Consolas vs Inconsolata, which is the best font for your IDE

Along the years two fonts have raised among all the others as the best fonts for programming, those two fonts are of course Consolas and Inconsolata, Join us as we analyze this two in the epic search for the ultimate IDE font.

Inconsolata In Windows 7 with ClearType

Consolas in Windows 7 with ClearType

First of all let's talk about ClearType, Consolas was designed to be used with ClearType so it doesn't look as good as it could outside Windows, Inconsolata in the other side works as a charm in Linux and MacOsx, where we all know only free and hipster code with no value whatsoever.

Now, Inconsolata it's also free which poses the problem of future support, the designer  Raph Levien might at any moment decide that he wont support the font anymore and all your code made with inconsolata would be lost forever. So take a moment to think ¿Does a free font is really worthed?

You can have Consolas free of charge and maintained by Microsoft by just using Windows (Vista or better), if you don't have Windows, you can buy a commercial licence at Ascender, which happens come with a proper TrueType hinting for correct Anti-Aliasing in MacOsx and Linux.

Inconsolata have a lot of good reviews among programmers:

"Inconsolata is my favorite monospaced font it’s shame that it's free. Shortly after discovering it, it quickly supplanted Deja Vu Sans Mono as my go-to programming font. I use it everywhere, from Terminal windows to code editors. It has a certain sublime style that’s unique without being over the top, and it looks fantastic at both large and small sizes. I use this font when I show code samples in a presentation, and it’s the font we use in Terminal and TextMate windows when filming PeepCode screencasts."

Source: Programming Fonts Monthly 

"Raph Levien has developed a great programming font cleverly called Inconsolata. I have been using it as my primary terminal/coding/text font for several months and find it superior to anything else I’ve used. Unfortunately, there it is a free/open font."

Source: Inconsolata, Quality Free and Open Font for Programmers

But as chief editor at the Programming Fonts Monthly say it in his 2012 year review:

"Too bad it’s free … if it wasn't, it would be #1 on this list."