or Not" type of round robin system rather than a bracket.
Some fonts are close enough that I don't know if I'd choose one over the other consistently, and I'd be curious to see a percentage score of how much I like a particular font.
- My coding font is comic-shanns-mono, here's how it looks: https://github.com/jesusmgg/comic-shanns-mono?tab=readme-ov-...
by JasonSage
2 subcomments
- I enjoyed this, though my font preferences are pretty stable.
It would be nice if it showed you 1st, 2nd, semi-finalist, quarter-finalist...
It would also be nice to see progress of some kind, a few minutes in I was wondering if I was near completion or just getting started.
- Nowadays I use a lot of Iosevka. Previously I was on Ubuntu and JetBrains Mono, both are great fonts. A bit of PT Mono as well, even Terminus for a bit. One of my favorites has got to be Liberation Mono though - the most readable font I’ve ever found, even if Iosevka lets me put more stuff on screen horizontally. Oh also I’ve started enjoying Cascadia Code recently, surprisingly pleasant.
- I clicked this link with the thought "I'm curious, but I don't think I really have strong opinions about fonts", and was almost immediately proven wrong with the revulsion I felt at Xanh Mono.
Though it turns out that VS Code default (Droid Sans Mono) is (to my eye) basically identical to my winner (Roboto Mono), so the exercise was mostly academic.
- For me it's Berkeley Mono...I was unable to find anything that comes close to it. But this games is fun and the result is a font that is similar to my favourite
- As I get older I prefer the text on my screen to be bigger than usual. Most websites tend to have super small fonts for some reason.
For coding I much prefer fonts that are bold and easier to read. Who actually likes these whimsical cursive looking comments or super thin looking fonts?
I ended up with "Roboto Mono" btw.
- Missing my favorite, Iosevka: https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka
Playing the game gave me Jetbrains Mono though.
by akarlsten
1 subcomments
- Cool, obviously a lot of people are going to quibble about the default lineup (wheres Iosevka?) but for anyone who hasn't nailed down a preference it seems great!
- Ended up with Victor Mono and indeed, I used that font for years before switching to Iosevka.
The game certainly needs a progress bar (I tried on iPhone) and option “there’s no chance in world that I will ever use any of proposed options”.
Funny enough I realized that every several years I oscillate between trying to get readable narrow fonts (that brought me to Iosevka) and wide ones (Azeret Mono, anyone?)
- No Commit Mono :(
The GOAT - https://commitmono.com/
- I stopped looking for fonts after I got comfortable tweaking the metric settings of Iosevka. My current setup exports a set of really compressed cuts (more compressed than Pragmata Pro) which I've always found hard to come by.
- I'd love to see a page which tracked stats for what the majority of users were picking
- Surprised that I picked Oxygen Mono over Noto, but probably because I wasn't aware of Oxygen.
Would be nice to be able to play it with my own fonts because some got eliminated purely because 0 (zero) looked like O (letter). Fira Code was a winner only because there weren't paid fonts that I use.
by jordanscales
0 subcomment
- Nice work! I wish rankings were done with an Elo score. I was worried of regretting my choices sometimes (single elimination?). Would require a lot more comparisons to arrive at stable scores, but the interface is nice I wouldn't mind.
by phplovesong
1 subcomments
- Been running Berkeley Mono for years. Before that i flipped fonts and theme like every week. I sometimes wish you could not change font or color theme at all.
by mosburger
1 subcomments
- I got Source Code Pro. My daily driver is currently 0xProto, but I didn't see that in the game (admittedly I think it's kinda rarely used).
- For me it was a close finish between Fira Code and RedHat Mono.
I mostly look out for
* no <= or === ligatures (i still like to see the separate characters)
* 'i' vs 'l' vs '1' (I now mostly prefer fonts where the lowercase 'l' has the righthand bend on the bottom)
* dotted zero vs slashed zero (i prefer the slashed zero, but dotted is fine as well)
- One nit about the site: the screen elements forced me to make my browser window more than half the size of my screen, and I use a 3840×2160 monitor. My windows are normally about ⅕ the size of the screen and roughly 4:3 ratio shaped. It was nearly unusable like that (I don't suffer issues from almost any other site.)
