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Inconsolata VS Input Mono

Compare Inconsolata VS Input Mono and see what are their differences

Inconsolata logo Inconsolata

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

Input Mono logo Input Mono

Multiform monospace font.
  • Inconsolata Landing page
    Landing page //
    2020-01-11
  • Input Mono Landing page
    Landing page //
    2023-09-23

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.

Input Mono features and specs

  • Legibility
    Input Mono is designed with a focus on clear distinguishability of characters, which enhances reading comfort, especially for coding where character misidentification can lead to errors.
  • Customization
    The font offers extensive customization options, allowing users to adjust weight, width, and line height among other features, to suit personal preferences or specific requirements.
  • Open-source Availability
    Input Mono is available under an open-source license, making it freely accessible for modification and integration into various projects without licensing issues.
  • Technical Design
    It has been designed specifically for users working in technical environments, with glyphs that support programming and eliminate common confusion with similar-looking characters.

Possible disadvantages of Input Mono

  • Complexity of Choices
    The many customization options can be overwhelming, especially for users who prefer a simple, ready-to-use font, or those who find the selection process tedious.
  • Aesthetic Preference
    While the font is technically optimized, its aesthetic might not appeal to everyone, especially those who prioritize style or visual design over practicality in their font choice.
  • Web font Support
    Some users may experience challenges when integrating Input Mono as a web font, potentially requiring additional steps to ensure full compatibility across different browsers.

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

inconsolata

Input Mono videos

Exploring Monospaced Fonts: A Fontribute of Input Mono

Category Popularity

0-100% (relative to Inconsolata and Input Mono)
Typography
59 59%
41% 41
Design
59 59%
41% 41
Powerline
100 100%
0% 0
OSX
0 0%
100% 100

User comments

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Social recommendations and mentions

Based on our record, Input Mono seems to be a lot more popular than Inconsolata. While we know about 35 links to Input Mono, 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

Input Mono mentions (35)

  • Coding Font Selection 'Tournament'
    DejaVu is one of my favorites, and it is odd to not see it included. Input Mono [1] by David Jonathan Ross is what I use these days. It's very similar to DejaVu, but I like it better because its geometry is a little rounder. DejaVu's "m" is very narrow, and it has fewer serifs (l, i, etc.), but it also has a serif version for those who want that (it's still very "sans"). It comes in many weights and has a... - Source: Hacker News / 5 months ago
  • Monaspace
    Seems like in modern times, on modern systems, we can move beyond monospaced fonts for code. I have recommended this many times here, but I use a proportional coding font: Input Sans https://input.djr.com. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • B612 Font Family
    Yes I ran into problem with distinguishing between ; and : as well on this monospace font. I'll say it was fun to try it and I used it for awhile but it isnt suitable for coding purposes. Im much more happy now with a highly customizable font like Input[0] where I can make it as wide or as narrow as I like it to be and also customize the various characters [0]: https://input.djr.com/. - Source: Hacker News / over 1 year ago
  • Bad Apple Font
    Does your browser have a "Reader" mode? There are font systems that target code and aren't monospace. An example is Input: https://input.djr.com/ - https://input.djr.com/preview/ The niche seems to be people who like to code without monospace, or who present code without monospace, e.g. In slides or in blog posts. Or if you want typographical consistency between non-code and code, as I understand you are suggesting. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
  • FiraCode: Free monospaced font with programming ligatures
    I’ve used Ligaturizer [2] to update the font to include ligatures. I believe the ligatures are even taken from FiraCode itself. I wonder how it’s fitting it to the width of a character as it’s much narrower, but still monospaced. - [1] https://input.djr.com/. - Source: Hacker News / almost 2 years ago
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What are some alternatives?

When comparing Inconsolata and Input Mono, you can also consider the following products

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

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.

Noto Mono - OSX, Typography, Fonts, Design, and powerline

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

Fira Code - A font derived from Fira Mono with added ligatures.

Hermit - HermiT is reasoner for ontologies written using the Web Ontology Language ( OWL). Given an OWL file, HermiT can determine whether or not the ontology is consistent, identify subsumption relationships between classes, and much more.