When comparing Fantasque Sans Mono vs Native, the Slant community recommends Fantasque Sans Mono for most people. In the question“What are the best programming fonts?” Fantasque Sans Mono is ranked 27th while Native is ranked 79th. The most important reason people chose Fantasque Sans Mono is:
The handwritten-style italics of Fantasque Sans Mono are quite attractive.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Italics look good
The handwritten-style italics of Fantasque Sans Mono are quite attractive.
Pro Open source
Fantasque Sans Mono is open source, meaning it can be freely used, changed, and shared by anyone.
Pro Uniformity
As a "Mono" font, Fantasque is uniform in size and overalls. However, if you look further into all characters, you'll find that there's almost no pattern between them - except for the huge amount of curves. That said, this font is a very strong contender in terms of readability, especially in a world that seeks pattern (often too much).
An example:
Double single quotes vs single double quotes. In JavaScript code, you can find empty String initialization a lot. Unless syntax highlighting makes it clear, it's pretty hard with other fonts to spot the difference between double single quotes and single double quote.
Pro Support for various platforms
There's support for OS X, Linux, and Windows (otf, ttf) in Fantasque Sans Mono.
Pro No useless experiments with special characters
Pro Own personality
It looks distinct, playful. But don't cross the line when it becomes unusable.
Pro Lowercase "k" looks nice
Pro Glyphs support
This is good for those who wish to use different designs of a certain character.
Pro Has ligatures
Alpha version supports ligatures as Fira Code does.
Pro Truly compact
The Height line is quite short but coherent. You have to like the style but this is one of the most readable at a small size ( 9pts ).
Pro Cyrillic alphabet support
This is useful for those who wish to use letters from certain Eastern European or Asian alphabets.
Pro Webfonts included (eot, svg, woff)
Webfonts, such as eot, svg, and woff, are included in Fantasque Sans Mono.
Pro Powerline symbols
Pro Readable
Pro Consistent character widths between the italics and weights
Within Native's weights and styles, each character occupies 580 points of space. This ensures code does not become misaligned if a developer prefers certain callouts in a different style.
Pro The regular weight is free for Desktop, Web, and App Licensing
The regular weight can be picked up free of charge on MyFonts or Fort Foundry’s site.
Pro No alignment issues when switching between styles
Pro Italics are given a lot of differentiation
Cons
Con Lowercase "i" (eye) is tailed, and too similar to lowercase "l" (ell)
Same with Hack and Ubuntu Mono.
Con Lowercase "k" is ugly
The lowercase "k" seems like a strange "r" since it has a line that extends to the top of capital letters. There is currently a workaround aiming to correct this.
Con The size is too small
Letter size is smaller than other fonts at the same setting.
Con Not FREE
Not free and hard to find.