Give Your Eyes a Treat
If you’re a developer, there’s an easy way to give your eyes a rest and make yourself more productive. Use the Consolas font Microsoft developed specifically for you.
When we began work on a project to create a new set of fonts which would take maximum advantage of ClearType, we decided to develop a fixed-pitch font for developers - because no one ever thought of their needs, and we realized a highly-readable fixed-width font would make their lives a lot easier.
We call them the C* fonts because their names all begin with C (for ClearType), and we spent a lot of research and development time making them as readable as possible.
Look at the difference Consolas makes, for instance, in the CMD.EXE window. Here’s what the standard 8 x 12 pixel raster font looks like…
… and here’s Consolas
You’ll see Consolas doesn’t get you as many lines on a screen – but it’s so much clearer and better to read that it’s well worth the tradeoff.
Bryn Spears on the Internet Explorer team gave me the following simple instructions to turn on Consolas in the CMD Window:
reg add "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftWindows NTCurrentVersionConsoleTrueTypeFont" /v 00 /d Consolas
logoff
Note: In Windows Vista, you need to run the reg command from an elevated command prompt.
When you log back in, Consolas will be an option in the “Command Prompt” Properties. (n.b., Bryn tells me it actually shows up before you relog, but it won’t work.)
You can install Consolas on your Windows system even if you don’t have Vista or Office 2007 with a free download from Microsoft.com
The Windows International fonts team is working on another version that’ll support Vietnamese, and also the line draw characters that we made to support the console window.
Bill Hill
Program Manager
Internet Explorer
Edit: changed logout to logoff
Comments
Anonymous
April 22, 2008
PingBack from http://microsoftnews.askpcdoc.com/?p=3852Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Nice post! - nothing to do with IE! - Better yet, your example completely fails to prove your point! The first sample IS more readable, and the whole ClearType thing has been discussed here and around the web many times.... nice try, get back to the drawing board until black text on white, is ACTUALLY black, and white text on Black, is ACTUALLY white! In ANY sample / ClearType setup I've seen so far, on CRT, or LCD, not one has got this issue solved. If I wanted FuzzyType, I would turn on Microsofts ClearType, cause thats what you get!Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Why not make that OpenType and NOT be operating system dependent? Silly Microsoft.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
Great post, I'm a fan of Consolas. I will disagree with Shefeild above and prefer the 2nd sample for readability. Furthermore I don't like white on black for readability, I always change my background to an "off-blue" as outlined here: http://johnbokma.com/windows/command-prompt-shortcut.html Kind of reminds me of Wordperfect 5.1Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Shefield, you sure is an angry man. If you don't like it, don't use it. Chill man.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Stumbled across Consolas a little while back when Jeff Atwood mentioned it in his blog. Been a fan ever since. My ideal monospace font. ... and Shefield, you're entirely too eager to jump on this topic.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Weird, I tried those exact steps - I get the Consolas option now in my cmd.exe properties (after logging off/back on), but when I select it to change it doesn't actually change. I can change to Lucida Console fine though, so not sure what's going on. The font is definitely installed (at least, I can see "Consolas (True Type)" in my Windows font directory).Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Shefield: Congratulations on completely missing the point of sub-pixel rendering. It's the same on every operating system that supports that feature. On LCDs ClearType, while it can take a bit to get used it, is much nicer than going without. Consolas looks great on a LCD with ClearType enabled.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
I love Consolas.. thanks for this tip.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
The option to select Consolas is there in the font tab, but selecting it and pressing OK has no effect. The font does not change. When viewing theproperties again, Raster fonts are selected. I am running XPSP2 for the record.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
free so long as you've got Visual Studio 2005. You dill Bill, at least make that obvious!Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Coincidentally, just a few days I made the comment that Consolas is reason enough for Vista to exist. ^_^ Thanks. It really is a treat.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
Dear IETeam, On XP SP3 with IE7 installed, security update IE7-WindowsXP-KB938127-x86-ENU.exe will not install, saying it has detected a newer version and exits. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938127 The IE7 installer(7.0.5730.13) that was released back in Oct 2007 installs vgx.dll 7.0.5730.13 while the security update installs vgx.dll 7.0.6000.20628. Which is newer? Does KB938127 still applies to IE7 7.0.5730.13 on XP SP3? The April 2008 cumulative security update installed without issues. Either you have to release a new IE7 installer with the most up to date versions including the April 2008 cumulative security update or re-release KB938127 which will install on XP SP3 machines and include the latest vgx.dll.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
