glyn
I forget who round here recently praised the JetBrains mono font, but reading this and seeing it's licensed as open source, I am tempted to try it out: https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/
JetBrains Mono: A free and open source typeface for developers

Try JetBrains Mono in your IDE. Its simple forms and attention to every detail make coding a nice experience for developers’ eyes, no matter which IDE you choose.

JetBrains: Developer Tools for Professionals and Teams
Jan 8, 2023 at 3:35pmWeb
Show threadglynJan 8, 2023
Trying it out on #emacs, but I'm not instantly sold. I quite like the retro look of Courier New for code and I tend to find serifs improve readability. This has put the cat among the pigeons though, because I can't remember what the default font was previously...
Show threadcodearJan 8, 2023

@underlap make sure the ligatures are on.

I used FiraCode for some time, but seeing JetBrains mono made things very obvious.

The font makes diffs particularly clear to read, because ligatures add some horizontal space.

Bottom line is: it's not about the sheriffs, it's about the ligatures...

Show threadglynJan 8, 2023
@codear Turning ligatures on appeared to be a bit fiddly. Maybe I was looking in the wrong place...
Show threadglynJan 8, 2023
@codear Got ligatures working via https://github.com/mickeynp/ligature.el, I think. I don't see any obvious differences, but my emacs doesn't appear to be built with Cairo support. Is there some good text which would show off ligatures?
GitHub - mickeynp/ligature.el: Display typographical ligatures in Emacs

Display typographical ligatures in Emacs. Contribute to mickeynp/ligature.el development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHub
Show threadcodearJan 8, 2023

@underlap set it up with vscode to try it out.

You should immediately see changes in many places around the code, the most notorious example could be the comparison, but there's a ton more (comments, member access etc).

Ligatures are typically narrower than individual characters, leading to improved readability for many of us; YMMV, it's okay if this doesn't change anything for you. It's just a matter of subjective experience and preference 😉

Show threadgregsdennisJan 8, 2023
@underlap I tend to use the default. If I can read it, it's fine.
Show threadglynJan 8, 2023
@gregsdennis Me too, but I'm going to be doing some lecturing, so my terminal and emacs fonts will be consumed by others.
Show threadBryan RedeagleJan 8, 2023
@underlap It was designed by a member of TypeType, a well-regarded type foundry. So it's probably pretty good.
Show threadYan PujanteJan 10, 2023
@underlap I have been using it for a long time and don't want to change to something else. I even used it in my new tool I just released...
https://github.com/pongasoft/re-edit/releases/download/v1.0.0/re-edit-dark.png