On the game/bracket: it narrowed me down to Noto Sans Mono and I'm honestly not surprised, it's one of the few fonts that comes with my operating system that I find acceptable.
That being said, what I actually have my terminal and Emacs set to is “AcPlus IBM VGA 8x16” from https://int10h.org/oldschool-pc-fonts/. I've always been fond of the VGA font and it tickles all the right usability marks for me.
by zimpenfish
1 subcomments
- My favourite* bit about this thread is the number of times I've gone "ooh, that looks like a nice font", downloaded it, unzipped it, and loaded into Fontbook which has promptly gone "you already have this one DUMBASS".
Don't get old, kids, it sucks.
- It's rigged; Consolas isn't even a contender in this game, and the example text has no lowercase italic 'k's, which are its best glyph.
- Well, I appear to be the only person that likes Nanum Gothic Coding. (Though I typically use Input Mono - not present in this site's set of fonts.)
The semifinals for me with ligatures enabled were Inconsolata vs Cousine, and Nanum Gothic Coding vs Xanh Mono. With ligatures disabled: Xanh Mono vs Nanum Gothic Coding, and Share Tech Mono vs Roboto Mono.
It'd be nice if you could click the various fonts in play at the end, to see them again and compare them against one another. (Regarding comparing images against one another: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46954055) I had specific metrics that I was going for, but sometimes it was marginal.
- Oh this is really cool, I did it and I landed on the font I've been using for years now: "Fira Code".
- Source Code Pro was my winner in this test. I use Iosevka on a regular base
- Terminus TTF[1] is my favorite monospace font. The key thing for me is that it is actually a bitmap font, which means it is sharp and crisp. I get headaches from most types of anti-aliasing on traditional low DPI monitors. The colour bleed from subpixel AA is awful, but even most grey scale AA (except when using full hinting as well) is just so blurry.
Unfortunately they seem to have missed it on this page.
[1]: https://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/
by coldcity_again
0 subcomment
- I got PT Mono in the game, but this gave me the kick I needed to remember about ProggyClean[1] and track it down. Used to love it many years ago, time to give it another spin and see if it holds its own.
There's a vector version[2] now too!
[1]: http://proggyfonts.net/
[2]: https://github.com/bluescan/proggyfonts/tree/master/ProggyVe...
by deepriverfish
1 subcomments
- A few years ago I found comic mono and monofur for Powerline. I switch between the 2 when I get bored of one or the other. I decided I won't try any new fonts, it's a waste of time for me and I hate having too many options to choose from, not only fonts but basically everything else too, it's distracting. Same for my editor's theme, I switch between Braver's Solarized Light and Radical.
This way I can focus on coding and less on tweaking my environment.
by lemontheme
0 subcomment
- Lately I've taken to Iosevka, the 'curly' variant to be precise. Even though I hated it when I first tried it, I revisited it because I was noticing that, with coding agents running in the same window, I wanted to be able to see more at a glance. With Iosevka's semi-width glyphs you can just fit a lot more in the same space. Took a day or two to get used to its slender appearance. Now every other font feels unnecessarily w i d e
- Landed on Cousine in the end, which is the font I tend to use.
Fira Code came in second, and that's fair, I've used it on occasion, I like it.
I feel like Chivo Mono[1] would make a decent programming font — if a programming version of it were to exist, anyway.
I also like Go Mono[2], and although they're rather different to what I usually go for, I can see the appeal of the M+ mono[3] fonts.
For those of a more whimsical inclination, Fantasque Sans Mono[4] seems like it might be cool for you.
[1]: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Chivo+Mono
[2]: https://go.dev/blog/go-fonts
[3]: https://mplusfonts.github.io/
[4]: https://belluzj.github.io/projects/design/fantasquesansmono-...
by genpfault
2 subcomments
- Doesn't seem to serve rendered samples so you have to set "browser.display.use_document_fonts" to "1" to see anything useful.
- The font I use, IBM Plex Mono, I chose not because I love the font, but because it's the one I love most of the fonts with CJK variants (which basically means IBM Plex, Google Noto, or Adobe Source). It's unfortunate because I really like Libertinus (a rare serif monospace font), but trying to match different non-CJK and CJK fonts that work well together is annoying.
