When comparing Liberation Mono vs Panic Sans, the Slant community recommends Liberation Mono for most people. In the question“What are the best programming fonts?” Liberation Mono is ranked 17th while Panic Sans is ranked 36th. The most important reason people chose Liberation Mono is:
Liberation Mono works well with hinting on high-resolution displays.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Very readable
Liberation Mono works well with hinting on high-resolution displays.
Pro As of 2023: Second Best screen-modern drop-in replacement for MT Courier New
Metric-compatible with Monotype Courier New, dot 0 (zero), modern non-Kettler lowercase l (ell), 660+ glyphs, OFL-1.1 license
Pro Compact line height
Just like Courier New (the metrics of which this font emulates), its line height isn't too big, which results in more lines on the screen, compared to Consolas and several other more popular fonts.
Pro Has Bold typeface
Pro Tall and legible
Like its parent DejaVu and grandparent Bitstream Vera, this has tall and easily read letters.
Pro Clearly distinguishes clashing characters
Panic Sans has added uniqueness for characters that are easily confused, such as "0" and "O", "l" and "1".
Pro Clarity and appealing to the eye
There is great line spacing and italics in Panic Sans.
Cons
Con Difference between "0" and "O" isn't clear
It can be difficult to tell the difference between the number "0" and the letter "O". However, the Fedora Project has a slightly altered version of Liberation Mono that fixes this with a dotted zero.
Con Liberation fonts are ugly
Con Line spacing is small
This is a "pro" to me but some folks dislike the smaller space between lines (which is why it raises the underscore, which might otherwise vanish).