Obviously, it's just my preference, so this is quite subjective and nobody has to agree with it. That said, here I talk a bit about my search for the best programming font and how I ended up creating it myself...
I think it wouldn't be fair to say that I created it, it's more like I mixed two fonts together. A pseudo Font Family, like two divorced parents that got together, or maybe just a Frankenstein font(?).
(Nebula Oni Theme: Hourglass/Grey)
The search for THE font...
I've tried many different fonts throughout the years but I kept using Meslo LG, the font based on Menlo by Apple - which on the other hand is based on Bitstream Vera Sans Mono and DejaVu Sans Mono.
I started with Meslo from Nerd Fonts, but then I found out about Powerline and I wanted my terminal to look like that, so I started using a patched version that had glyphs for Powerline.
Soon after that I also found out about ligatures so I've got deep into font research to find a way to have Meslo with ligatures, and luckily, I found another patched version that had both Powerline and ligatures, it's called Liga Meslo LG M DZ.
Could it be?
I kept trying new fonts from time to time, I've played around with the Programming Fonts webpage, downloaded and tested some.
One day, after watching a few videos with someone using IBM Plex Mono, I decided to give it a second look. It was an interesting font, so I tested the ligature version for a little while, it's called Lilex - a pun with Ligature Plex, maybe.
But it wasn't quite it, mainly because of the use of serif in the base, making it looking a bit too stiff, and I still preferred Meslo - despite wanting it to be a bit thinner like IBM Plex Mono.
I really liked the italic parts of the code though, it felt quite different from the regular font. It was less typewriter-like, more elegant. I tried to find a way to use just the italic style, maybe some hidden configuration in Visual Studio Code, maybe an extension, no luck...
Eureka!
Then it struck me, why not do it myself? Some might think that the premise of mixing two different fonts is a sacrilege - maybe it is - but I really wanted to keep using Liga Meslo and just the italics of Lilex...
I thought that the italics of IBM Plex Mono/Lilex was so different than its regular counterpart that it could very well be part of another font. Meslo LG and Lilex height to base ratio are similar, so I decided to give it a try.
I did some research, found out a way to edit the fonts and mix just the parts that I wanted together, and voilà!
psudoFont Liga Mono was born...
You can download and try for yourself here on Github!
(Nebula Oni Theme: Cerberus/Glacial Blue)
Usage
This is the configuration I use on Visual Studio Code:
"editor.fontFamily": "psudoFont Liga Mono",
"editor.fontLigatures": true,
"editor.fontSize": 14,
If you use the font-size 16 or above, I would recommend to play around with line height over 1.5 and see what works best for you.
"editor.lineHeight": 1.6,
Did I find it?
I don't think my search for the "perfect" font it over though, if I had the time and patience to dedicate myself to it, I would mess around with Meslo, editing the glyphs, and making it a bit thinner, which would be better for bigger font size.
For now, that what if, that itch that made me do this has passed, so I'll enjoy this "new" font family - but you'll never know...