- Well, Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono ... - thank you!!!
by oneneptune
0 subcomment
- Courier Prime won for me, I've always been a courier fan I guess because I wrote all my books in the 90s with it..
by nikitadotla
0 subcomment
- Ubuntu Mono. I have been using JetBrains Mono for last 2 years and surprisingly I rejected it in a second iteration.
by manbitesdog
0 subcomment
- That's very nice and I ended up with the same font I tend to use (Source Code Pro) vs the font I used before (Noto Sans Mono). Some features I'd love to see:
- An ELO-based version with many more variables, so that I can open the site from time to time and find more nice fonts
- Some global stats
- Not losing the leaderboard after reloading
- Spline Sans Mono
by ChrisArchitect
0 subcomment
- Some previous discussion including a Show HN: from the dev:
2024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41604781
2021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29010443
- If you prefer proportional fonts, here's one that pads a 1/3 of a space before uppercase letters, so it makes camelCase more legible.
https://github.com/ericfortis/verdanacamel
- It's ... weirdly validating that what I ended up with is what I actually use (Source Code Pro).
- Dunno how long this is normally supposed to go but it took me 10+ min of actually seriously considering the fonts at each choice and the final suggestion is a font that I actively dislike. I’m curious how it’s narrowing things down because I noticed that it started to give me only serif fonts which I don’t like. But the sans serif ones that it was using to try and narrow things down had distinct characteristics that I didn’t like like very narrow stems or very narrow or wide characters. But it wasn’t doing that with serif fonts. I’m guessing it began to think I preferred serifs because of that but in reality, I wasn’t picking the lesser of two evils most of the time.
- Ended up with Hack, but it is missing the font I use[1]. I think I could live with hack.
It's amazing to me how many of the fonts in this bracket have lower-case ell and one as nearly identical (both with a line at the base and some protrusion to the left at the top).
On improvement would be to allow scalling different fonts to different sizes. With them all at (e.g.) 16pt, there is a wildly different amount of text on the screen.
1: https://github.com/belluzj/fantasque-sans
by thetwentyone
0 subcomment
- I wish it had my favorite in it so that I could do a blind test to see if it really is my favorite: https://juliamono.netlify.app
- Neat.
I wish the sample text included _underscores_, since I have occasionally found that they disappear with certain combinations of font + size + renderer.
And a run of all the numeric digits 0123456789, to show how their heights align.
And [square brackets], to show how easily they are distinguished from certain other glyphs.
And the vertical | bar, for the same reason.
...
Adobe Source Code Pro and Ubuntu Mono were my finalists. I think my preference would come down to window and font size, since Ubuntu Mono seemed to be narrower and leave more space between lines.
(Also, I kind of rushed the first few comparisons, so it's possible that I prematurely eliminated a typeface that I would have liked more.)
by timeinput
3 subcomments
- IBM Plex Mono -- I guess no one ever got fired for choosing IBM?
by lordgrenville
0 subcomment
- Nice idea, would be good to add a third option for "these look indistinguishable" (and then I guess they could be bundled together in later stages).
- Obligatory shout-out to Berkeley Mono [1], which understandably isn't on this site because it's a paid font. I really enjoy the customizer that comes with it, I use the font on all my terminal/IDE environments, as well as on my blog.
(FWIW, I just did the codingfont bracket and got Source Code Pro, which I've used in the past, along with Iosevka and Commit Mono)
[1] https://usgraphics.com/products/berkeley-mono
- Last time I took this I ended up with the exact font I already use, and I realized that it was because I was basically picking whichever font was closer to it on each choice. Because I also enforce my fonts of choice on my browser, I guess it's just the only font I've read code in for so many years that it's just "what code should look like" to me.
- Serifs so I and l look different, monospace so it's possible to use spaces for alignment, and a slash or dot in the zero. What else do I need?
by embedding-shape
0 subcomment
- Doesn't it kind of default the purpose if you can't see it in the actual environment you'd be using it? I know the differences are very minor between terminals and browsers when it comes to font rendering, but this seems like a tool that should be a plugin with the editor people are intending to use the font with, rather than a website.
by starkparker
1 subcomments
- I already use Inconsolata but had customized it to a point where I didn't recognize it here. It won anyway. Validation!
