monospaced font
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4.0
- noun
- Specialized
:
fuente monoespaciada
- Typewriters were commonly designed to use a monospaced font, allowing each character to occupy the same horizontal space.
Examples
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Of course, there is no technical limitation to using monospaced fonts when coding, but it is a very useful convention.
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In 1972, typewriters used monospaced fonts.
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To my eye, many existing monospaced fonts suffer from one of three problems.
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In that regard, Source Code Pro is a champ compared to most monospaced fonts.
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The second problem is somewhat the opposite of the first: many monospaced fonts have lowercase letters that leave too much space in between letters, causing words and strings to not hold together.
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As a font developer, I spend a good chunk of each day coding in a text editor and reading output messages from a terminal window, so I can appreciate the importance of a good monospaced font.
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Lastly, there is a category of monospaced fonts whose details I find to be too fussy to really work well in coding applications where a programmer doesn't want to be distracted by such things.
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When programming, I prefer to use a monospaced font because it makes the code easier to read.
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Many developers choose a monospaced font for their text editors to ensure consistent spacing in their code.
Synonyms
1
5.8
A font where every character has the same width
A style of text where every letter takes the same amount of space
A style where every letter has the same width, like in typewriters
A print style where each letter takes the same space, like an old typewriter
Surface Forms
Morphology
monospaced + font
The meaning is directly compositional: 'font' (typeface) combined with 'monospaced' (mono- = one/single + spaced = having consistent spacing) yields a typeface where each character has the same horizontal space. This follows regular word-formation and is interpretable by learners who know the constituents and basic affixes, so the expression is transparent.
Etymology
Monospaced font comes from the days of typewriters and early computers, where every letter and symbol took the same amount of horizontal 'space'. So today, a monospaced font means 'each character uses the same width', which makes columns and code line up neatly.