Change the font in the IDE
I don’t think the standard type in Visual studio is the best one just because it is what is shipped.
Instead I test different and from 10+ years I have come to the conclusions:
1) Sans serif is better than serif.
2) Fixed width is not important – it is very seldom I need anything aligned by the count of characters. When I do I change and then change back.
3) Proportional width packs more characters per cm without losing readability.
Of all the fonts I have tested I still believe Arial is the best compromise.
Its drawbacks are that parenthesises are to narrow and that exclamation mark is too narrow and hard to read. I write mainly C# and Javascript and then ! is very important.
When I started out I believed that capital letter O looking similar to digit 0 would be a problem but have come to the conclusion that in reality it is not.
Fonts tested: (I have tested way more but just recently decided to write them down and cannot remember all)
Arial // yes
Arial narrow // Too dense to be readable on screen; for me at least.
Bahnschrift light // The colon and semi colon are too light. Almost invisible at my setting.
Calibri
Comics // Did not work for programming – too hard to read.
Consolas // Nope, too stiff.
Courier // Serif, does not work, too slow to read.
Kalinga
Leelawade UI // Works alright.
Malgun Gothic // A bit to wide for my taste. Also a bit “squarish”.
Microsoft new Tai Lue // Nice. A tad to wide for my taste.
Microsoft MHei // Lighter than Microsoft new Tai Lue. Maybe too light. About as wide.
Microsoft JhengHei UI Light // Too wide for my taste. Reading was not fluent. One/L/Pipe differs. O/Zero differs. Discreet parenthesis. Thin !.
Microsoft YaHei // Could be more narrow. Easy to read.
Nirmala UI Semilight // Pixly.
Segoe UI // Nice. One/L/Pipe differs. O/Zero differs. Discreet parenthesis. Normal !.
Tahoma // Possibly too fat. One/L differs. Pipe only small difference. O/Zero differs. Normal parenthesis and !.
Yo Gothic // Works alright but is a wee thin on the laptop but ok on my bigger monitors.
Yo Gothic Medium // Slightly fatter than Yo Gothic. Ok. Different O0 and 1l but discreet !.
Yo Gothic UI // What I am currently testing.
Tags: font, ide, visual studio