Monospace
モノスペース / 1874– / Style / Type Classification
Fixed-width letters born from the typewriter's mechanism, settled as the voice of work-in-progress: drafts, forms and code.
At a glance
Visual cues
- One advance width for all
- Widened i, squeezed m
- Mechanical rhythm
- The air of unfinished work
Best used for
- Code, config values and reference numbers that must align by column
- Products that want the screen to read as a draft in progress
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Dictionary entry
- Type
- If body text goes monospace, shorten lines and check zero against O
- Composition
- Use column alignment structurally, lay tables and fields on one grid
- Material
- Drop the background off pure white, open the leading a little
- Caution
- Long Japanese passages set monospaced space the kana too evenly, word clusters fall apart, and readability is traded away for atmosphere.
- Further study
- Sholes & Glidden / Courier (Howard Kettler) / the design of coding faces
Related entries
- Blueprint (ブループリント)Shared effects: Technique.Compare Monospace and Blueprint
- Pixel Art (ピクセルアート)Shared effects: Technique.Compare Monospace and Pixel Art
More from Type Classification
Continue through styles in the same Type Classification family, prioritised by shared effects.
- Italic (イタリック)Shared effects: Intimacy.
- Slab Serif (スラブセリフ)Shared effects: Technique.
- Grotesque Sans (グロテスク・サンセリフ)Shared effects: Technique.
Browse all Type Classification entries
Cite this entry
The dictionary is meant to be linked to. Take whichever form fits where you are writing.
- Link
- https://indexstyle.org/styles/monospace-type
- Markdown
- [Monospace — IndexStyle](https://indexstyle.org/styles/monospace-type)
- HTML
- <a href="https://indexstyle.org/styles/monospace-type">Monospace — IndexStyle</a>