- Nothing comes close to Iosevka for me, after using it for a while it's hard to find the same mix of narrow+readable.
- Typo : Webiste URL
The site is unusable on mobile even with desktop mode
In desktop mode the instructions to use the arrows appeared only after I zoomed out, they would gain from being part of the top banner
Would be nice to have the final listing :
1st place, second place, joined third
by sirentdiver
0 subcomment
- As expected, I landed on my current and favourite font, Inconsolata.
I remember seeing another font that I liked but I didn't manage to check what font it was before the game showed the winner. Looks like I have to play it again. Not on mobile at least, the webpage was hard to interact on Android Chrome.
- This is cool!
Suggestion: I'd like to have an option to exclude fonts without ligatures from the game. And it seems there are others who don't like ligatures who would probably like to be able to exclude fonts with ligatures. You could also do this for other features like serifs.
- I like, as it is quick to decide, and you can see font names afterwards (some indeed looked similar).
At the same time, it would be wonderful if window sizes were more consistent (now things are obstructed, with scrolling, etc). And I would love to download the ranking graph!
by orestesgaolin
0 subcomment
- Wondering if this was subconscious, but the one I use just won - Fira Code.
- I discovered I do not like a foot on my l's. Ubuntu mono won. But it also didn't have any of the fonts from VSCode I'm on now which are very similar (Menlo, Monaco, 'Courier New', monospace).
by davidpfarrell
0 subcomment
- Because I'm lazy, and forgetful, I went back to my comment from a previous time this was posted:
* https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42554715
Results: Roboto Mono !
by varispeed
1 subcomments
- Mine is Red Hat Mono, but really I don't like any of the presented fonts.
by yoyohello13
2 subcomments
- Every time something like this comes up I always end up with JetBrains Mono.
- Not bad. I picked First code which is acceptable. My fav though is 0xProto, which has ligatures that still maintain separation between the symbols and is otherwise a very nice, legible font.
- Played it twice to see if it's reproducible. First time, Fira Code; second time Source Code Pro. Source Code Pro came in second first time round as well. Been using Fira Code until now.
- https://ibb.co/chk13GxD
I found this somewhere on the internet. Haven't been able to know what this font is.
- Sadly, IBM 3270 is missing from the lot. How can I write professional looking code that lasts a lifetime in anything less?
I also remember some nice ones designed to look like a smoothed VT-220 one.
- I want to see the stats for this - which one gets chosen the most?
by delta_p_delta_x
0 subcomment
- This kind of breaks for me because I identify all the familiar fonts quite quickly—Consolas, Inconsolata, Iosevka, JetBrains Mono, Fira Mono/Code, Menlo, SF Mono, Courier...
by stephc_int13
0 subcomment
- Got Jetbrains Mono. Not a surprise as I used this font for a long time and I still use it for my terminal font.
But I prefer (and use) PragmataPro (not free) and it is not part of the test, sadly.
- This was a pleasant surprise to enjoy, I was surprised to discover a font I wasn’t aware of.
Seeing all the fonts listed here it would be great to be able to add user submissions into the mix.
- Neat educational game. Would have liked to see Maple Mono in the line up, but I'm sure you've gotta draw the line somewhere or the game would be too tedious.
by michaelcampbell
0 subcomment
- Fun. Interestingly the one that "won" for me isn't the one I normally use, which was one of the candidates, but I have used it a lot in the past.
- This is like an eye test for choosing a font, great idea!!
- My favorite coding font is the one that is pre-installed on my work laptop because I cannot install additional ones...
So Aptos Mono or Consolas it is.
- I want my time back :D . Here I was picking things that i liked the most, and it gave me Ubuntu Mono, a font I already have selected in my editor.
- I landed on IBM Plex Mono my long time favourite. Thought these days I use MD IO Trial, which is close but better in a few key ways imho.
- I don't need this many rounds to determine it. There should be "neither" to limit the weird fonts that will never fly.
by ranger_danger
2 subcomments
- Fira Code for me.
