When comparing Envy Code R vs Apple Menlo, the Slant community recommends Apple Menlo for most people. In the question“What are the best programming fonts?” Apple Menlo is ranked 3rd while Envy Code R is ranked 23rd. The most important reason people chose Apple Menlo is:
Equally well readable as Bitstream Vera/DejaVu Sans Mono, but with slashed zeros (aids with legibility).
Specs
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Pros
Pro Clashing characters are easily distinguishable
This font offers very distinct programming characters that help differentiate the following clashing pairs: {} vs. (), "0" vs. "O", and "1" vs. "l".
Pro Easy on user's eyes
Envy Code R is quite narrow (like Anonymous Pro) but at the same time squarish. The letters are easy to read and offer a pleasant reading experience.
Pro Fills out the space well
Envy Code R also fits more into a given width when compared to Source Code Pro.
Pro Bold font is the same width as the regular weight font
The bold version has the same width as the normal version which is useful for syntax highlighting.
Pro Great readability
Equally well readable as Bitstream Vera/DejaVu Sans Mono, but with slashed zeros (aids with legibility).
Pro Easy on user's eyes
Characters are very readable. They have consistent widths across all weights as to not break up words. Commonly used programming symbols such as various kinds of brackets are made easily discernible from each other and various punctuation marks are made bigger than normal. This makes them especially good for programmers who keep staring at code for hours.
Pro Clear differentiations
I, I, L, l, 1, O, 0, etc.
Cons
Con No Cyrillic glyphs
There are no Cyrillic glyphs in Envy Code R which may be an issue for Russian users.
Con Lowercase "w" is distracting
The lowercase "w" is a bit distinct looking due to the narrow nature of the font. This could cause a distraction to some users.
Con No bold version
This is not so great on a dark IDE, the characters tend to wash out, unlike something like Consolas.
Con Seems too wide at size 16
The letters become quite wide at size 16, impacting upon readability.
Con Doesn't work at size 10
Menlo displays as expected for size 11 and bigger, but doesn't seem to work very well at size 10. Issues include zero not being the same height as the rest of the numbers and Parenthetical Brackets not matching up perfectly.