Consolas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
|
| Typeface | Consolas |
|---|---|
| Category | Monospace |
| Designer(s) | Lucas de Groot |
| Foundry | Microsoft |
| Sample | |
 |
|
Consolas is a monospaced font. It is a part of the new suite of fonts that take advantage of the new ClearType font hinting technology. It is bundled with Microsoft's Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007, and is available for download for users of Microsoft Visual Studio. Among the six Windows Vista fonts, Consolas is the most similar to Lucida Console or Courier New.
Contents |
[edit] Usage in programming
Consolas represents a departure for the realm of programming fonts because it is designed to work with a specific form of font antialiasing, specifically Microsoft's patented ClearType technology. Traditionally, programmers have used Courier New or a similar fixed-width font to do their programming, choosing to enable anti-aliasing based on their preference. Unlike other forms of displayed text (such as PDFs, Web pages and Word processor documents) computer code does not specify the font in which it should be displayed - the choice is left up to the individual programmer's preference.
[edit] Sample
The following is a sample C++/CLI program using the standard programming font, Courier New:
However, the same sample using an aliased Consolas is not aligned well:
Once font smoothing is activated, all the characters appear aligned:
Consolas was designed specifically for ClearType, so the maximum benefit will only come with enabling ClearType (Note: this image may appear blurry without an LCD monitor):
[edit] External links
- Consolas Font Pack for Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 – Consolas download from Microsoft
- Van Wagener, Anne (March 4, 2005). The Next Big Thing in Online Type. Poynter Online. Retrieved on 2006-06-05.