What we need is a better shell like bash, not just a font. Working in cmd is so painful.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
I use Crisp (only good on 12 pt) which is somewhat lighter. But I must say this Consolas font is much better than Lucida Console.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
The page says "This package is only intended for licensed users of Microsoft Visual Studio 2005." So who exactly are allowed to use the font??Anonymous
April 22, 2008
For many people (including myself) ClearType actually decreases readibility. Plus, I just love the look of the bitmap Tahoma 8pt, so I always turn CT offAnonymous
April 22, 2008
First, indeed, this has nothing to do with IE. Second, yes, the Rainbow effect is visible - and flagrant. It's not a testament of efficiency for a fixed width font to not make use of better hinting! I'm sorry, but Consola doesn't cut it - it is, indeed, too blurry for a white font on a black background.Anonymous
April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
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April 22, 2008
There seem to be those that like ClearType and those that don't. Choice is wonderful. Those (like me) that don't like ClearType often attribute this to the fuzzyness and rainbow effects it causes. I am curious. Those of you that DO prefer ClearType, do you actually SEE the fuzzyness and rainbow effects and don't consider them important, or do you just NOT SEE them? Maybe it's a difference in the way our eyes work.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
I'm wondering how many people reading this have no idea how to get to the Command Prompt properties window.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
I found that under XP SP2, I had to actually reboot my computer before I could see the change to Consolas. Logoff and Logon only allowed me to specify it in the CMD properties, but didn't actually take affect on the current window or future windows. After a reboot CMD windows came up in Consolas and further changes to the font-size, etc after the reboot were seen immediately. Hope this helps others!Anonymous
April 23, 2008
it's working now thanks to Jeremy A. SnyderAnonymous
April 23, 2008
For those who are having the problem switching your font to Consolas (even though you see it as an option), you DO have to issue that "logoff" command listed in the instructions. The change to the newly added font won't take affect until the next reboot.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
How did you get the DIR command to work with a UNC path?Anonymous
April 23, 2008
dir \uncpath works for me under XP SP2.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
There is a great little post on this morning's IEBlog that talks about the (relatively) new ConsolasAnonymous
April 23, 2008
I ClearType dose take a little getting used to! Less then 10min. After that the others don't seem so crisp, also It's easier on the eyes. I do agree though that if NEED WYSIWYG this is not the way to go. BTW: microsoft dose have a better shell than BASH, much, mush better and more powerfull it's called PowerShell! You choose cmd, powershell, or BASH(wich you can also install) to runAnonymous
April 23, 2008
have i missed something? is this somehow related to IE? i don't think so...Anonymous
April 23, 2008
I'm a fan of ClearType and haven't been bothered by rainbow artifacts. I can imagine two reasons for this, other than the theory that our eyes "just work different":
- My LCD display has a subpixel layout that works better with ClearType than yours
- I set up my display correctly and you didn't. The ClearType algorithm depends pretty heavily on detailed knowledge of the way your display's color mask is laid out. If your display driver is lying about that, then rainbow artifacts would be expected.
Anonymous
April 23, 2008
@Tester: Assuming IE7 was installed prior to the install of WinXP SP3 Beta, uninstall WinXP SP3 Beta and see if Automatic Updates offers 938127. You'll need to uninstall the beta build to be able to install WinXP SP3 RTW (final release) anyway. Get further support on this by posting in microsoft.public.windowsupdate newsgroup.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
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April 23, 2008
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April 23, 2008
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April 23, 2008
ClearType is not inferior to Apple and Adobe's rendering. Its focus is different. Microsoft considers readability more important, while Apple prioritizes likeness to print.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
今天看到IEBlog有篇文章Give Your Eyes a Treat，教你怎麼在命令提示字元裡用Consolas這個字型。相信有調過windows命令提示字元的字型的人，都會對字型設定感到很討厭，因為根本沒字型可以選，看了IEBlog的文章，我才知道原來要在登錄裡面加上相關設定，而且不同的code page也會有影響，所以如果和我一樣是用中文windows，甚至是日文windows，照著IEBlog上的步驟做完一定是沒用的，因為你還要改一下code page，目前我只知道可以改到65001變成UTF-8編碼：Anonymous
April 23, 2008
@Jason >Personally I find that if your eye sight is anywhere near 20/20 (e.g. you don't have to >wear glasses/contacts to drive), then you most certainly do see the rainbow of colors >and your eyes will strain as your brain tries to crisp'n the image. That might explain headaches that ClearType gives me. I thought it was unrelated. My setup is DVI, 1600x1200 native on a dell 2001 LCD. Checking the pixel order etc, it does appear the ClearType is behaving 'correctly' My bigger beef is with disabling it. I don't mind when things like this are options, as long as I can opt-out. IE7 follows its settings, but Vista and office 2007, not so much. It is disabled in all the places that it should be, and the default fonts all changed away from the new C* fonts back to the same as XP. But for some items, Vista and Ofice ignore the settings, and use ClearType anyway.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
