After getting both Boot Camp and Parallels Workstation installed on our iMac at work I decided to venture into Visual Studio land to see if I could build some of our projects.  So I got all the code I needed, fired up Visual Studio, and eeewwwww!  What the hell is that!?  Courier!?  

I can't stand Courier.  Windows or Mac, it doesn't matter.  Courier has got to be the worst fixed-width font ever created.  It's hideous.  So before I even try to build the 3 file project I just opened I had to spend 5 or 10 minutes fidgeting around with Visual Studio's menus trying to find out where you change the font.  It's been a long time since I used VS, probably 6 years or more. 

Apparently I'm not the only one that thinks Courier sucks.  I heard that one of my Windows colleagues at work designed his own fixed-width font because he too hates Courier.  I'll have to confirm that.  Also, my level of disgust with Courier is so deep that I even filed a bug report when Apple changed their Java VM to use Courier as the default Monospaced font instead of Monaco.

Anyway, I finally found where you change the font in Visual Studio.  So then I have my fingers crossed - It's possible that Monaco is installed on Windows right?  Bzzt! Wrong!  For those that don't know, Monaco is the best fixed-width font.  There's no arguing here, Monaco is the best.  Courier - the worst.  Monaco - the best. 

OK, no Monaco on Windows, I'll just search the Internet right?  Well, it wasn't nearly as easy as I thought it would be.  After digging through a lot of search results I finally found a site that had it.  Woohoo!  Monaco for Windows, now I'm set.  I still haven't built that 3 file VS project by the way.

I get Monaco installed, change the font in VS and now I'm ready right?  Well, almost.  I look at Monaco on Windows and it doesn't quite look right.  Sure, it's Monaco but not quite the same Monaco that I see on the Mac.  I'll have to include some screenshots, but needless to say it doesn't look quite the same.  I think that the reason for this is because I believe the Mac font has special bitmap versions for small sizes that are displayed on the screen.  That is, for font size 9 & 10 I think the Mac version just uses a bitmap representation of the font.  I don't think it does this on Windows.  The result is that on the Mac you get a clean, crisp font that has been hand-tuned to look good on a computer screen.  On Windows, however, you just get a rendering of the font using the same glyph information that it would use to render it at all sizes.  It still looks good and is lightyears ahead of Courier, but it just isn't as nice and crisp as it is on the Mac.  Oh well, it will do.

Now I can finally build that 3 file project.

Get Monaco.ttf  

Related Items:

• 777
• Apple feeds a patent Troll ove
• Apple giveth and Apple taketh
• Bibble 5 is out!
• Bibble 5 Previewed, Bibble 4.1
• Boot Camp

Be first to comment this article

Write Comment

Please keep the topic of messages relevant to the subject of the article. Personal verbal attacks will be deleted. Please don't use comments to plug your web site. Such material will be removed. Just ensure to *Refresh* your browser for a new security code to be displayed prior to clicking on the 'Send' button. Keep in mind that the above process only applies if you simply entered the wrong security code.
Name:
E-mail
Homepage
Title:
BBCode:
Comment:
Code:*
	I wish to be contacted by email regarding additional comments

Powered by AkoComment Tweaked Special Edition v.1.4.3