- Is it weird that I look at most of the offered pairs and think "meh, both are ok, I guess", but do not feel any preference one way or the other?
Like, some fonts look to weird/unusual that I dislike. But most look just fine and I don't really care.
Am I weird? Do I lack taste?
- Is there meaning behind the fonts selected? I use Menlo or Monaco and neither are present
- Why not Deja Vu Sans Mono? That was the default for years and it's what a lot of us are used to.
- Ended up with Inconsolata.
My favorites, however, aren't even there.
(Pearl8x8, Spleen, Terminus)
by adityamwagh
0 subcomment
- My favourite one is Iosevka Extended.
by 0xdeadbeefbabe
0 subcomment
- I'm tired of colors. I wonder if I hate them all or just haven't found the perfect one.
by userbinator
0 subcomment
- I got Anonymous Pro, which is close to my usual font: misc-fixed 6x13 with a slashed zero.
- interesting... for me JetBrains Mono won, which is the one I already use. But I discovered Atkinson Hyperlegible, which looks awesome for reading books. I guess I have a minor reading issue that I wasn't aware of!
by fortyseven
0 subcomment
- It works -- by the end I was facing off against my two favorites. ;) I CAN'T CHOOSE.
- please add TokyoNight and its variants. I can't imagine using any other theme!
by WhereIsTheTruth
0 subcomment
- JetBrains Mono
That's the one i have been using for many years, look like i made the right choice
- Thanks! A lot of fun!
I'm using Liberation Mono, and it's missing :( i got PT Mono though.
- brackets aren’t really the best way to figure this out, is it? makes a lot of assumptions about human preferences that probably don’t actually hold. something like ELO might be better.
by mileshilles
0 subcomment
- Been using Google Sans Code for a while, loving it so far :)
by voidUpdate
0 subcomment
- Nice to know i'm already using my result, jetbrains mono
by admiralrohan
0 subcomment
- Why Cascadia Code is missing? But very good concept.
- I was pleased to find that I chose the font I actually use.
- I always end up with Consolas, Ubuntu Sans Mono and Hack.
- Did the whole thing. I got IBM Plex. Actually looks great
- Aaah, Ubuntu Mono, i found you, you little rascal
by articsputnik
0 subcomment
- the winner of mine was Inconsolata, tough my favorite font, Iosevka, was not even part of the sample :)
- would be nice to pick the language too
- JetBrains Mono. Makes sense
- Fira Code, as expected
- There are some good choices, but also some atrocious ones. My favourite coding font[0] is missing.
[0]: https://www.recursive.design/ and also available on Google Fonts[1]
[1]: https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Recursive
- Wow, some of these are looking atrocious. (Victor Mono, Syne Mono, Nova Mono)
What I'm missing is DejaVuSansMono which is what I'm using. The result of the test was Ubuntu Mono, which looks okay too.
by Levitating
0 subcomment
- I got Cuisine, I was trying to get Hack.
by jbverschoor
0 subcomment
- Fira Code
by bensyverson
0 subcomment
- Can we just talk about how good Source Code Pro is?
- ubuntu mono, fira code
- Roboto Mono for the win.
- Roboto Mono, apparently
by weakened_malloc
0 subcomment
- > Ctrl + F
> "Google Sans Mono"
> 0 results
I'm disappointed in you today, HN
by gnarlouse
1 subcomments
- I got Anonymous Pro
by coreyburnsdev
0 subcomment
- Cascadia. Jetbrains. Fira. All you'll ever need.
- another comment about favourite font missing: departure mono
- am i the only one who sticks to defaults, mostly?
- This is interesting. I didn’t realize how much font choice affects readability until I switched between a few over time.
by throwaway613746
0 subcomment
- I've been jumping between Maple Mono and a custom Iosevka build that I've been tweaking here and there for the better part of 3 years. Jetbrains Mono is also really nice if you want something a bit more neutral.
by i18nagentai
1 subcomments
- [dead]
by nilslindemann
0 subcomment
- 1. What does "choose" choose?
2. What does "press arrow" do?
3. Do "choose" and "press arrow" do the same or do they do different things?
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