Thanks
Greg

I wanted to go back to Courier New because the default font I had “Consolas” looked like a bad dot-matrix print out on my screen. I didn’t use the advanced – other languages because I thought it would change all my settings to that. It was the Unicode setting messing me up

As for “why Courier” — I’m middle-aged, I grew up with typewriters and still like the look. Even Courier New doesn’t look EXACTLY right to me, but it’s close enough.

I think my own dislike of Courier goes back in large part to how badly rendered it was on early versions of Windows particularly at small sizes, yet it was the only widely available monospaced face. Andale Mono was such a breath of fresh air when it was released as part of Microsoft’s Web Fonts package… I leaped at the chance to ditch the Courier I always disliked and I’ve never gone back, despite the fact that I now work primarily on Macs and Linux boxes where Courier is admittedly better than it used to be, but still nowhere near as appealing or legible to me as the other readily available choices for a monospaced face.

I believe a lot of my preference for Courier is simple familiarity: I’ve been using it for close to two decades now, primarily in e-mail clients, from back when it was the only option and, after that, when it was the only halfway-decent option. (To my eyes.)

So, to me, Courier says “e-mail”, and—here’s the crucial bit—immediately puts me in that mental context. I fiddle a bit with the size every second or third year, and actually have slightly different sizes in my two e-mail clients (Thunderbird and Eudora), but the face stays the same. The font essentially acts as a configuration file for my brain. I see it, and I subconsciously know I’m doing e-mail. I don’t have to explicitly think about it. I just context-switch based on the font.

Similarly, Monaco 9 says “code editor”, since that’s what I use in BBEdit. It works really well for me there, but I would dislike it in my e-mail client—and the obverse obviously applies. Again, when I open a window and see that font, my brain orients itself to that context.

Amusingly, I actually really like (and use for code samples here on meyerweb) Andale Mono—but, again, I would not want it in those other environments, because it doesn’t say “e-mail” or “code editor” to me. And while I could force myself through an extended period of retraining by, say, switching everything to Monaco, why would I bother? What I have set up works, and works well, and serves me quite nicely. I like it. I’m glad I can still have it.

I know it wasn’t the point of your post, but I’m with Jeff Byrnes and his comment above: I’m always curious to hear why people choose the monospaced typefaces they prefer, particularly when they are conscious choices. As a software and Web application developer, I spend a big portion of my work hours (at least those when I’m awake) rooting around in development environments and editors with text displayed in a monospaced typeface and the legibility of same is crucial to me. (And ironically, I work with several individuals who claim they can’t tell the difference between Verdana and Arial, but I’m close to deciding they may just be saying that to irk me.) I’m a fan of Inconsolata (but wish it had other weights and styles) and Anonymous Pro; I prefer Menlo over Monaco; I prefer drinking salted lukewarm Florida tapwater to Courier in any of its various incarnations.

I actually don’t have a huge problem when program updates change an old default setting to a new one, like when Firefox introduced the Awesome bar and extended the history settings. But in that case, I liked that it was part of the update information that that was happening. This new font was stealthy and confused me.

And lest I’ve put myself on the chopping block, there’s no hate for Courier here. I just enjoy hearing people’s opinions on their typographical choices. At least, when they’re deliberate choices…