3 More Fonts for Working with Plain Text

A good monospace font can make plain text a lot easier to work with. Once upon a time, I didn’t believe that but as I got older and my eyesight got a bit weaker I found that using the right font in my text editor made all the difference. At least, the right font for me.

These days, we’re not just limited to plain old Courier. There are also other nice monospace fonts out there. Let’s take a quick look at three more of them.

Overpass Mono

Overpass Mono is, as you might have guessed, part of the Overpass font family. I came into contact with it thanks to a few people I know who work at Red Hat (a company that heavily uses Overpass for just about everything).

Overpass Mono is strong and striking. And, to my untrained eye, it looks as if it combines the best elements of both a monospace font and a sans-serif font. The characters have a pleasing shape, which contrasts nicely with their striking appearance.

Source Code Pro

While aimed at coders (hence its name), anyone can use Source Code Pro for any plain text task — from writing in HTML or Markdown, to maintaining a task list, to taking notes, and anything else in between.

Source Code Pro is reminiscent of some other monospace fonts I’ve looked at in the past, like Hack and IBM Plex Mono. That said, Source Code Pro has its own personality. A personality that stands out, but which isn't jarring.

Space Mono

Space Mono is another one of those fonts that really didn’t work for me at first. Don’t ask me why, but there was just something about the font that I just couldn’t put my finger on.

That slowly changed. And while it’s (still) not one of my favourite monospace fonts, I do find Space Mono a rather aesthetically pleasing one. That might be because the font has something of a retro futuristic look (of which I’m a fan).

Final Thought

As with any of the other fonts that I’ve looked at in this space, the three above won’t appeal to everyone. While I don’t use Overpass Mono, Source Code Pro, or Space Mono regularly, that doesn’t mean I don’t like them. Or that they’re not good fonts. Give one or all of them a try. You just might find a new favourite monospace font in the bunch.