I’ve just downloaded the new open source monospaced font from Adobe: Source Code Pro. I’m using it at 9pt size on Windows, and it has the same vertical and horizontal size of Microsoft's acclaimed Consolas font at 10pt – it means each character occupies the exact same square of pixels. Coincidence? Maybe not. Consolas is a great coding font praised by thousands of programmers around the world, so it’s natural that it could have been used as parameter.
My impression so far is that Source Code Pro looks lighter than Consolas, with less cluttering. It looks like a crossover between Consolas and Inconsolata, a font which looks absolutely great on Linux, but bad on Windows.
On Linux, Source Code Pro at 9pt renders as good as in Windows. It occupies the same horizontal spacing of Inconsolata at 10pt, but more vertical spacing. Too much vertical space, in my opinion; at 8pt, the font is too small if compared to the line height it has. It would be a lot better if this vertical space could be cut down. And the bold is too bold.
Source Code Pro can be downloaded at SourceForge, and the project is hosted on GitHub, which is a great initiative.
I’m really picky about the font I code with – in fact, I’m absolutely paranoid about it, I often change the font I use –, and I consider Source Code Pro worth trying on Windows, I can stare at it for hours without getting tired. Definitely added to my monospaced fonts collection, and from now on, the default monospaced font on this blog!
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