My favorite fonts

I hate getting an I confused with an l confused with a 1 , so I usually favor serif fonts. But, I have to admit that for user interfaces like websites (with links and buttons and icons), sans-serif fonts work better.

For this site (and generally) I use IBM Plex Sans, which I love because it’s open-source and has a crossed I and disambiguated l/1 and disambiguated 0/O.

For monospace applications like displaying and working with tabular source code I use Berkeley Mono, which I love for much the same reasons and because it feels comfortable on my eyes. It was the first font I’ve ever paid for, but I appreciate how much time the author has put into it and I do love how it looks.

I used to prefer the Libertinus font - because it is open-source and has some lovely little flourishes - until I realized that sans-serif fonts look better for interfaces and have basically the same affordance for long-form text.

I used to think that loading custom fonts on a site was a waste of bandwidth, but I’ve come around to the idea that sites should all be personalized and I just actually think some fonts are better than others.