---
title: "After all these years, 10pt non anti-aliased Monaco is still the best"
date: 2015-08-31T06:31:03+08:00
date-display: August 31, 2015
---
Ars Technica [just ran a piece](http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2015/08/open-source-typeface-hack-brings-design-to-source-code/) on the open source programming font [Hack](https://github.com/chrissimpkins/Hack). Now I don't really know why this is news-worthy (open source programming fonts aren't a new thing), but I thought I'd give it a try.

The result is unsurprising. I've loved my 10pt non anti-aliased Monaco for years, beginning with the Pro profile of Terminal.app. In fact, I initially refused to use iTerm2 precisely because I can't reproduce my beloved typeface in it, until I found out the non anti-aliasing trick. This time again, Hack simply can't compete with my favorite font; see the screenshots below. Among other things, it is way too thick for my liking — the same problem that haunts a whole range of programming fonts. Note that Hack is [supposed to](https://github.com/chrissimpkins/Hack#about) look good at 8px–12px according to its README, but I tested it at 9pt–12pt in iTerm2 (I know, pt is supposed to be larger than px, but I seriously doubt that anyone would want 8px or 6pt as their daily font size — and for that matter iTerm2 doesn't even allow me to go below 9pt, a pretty reasonable restriction, I'd say).

By the way, it is worth pointing out that the very same Monaco looks horrible at 9pt or 11pt, anti-aliased or not (same goes for 10pt anti-aliased). 10pt non anti-aliased Monaco is simply a miracle.

![Pro profile in Apple's Terminal.app, with 10pt non anti-aliased Monaco. That says something about the font's quality, especially on a dark background.](/img/20150831-terminal-app-pro-profile.png)

![10pt non anti-aliased Monaco is life.](/img/20150831-monaco-10pt-non-antialiased.png)

![Hack, anti-aliased, at 9pt, 10pt, 11pt and 12pt, respectively. Click to enlarge.](/img/20150831-hack-8,9,10,11pt-antialiased-combined.png)