Customizing Fonts in Visual Studio Code

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a popular, lightweight code editor that provides a wide range of customization options to enhance your coding experience. One of the key aspects of customizing VS Code is changing the font used in the editor. In this tutorial, we will explore how to change the font family and size in VS Code, as well as discuss the default fonts used by the editor on different operating systems.

Default Fonts in VS Code

By default, VS Code uses a fallback list of fonts to ensure that your code is displayed correctly. The order of these fonts may vary depending on the operating system you are using:

• On Windows, the default font family is Consolas, 'Courier New', monospace.
• On Mac OS, the default font family is Menlo, Monaco, 'Courier New', monospace.
• On Linux, the default font family is 'Droid Sans Mono', 'Courier New', monospace, 'Droid Sans Fallback'.

If none of these fonts are available on your system, VS Code will fall back to a generic monospace font.

Changing the Font Family and Size

To change the font family and size in VS Code, you need to modify the editor.fontFamily and editor.fontSize settings. You can do this by following these steps:

1. Open the Command Palette in VS Code by pressing Ctrl + Shift + P (Windows/Linux) or Cmd + Shift + P (Mac OS).
2. Type "Open Settings (JSON)" in the Command Palette and select the option.
3. In the settings.json file, add the following lines to change the font family and size:

"editor.fontFamily": "Your Preferred Font Family",
"editor.fontSize": 16

Replace "Your Preferred Font Family" with the name of your preferred font family, such as Consolas, Monaco, or Verdana.

Alternatively, you can also change these settings using the VS Code UI:

1. Open the File menu and select "Preferences" > "Settings".
2. In the Settings panel, search for "font family" and select the "Editor: Font Family" option.
3. Enter your preferred font family in the input field.
4. Search for "font size" and select the "Editor: Font Size" option.
5. Enter your preferred font size in the input field.

Note that if you leave the editor.fontFamily setting blank, the editor.fontSize setting will not take effect. You need to specify a valid font family to change the font size.

Best Practices

When customizing fonts in VS Code, keep the following best practices in mind:

• Choose a monospace font to ensure that your code is displayed correctly.
• Select a font size that is comfortable for your eyes and screen resolution.
• Use a consistent font family throughout your project to maintain readability.

By following these steps and best practices, you can customize the fonts in VS Code to enhance your coding experience and improve your productivity.