When comparing Microsoft Segoe UI Mono vs Inconsolata, the Slant community recommends Microsoft Segoe UI Mono for most people. In the question“What are the best programming fonts?” Microsoft Segoe UI Mono is ranked 45th while Inconsolata is ranked 52nd. The most important reason people chose Microsoft Segoe UI Mono is:
Segoe UI Mono is a very readable font.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Great readability
Segoe UI Mono is a very readable font.
Pro Characters readable even at small sizes
The characters in Inconsolata have a slightly "wide" appearance that aids in readability, especially at small font sizes.
Pro Excellent readability
Very clear, distinct characters with decent spacing make Inconsolata very readable.
Pro Efficient scalability
Inconsolata scales well without loss of readability.
Pro Slashed zero characters are distinguishable from capital "O" and "Q" characters
Inconsolata-g screws this up by replacing the slashed zero with a dotted zero. A dotted zero is better than a zero with nothing in it, but worse than a slashed zero.
Pro Open source
It's an open source font, meaning it's freely available.
Pro No visible character breaks
Inconsolata renders lines in TUIs without visible character breaks; apparently unlike Inconsolata-g.
Pro Widely available
Inconsolata is available in the package managers of almost every open source OS.
Cons
Con The zero is not slashed
The zero is not slashed, which causes some problems when scanning source code. This is not an issue when the IDE supports coloring (like all major modern IDE's), but still there are instances where this is not the case. A primary example are T4 templates, where Microsoft has not yet provided coloring support.
Con Arched braces
Too much arched braces, decreases clarity, touching characters almost.