{"slug": "jetbrains-mono", "name": "JetBrains Mono", "category": "other", "category_name": "Other software", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 13, "warners": 1, "score": 4.436, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2025-12-12", "latest": "2026-10-20", "why": "JetBrains Mono is good enough for me to not venture far away from defaults", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 5, "compare": 3, "warn": 1}, "spark": [0, 2, 0, 0, 2, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "JetBrains Mono is good enough for me to not venture far away from defaults", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": null, "github_repo": "github.com/jetbrains/jetbrainsmono", "official_url": "https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["JetBrains Mono"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 761230976, "item_id": 47576936, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47576936", "by": "WhereIsTheTruth", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "That's the one i have been using for many years", "excerpt": "JetBrains Mono That's the one i have been using for many years, look like i made the right choice", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font"}, {"id": 740002754, "item_id": 46250172, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46250172", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2025-12-12", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "JetBrains Mono is good enough for me to not venture far away from defaults", "excerpt": "Really like the idea of a font with extremely broad glyph support, sadly it looks really blurry on any custom size, like if I'd try to use this font in my IDE but would want to make it smaller so I can fit more text on the screen. For that particular use case (tbh mostly aesthetics than glyph support), I also found the TTF version of Terminus to be pleasant: https://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/ though JetBrains Mono ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNU Unifont"}, {"id": 739973888, "item_id": 46248368, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248368", "by": "torbengee", "date": "2025-12-12", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono.", "excerpt": "I've tried so many fonts in my coding life, but I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono. Crisp, all characters distinguishable, slightly larger lowercase for better reading ... I recently compared it once more to others \u2013 https://www.programmingfonts.org/ makes it easy to narrow down to your favourites one by one ... JetBrains Mono still wins. :)", "context": "", "use_case": "Coding font", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 761298144, "item_id": 47581134, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581134", "by": "ziml77", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I hate JetBrains Mono for feeling so large compared to the compact characters I'm used to.", "excerpt": "Wow JetBrains Mono to me is the furthest thing possible from Iosevka. I use PragmataPro (which Iosevka is extremely similar to) and I hate JetBrains Mono for feeling so large compared to the compact characters I'm used to.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["coding font", "customized monospace font"], "compared": [{"slug": "iosevka", "name": "Iosevka", "co": 5, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47575403", "title": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font", "mentions": 5}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50141581", "title": "Nordwand Mono \u2013 A monospace font for coders and adventurers", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50084240", "title": "Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif monospace font", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48313810", "title": "Various LLM Smells", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46322732", "title": "Making Google Sans Flex", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248859", "title": "GNU Unifont", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"recommend": 2, "neutral": 2, "warn": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {"neutral": 1, "compare": 3}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 802787425, "item_id": 50174214, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50174214", "by": "fouc", "date": "2026-10-20", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "compared to the other popular ones like JetBrains mono", "excerpt": "What? https://github.com/jaxvanyang/comic-shanns-nerd is a great font for coding, I personally find it more readable at smaller sizes compared to the other popular ones like JetBrains mono", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nordwand Mono \u2013 A monospace font for coders and adventurers"}, {"id": 802593824, "item_id": 50162114, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50162114", "by": "rootlocus", "date": "2026-10-20", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "It's 99% JetBrains Mono from my quick comparison.", "excerpt": "It's 99% JetBrains Mono from my quick comparison. I can barely see the difference except for $&# and a few others. LE: Ok, so it's a little more different that JetBrains Mono as this comparison shows https://claude.ai/artifact/HPiALZ7AZ2f5FxSZtcTdNa", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Nordwand Mono \u2013 A monospace font for coders and adventurers"}, {"id": 801438225, "item_id": 50089889, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50089889", "by": "gorgoiler", "date": "2026-10-14", "version": null, "stance": "compare", "quote": "", "excerpt": "A huge helping of praise gets lumped onto Iosevka, from me, for the way it is defined in a custom S-expression DSL. https://github.com/be5invis/PatEL It\u2019s a real hackers typeface.