Font comparison and review: Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono
Published: July 22nd, 2025
Updated: July 22nd, 2025
Recently, I modified anthes.is to use Atkinson Hyperlegible Next for sans-serif and Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono for monospace. Following the principle of eating your own dog food, I also switched to Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono in my terminal. After a month of daily use, I can now assess this font’s practical advantages and compare it to established programming fonts like JetBrains Mono and Fira Code.
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Table of contents
On character distinction and readability
Understanding Atkinson Hyperlegible Mono’s strengths requires examining the readability challenges programming fonts must address. While many fonts distinguish between 0 and O , or 1 , l , and I , these represent only two of many cases where character distinction matters.
Typographers call lookalike characters “homoglyphs.” The examples below showcase both homoglyphs and “mirror image” glyphs. Screenshots in this section come from Evaluating Fonts: Font Family Selection for Accessibility & Display Readability.
Multi-character homoglyphs
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