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Inconsolata VS Apple Font Tool Suite

Compare Inconsolata VS Apple Font Tool Suite and see what are their differences

Inconsolata logo Inconsolata

OSX, Productivity, Design, Typography, powerline, and Fonts

Apple Font Tool Suite logo Apple Font Tool Suite

A suite of tools for working with font files.
  • Inconsolata Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-01-11
  • Apple Font Tool Suite Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-06-27

Inconsolata features and specs

  • Readability
    Inconsolata is designed to be highly readable, making it suitable for long coding sessions and use in programming environments.
  • Open Source
    Inconsolata is freely available under the Open Font License, which allows for personal and commercial use without licensing fees.
  • Aesthetics
    The font has a clean, modern look with balanced proportions and distinct character shapes, enhancing the visual appeal of text.
  • Well-defined Characters
    Each character is well-defined with clear distinctions, reducing the likelihood of character confusion often seen in coding (e.g., between '1', 'l', 'I').
  • Monospaced
    As a monospaced typeface, Inconsolata keeps all characters at the same width, which is ideal for coding and tabular data alignment.

Possible disadvantages of Inconsolata

  • Limited Styles
    Inconsolata primarily comes in regular and bold weights, lacking a wide range of styles and weights compared to other fonts.
  • Non-proportional
    Being monospaced, Inconsolata may not be ideal for general text or editorial use where proportional fonts (with variable character widths) are preferred.
  • Line Spacing
    The default line spacing (leading) might be too tight or too loose for some users, requiring customization for optimal use.
  • Glyph Coverage
    While it covers most common characters, Inconsolata may not have comprehensive support for all Unicode characters, limiting its use in international contexts.
  • Size Optimization
    The font may not be as optimized for all screen sizes and resolutions, potentially affecting clarity and readability on very large or very small displays.

Apple Font Tool Suite features and specs

  • Comprehensive Toolset
    The Apple Font Tool Suite provides a wide range of tools that are useful for font development, including font validation, conversion, and manipulation, making it a versatile option for type designers.
  • High Integration with Apple Ecosystem
    Being developed by Apple, the suite is highly compatible and integrated with Apple’s technology stack, which is beneficial for developers working within the Apple ecosystem.
  • Optimization for Apple Platforms
    The tools are optimized for creating fonts that perform well on Apple's platforms, ensuring that fonts display beautifully and efficiently on macOS, iOS, and other Apple devices.
  • Free and Easily Accessible
    The font tools are freely available to developers, providing a cost-effective solution for those looking to develop and fine-tune typefaces without extra expenses.

Possible disadvantages of Apple Font Tool Suite

  • Limited Cross-Platform Support
    The suite is primarily designed for use on Apple's operating systems, which limits its usability for developers who work across multiple, non-Apple platforms.
  • Steep Learning Curve
    For those unfamiliar with font development or Apple's toolsets, there may be a steep learning curve to effectively use all the features provided in the suite.
  • Limited Community Support
    Since it is a specialized tool from Apple, there may be limited community-based support and resources compared to more universally used font development tools.
  • Restricted Customization Options
    The focus on Apple platforms may restrict certain customization options that are available in other more general-purpose font toolsets, limiting flexibility for some users.

Analysis of Inconsolata

Overall verdict

  • Yes, Inconsolata is considered a high-quality choice for those seeking a monospaced font. It is well-respected within the programming and design communities for its readability and elegant design.

Why this product is good

  • Inconsolata is a monospaced font designed for code editors and other applications that require precise alignment of text. It offers clear distinction between similar characters, balanced spacing, and a pleasing aesthetic, which makes it a favorite among programmers and designers who require precision and readability.

Recommended for

    Inconsolata is recommended for use in code editors, terminal applications, and any context where monospaced fonts are preferred for readability and visual clarity. It is also suitable for technical documentation or design projects that benefit from a clean, structured look.

Inconsolata videos

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Apple Font Tool Suite videos

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Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Inconsolata and Apple Font Tool Suite)
Typography
87 87%
13% 13
Design Tools
0 0%
100% 100
Design
100 100%
0% 0
Powerline
100 100%
0% 0

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Apple Font Tool Suite seems to be a lot more popular than Inconsolata. While we know about 81 links to Apple Font Tool Suite, we've tracked only 1 mention of Inconsolata. We are tracking product recommendations and mentions on various public social media platforms and blogs. They can help you identify which product is more popular and what people think of it.

Inconsolata mentions (1)

  • Moving from Rust to C++
    If you haven't heard of him, the joke's on you. Maybe. In any case, his work is worth looking into. He has done interesting work in font creation, font building primitives, rasterization, 2D drawing, and resistant social network graphs (which turns out to be more or less equivalent to the Old Sk00l Google Juice system). He was recently instrumental in performing a wonderful experiment in editor building --... - Source: Hacker News / about 2 years ago

Apple Font Tool Suite mentions (81)

  • SN Pro Typeface
    I've found I like SF Pro from Apple, and Iosevka from Belleve Invis. SF Pro especially is really nice for UI elements, and Iosevka is great for coding and terminal work. https://developer.apple.com/fonts/ https://typeof.net/Iosevka/ I'm curious as to how you perceive those 2 font families? - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Berkeley Mono Typeface
    This does look very nice! Still, I often go back to what I know and what I got used to as the default on the OS. So, as a macOS user, I work with Apple's SF Mono:
      https://developer.apple.com/fonts/.
    - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Is there any way to get the built-in variable SF Pro font as a file?
    Edit: I got a comment here mentioning that the file is stored on /System/Library/Fonts/SFNS.ttf, and its included in the SF Pro font package as SF-Pro.ttf. Source: over 1 year ago
  • Changing font to Apple's San Francisco font family?
    Is there a way to change all my notes to use Apple's San Francisco fonts available on their website? Source: almost 2 years ago
  • Could anyone tell me what is this font? Thank you :)
    Hmm.. I think it's either SF Pro Bold or Inter Bold (tbh those two fonts look really similar). Source: almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Inconsolata and Apple Font Tool Suite, you can also consider the following products

Operator - Looking for something? Make a request and we'll find it.

DejaVu Sans Mono - This open source font family is derived from the Bitstream Vera family, itself close to the Microsoft core Web fonts (see Andale Mono).

M+ 1m - Download and install the M+ 1m free font family by M+ Fonts as well as test-drive and see a complete character set.

Microsoft Typography - Internal tools developed at Microsoft for manipulating and creating OpenType and TrueType font...

Bitstream Vera Sans Mono - Bitstream Vera Sans Mono Font | dafont.com

AFDKO - AFDKO is a collection of command-line tools used at Adobe for manipulating and creating OpenType...