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif monospace font"}, {"id": 801372960, "item_id": 50085810, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50085810", "by": "voidUpdate", "date": "2026-10-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use jetbrains mono, and the >> ligature breaks bracket highlighting in visual studio", "excerpt": "I wish editors had the option to disable certain ligatures. I use jetbrains mono, and the >> ligature breaks bracket highlighting in visual studio, making them both the same colour", "context": "", "use_case": "coding font", "switched_from": "", "story": "Iosevka is an open-source, sans-serif and slab-serif monospace font"}, {"id": 773118000, "item_id": 48319875, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48319875", "by": "Udo_Schmitz", "date": "2026-05-28", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "https://github.com/JetBrains/JetBrainsMono/blob/master/OFL.txt", "excerpt": "https://github.com/JetBrains/JetBrainsMono/blob/master/OFL.txt", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Various LLM Smells"}, {"id": 761429376, "item_id": 47589336, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47589336", "by": "sibtain1997", "date": "2026-03-31", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "which is what i use anyway", "excerpt": "Ended up with jetbrains mono too, which is what i use anyway. Funny how you just end up defending whatever you're already used to", "context": "", "use_case": "Coding font", "switched_from": "", "story": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font"}, {"id": 761298144, "item_id": 47581134, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47581134", "by": "ziml77", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "I hate JetBrains Mono for feeling so large compared to the compact characters I'm used to.", "excerpt": "Wow JetBrains Mono to me is the furthest thing possible from Iosevka. I use PragmataPro (which Iosevka is extremely similar to) and I hate JetBrains Mono for feeling so large compared to the compact characters I'm used to.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font"}, {"id": 761289968, "item_id": 47580623, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47580623", "by": "tzot", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "", "excerpt": "I tried this variant of JetBrains Mono and it had the perfect glyph width (reportedly -6%) for my screen and window sizes: NRK Mono Condensed from https://github.com/N-R-K/NRK-Mono. I also agree with almost all of the other modifications mentioned in the github page under \u201cSome notable changes are:\u201d Now I can have side-by-side two editors plus a Structure or Project pane at the left in PyCharm while having 120 chars ", "context": "", "use_case": "coding font", "switched_from": "", "story": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font"}, {"id": 761273633, "item_id": 47579602, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47579602", "by": "joch", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "Playing the game gave me Jetbrains Mono though.", "excerpt": "Missing my favorite, Iosevka: https://github.com/be5invis/Iosevka Playing the game gave me Jetbrains Mono though.", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font"}, {"id": 761230976, "item_id": 47576936, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47576936", "by": "WhereIsTheTruth", "date": "2026-03-30", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "That's the one i have been using for many years", "excerpt": "JetBrains Mono That's the one i have been using for many years, look like i made the right choice", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "CodingFont: A game to help you pick a coding font"}, {"id": 741247382, "item_id": 46327961, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46327961", "by": "sorcercode", "date": "2025-12-19", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "(yes, plenty of customization there)", "excerpt": "i feel your pain my friend. i really do. i don't have your skills of actually customizing or changing glyphs in fonts directly but i've customized and used scripts to fix glyph characters available as open type features. I've done this for fonts like: - [Iosevka](https://kau.sh/blog/build-iosevka-font-mac-os/) - [IBM Plex Mono](https://kau.sh/blog/freeze-alt-char-open-type-font/) - [Jetbrains Mono](https://github.com", "context": "", "use_case": "customized monospace font", "switched_from": "", "story": "Making Google Sans Flex"}, {"id": 740002754, "item_id": 46250172, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46250172", "by": "KronisLV", "date": "2025-12-12", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "JetBrains Mono is good enough for me to not venture far away from defaults", "excerpt": "Really like the idea of a font with extremely broad glyph support, sadly it looks really blurry on any custom size, like if I'd try to use this font in my IDE but would want to make it smaller so I can fit more text on the screen. For that particular use case (tbh mostly aesthetics than glyph support), I also found the TTF version of Terminus to be pleasant: https://files.ax86.net/terminus-ttf/ though JetBrains Mono ", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "GNU Unifont"}, {"id": 739973888, "item_id": 46248368, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46248368", "by": "torbengee", "date": "2025-12-12", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono.", "excerpt": "I've tried so many fonts in my coding life, but I think I've finally found my forever font: JetBrains Mono. Crisp, all characters distinguishable, slightly larger lowercase for better reading ... I recently compared it once more to others \u2013 https://www.programmingfonts.org/ makes it easy to narrow down to your favourites one by one ... JetBrains Mono still wins. :)", "context": "", "use_case": "Coding font", "switched_from": "", "story": "Google releases its new Google Sans Flex font as open source"}]}