Using Source Code Pro with Sublime Text 2 and Terminal

I just downloaded the new Source Code Pro font (blog post | GitHub project) and decided to give it a try in Sublime Text 2. I like the results. Here’s the "before" screenshot:

And here’s the "after" (with Source Code Pro):

(See these images side-by-side here.)

One of the strengths of Source Code Pro is that it does an excellent job of differentiating between similar glyphs. Here are a few easily confused characters in my blog’s default font:

1Il|iO0oB8

And here they are in Source Code Pro:

1Il|iO0oB8

Here’s a good look at some metacharacters:

<>&"^$\/()|?+*[]{},.

Since I frequently use Vim as my editor, I decided to try Source Code Pro with the terminal, as well. Here’s the before picture (using Menlo):

And here’s the terminal with Source Code Pro:

If you want to give it a try, here’s what you do:

  1. Download the Source Code Pro font and unzip the file.
  2. Install the font…
    • On Mac:
      1. Open the Font Book application.
      2. Click on the + button under the Font column.
      3. Navigate to the fonts you want to install (I installed the OpenType version).
    • On Windows:
      1. Navigate to the folder containing the fonts you want to install.
      2. Select all the fonts in the directory.
      3. Right-click and select Install.
  3. Follow these instructions for changing your font in Sublime Text 2.

Let me know what you think. So far, I really like it, but I’ll need to live with it for a few days before I know for sure.

7 Responses to Using Source Code Pro with Sublime Text 2 and Terminal

  1. Tyler Clendenin says:
    October 15, 2012 at 4:04 pm

    It appears as though Source Code Pro does not have italic support. This seems like a fatal flaw.

  2. Clint says:
    October 15, 2012 at 4:47 pm

    I am using it in all my tools and love it. I think its the most readable font for coding.

  3. Saurabh Kumar says:
    October 16, 2012 at 5:40 am

    Source Code Pro is definitely a winner. I am using it for quite a while.

  4. Ulrich Kautz says:
    October 16, 2012 at 7:43 am

    FYI:
    On Linux:
    1. Download
    2. Unpack font in ~/.fonts/truetype/
    3. Follow instructions

  5. miChou says:
    October 16, 2012 at 12:49 pm

    The screenshots you posted show you changed italic to regular when you switched to Source Code Pro. How did you do that? (The synthesized italic is really ugly :( )

  6. Eric Dolecki says:
    October 17, 2012 at 12:50 pm

    I’m not sure about the missing italics in the font. I was using Calibri in TextWrangler – but giving Source Code Pro a shot here. The tab is PRETTY wide. Not sure I like that part but the rest of the font is nice enough.

  7. Eric Dolecki says:
    October 17, 2012 at 1:23 pm

    Disregard my comment about tabs. For some reason when I changed font in TextWrangler (which I use most of the time for HTML) the tabs went from 4 spaces to 8. I assumed that for some reason this had something to do with the font itself.

    Now – compared to Calibri, it’s a little harder to read (it’s a little thinner) on white, but I appreciate the glyphs. I wish there was a weight between Regular and Semibold – because I would use it. Like a Medium perhaps. Semibold is a little heavy-handed but Regular is too light.

    Regular is okay when used on a dark/black background.