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14 Free Programming Fonts to Enhance Your Coding Experience

Programming fonts are an often-overlooked part of the coding process. The best font will make scanning and writing hundreds of lines of code easier on your eyes.

If you feel you’re straining your eyes while writing and reviewing code, try changing things up with the best free programming fonts.

Free coding fonts for better programming

Here are the best free coding fonts you can use today:

1. Cascadia Code

cascadia code programming font

Cascadia Code is the default coding font for Visual Studio and the Windows Terminal. This free programming font comes with an italic, cursive, and mono variant.

The mono version has no ligatures, making it work for coding purposes due to its simplicity. Cascadia Code also supports the embedding of Powerline symbols.

2. Fira Code

fira code programming font

Fira Code is trusted by many programmers. The best part is that you can get this coding font for free.

Fira Code is a monospace font with specially designed ligatures for coding. The numbers and letters of this font are easy to read and appealing to look at. The colors can be customized easily, too.

The ligature of this font is especially useful when using multi-symbol character sequences when creating operators and tags. It’s simple and can enhance the experience of all the code you include on the command line.

3. JetBrains Mono

jetbrains mono programming font

JetBrains Mono focuses on its lettering. This free coding font prioritizes elements like the following:

  • Letter height
  • Point size
  • Weight size
  • Kerning

The letter O is rectangular, while 0 (zero) is round, making it easy to tell them apart. This also makes O more consistent with the other letters in the font.

There are a number of quality-of-life changes to this font that make it a must-have. There are hundreds of ligature variants that you can use to customize the font to your preferences, and it is compatible with pretty much any programming language.

4. DejaVu Sans Mono

dejavu sans mono free coding font

DejaVu Sans Mono is a part of a font family with a large typeface. This one prioritizes symbols, letters and numbers that a majority of programmers struggle with, making it one of the most user-friendly and most popular coding fonts available.

5. Source Code Pro

source code pro

Source Code Pro is a free programming font created by Adobe, which has released multiple open-source fonts within the Source Sans umbrella.

This free coding font is monospaced and was explicitly designed for UI. The regular font weighting still works for a wide variety of programming applications.

Source Code Pro shares many similarities with Source Sans. A few differences make it better for coding. For example, the dotted zeros and the modifications made to the i, j, and l letters.

6. Monaspace

monaspace

Monaspace is one of the best free programming fonts you can use today. Made specifically for coding, it features a clean, legible design.

It’s a collection of five distinct fonts with customizable ligatures to improve how each character appears when used next to each other.

7. IBM Plex Mono

ibm plex mono coding font

IBM Plex Mono is a free programming font that offers excellent readability. The monospaced font variant in the IBM Plex font family, it is designed for developers because of the character shapes that make it readable.

8. Hasklig

hasklig free coding font

Hasklig is a programming font designed to improve Haskell code’s readability. Its characters’ ligatures are designed with Haskell’s syntax in mind.

This free monospaced coding font works well with any programming language.

9. Hack

hack programming font

Another monospaced free programming font is Hack. It features a clean design that enables you to tell the characters part.

Hack also provides Powerline support.

10. Ubuntu Mono

ubuntu mono coding font

Ubuntu Mono is one of the best free programming fonts you can use. The monospaced variant of the Ubuntu family font, it features a modern design with consistent width and legible characters.

It makes a good coding font because of its readability. Each character is distinct, making it easy for you to distinguish between 0 and the letter O, and other similar characters like I (capitalized i), l (lowercased L), and 1.

11. Agave

If you’re looking for a monospaced yet stylish free programming font, consider Agave. It’s a simple, yet readable font that makes it ideal for coding.

Agave is a fixed-width outline typeface that is suitable for different programming languages.

12. Inconsolata

inconsolata programming font

Inconsolata is another monospaced font ideal for coding. It’s a sans-serif font that’s legible whether used in large or small sizes.

It has enough spaces between characters, making this font easy on your eyes while you write code.

13. Monaco

monaco programming font

Monaco is one of the best free programming fonts you can use. This monospaced font makes it easy for you to tell different characters apart.

Thus, writing and reviewing your code is easier on your eyes when you use this font.

14. Iosevka

iosevka coding font

If you use terminal apps, Iosevka is one of the best free programming fonts you can use. It’s an open-source font designed for technical documents and coding.

It has sans serif and serif versions. You can also choose between the monospace and quali-proportional typeface.

What are coding fonts?

Coding fonts are designed specifically for coding and use in programming.

The best programming fonts make the process easier to follow, saving you time by helping you keep track of what you have done and are doing. These coding fonts are made with readability in mind and offer a better experience than default system fonts are designed for.

What should I look for in a free programming font?

Here are three factors you need to look out for when choosing the best free programming font:

Coding icon.

3 things to look for in a programming font

1. Recognizability

If you take a quick glance, can you spot the difference between other numbers and letters that look similar? Being able to tell the difference between 0 (zero) and O (capitalized letter O) is very important when programming. Another example is to test out I (capitalized letter i), 1, and l (lowercase L).

2. Ligature

The ligature of a font refers to the joining of letters when placed together. This might sound like a minor point to focus on, but reviewing coding fonts with ligatures before deciding to use them for an entire project is important.

3. Monospacing

A monospaced font, also known as a fixed-pitch or non-proportional font, is when every font’s character is designed to take up the same amount of horizontal space.

Monospaced fonts make excellent coding fonts because they’re easier to align vertically, thus improving code readability when parts of the codes are indented.

Final thoughts on choosing your best font for coding

When it comes to optimizing coding, every little bit helps. Ensuring the programmer can work comfortably and maintain focus is essential to doing the job well.

While choosing a coding font might sound like a minor or trivial point, it serves an important purpose and finding the right one is a decision that needs to be researched.

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