I tried to follow the description but it didn't work. Only after restaring my laptop the font setting was applied. But it only affects when I run Command Prompt from Accessories menu. Run Command Prompt by typing "cmd" in Run dialog doesn't take effect --> useless.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
@Robear Dyer, MS MVP I'm using XP SP3 Final build 5512, not any betas or RC releases.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
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April 23, 2008
I like it, granted I had to turn on ClearType. The font-weight has increased but it's not obese to the point of being full blown bold like in Safari. Thanks for the post.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
It's probably worth mentioning that there is a pretty cool tuner for ClearType available. You can adjust how "bold" the text looks as well as a few other options. Tweaking the settings made ClearType a lot easier on my eyes but YMMV. http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspxAnonymous
April 23, 2008
The only screwy thing is when you do a TREE command... The ASCII art gets replaced with Unicode NULLs. This doesn't happen with Lucidia Console.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
My eyes seem to like the raster font.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
Oops! The download page did specify Visual Studio 2005, but that's now been changed to VS 2005 and 2008. If you have Vista or Office 2007, you already have Consolas installed. Good tip by Nick above about the ClearType tuner; it will help you detect RGB/BGR pixel configurations (factor most responsible for color fringing) and help you tune CT as much as possible for your own eyesight/monitor combination. Your display should be running at its native resolution.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
I can't get over my love affair with Courier New. It makes me feel comfortable, I guess.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
Heh... Actually for me both Raster and Consolas look equally comfortable. But I prefer Raster 10x18.Anonymous
April 23, 2008
I subscribe to the IEBlog because it is always good for a laugh, or good to see exactly how much they are copying from the rest of the community. Recently Bill Hill, the Program Manager for Internet Explorer posted a little blurb about using their niceAnonymous
April 23, 2008
It is a bit less complex, but you can do this under linux as well: http://whijo.net/blog/brad/2008/04/24/give-your-eyes-treat.htmlAnonymous
April 24, 2008
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April 24, 2008
I prefer Proggy fonts for programmingAnonymous
April 24, 2008
If you are seeing too much color distortion in cleartype, try the ClearType tuner Nick mentioned or the ClearType control panel http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx I'm using an LCD and a Trinitron CRT, my ClearType contrast is set to 1.9. It looks quite nice on the LCD and slightly blurry on the CRT, but I find that better for smaller fonts than no ClearType. Consolas also looks very ugly without ClearType, maybe MS font team will make a Consolas with hinting? :)Anonymous
April 24, 2008
Tak, wiem. Windows nie ma konsoli. Nie przeszkadza mi to jednak spędzać sporo czasu w CLI. Ostatnio natrafiłem na ten post. Muszę przyznać, że te czcionki rzeczywiście są ciekawe w konsolach (PuTTy, cmd.exe). A i 0 od O łatwo odróżnić, bo kresAnonymous
April 24, 2008
i think enough has been said about fuzzy/blurry/rainbowtype but i still wish is was disabled by default so those doing new installs of windoze dont get a headache from looking at the screen before everything is "correctly adjusted" (as someone else quaintly put it) for fuzzy type to be turned on... btw, what does this have to do with IE?Anonymous
April 25, 2008
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April 25, 2008
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April 28, 2008
update: after a few reboots the past few days, I gave it another try and changing the property persisted. I like it indeed.Anonymous
April 29, 2008
i fail to see why this was entered on the ie blog, but for me the first example is infinitely preferable to the second. the second example's text seems to blend right into the black background, rendering it almost invisible. for the first few seconds, i literally could not even see the "/" characters in the dates. my eyes are young yet and better than 20/20. i use 1856x1392 resolution, and i have yet to see a cleartype example that i could make out very well, much less read better than "normal type".Anonymous
May 02, 2008
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May 15, 2008
Die Kommandozeile ist ein Tool, mit dem ich gerne und viel arbeite. Normalerweise verwende ich bei der Arbeit mit meinem Betriebssystem allerdings eine ClearType-Schriftart, da diese f�r mich angenehmer zu lesen sind. Die Kommandozeile bietet auf denAnonymous
May 22, 2008
You've been kicked (a good thing) - Trackback from DotNetKicks.comAnonymous
September 06, 2008
I have found the more time invested in Powershell for Exchange 2007 and Operations Manager 2007 Administration