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I'm looking for an optimal typeface for report tables that will contain many columns (the reason for condensed).

The reason for monospace is that these reports will contain a lot of numbers and we would like them to be aligned across all the rows.

The reason i need it to be open-source is that we will show these reports inside a web application, so it would be embedded as a web font (@font-face).

I saw Anka Coder but I don't like its 0.

Update:

I finally settled for Open Sans Condensed Light, which has monospaced numbers, so it's good enough for my use case. Thanks everyone for your input!

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  • 3
    you could try your luck with the Google fonts monospace category, they've got twelve families to choose from. Don't exactly know how-open source they arem though.
    – Vincent
    Mar 19, 2014 at 14:23
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    If it’s just numbers and similar you need to have aligned in tables, it’s a font with tabular numbers you want, which does not necessarily be fully monospaced. In many fonts tabular numbers are the default or can be activated as an OpenType feature.
    – Wrzlprmft ♦
    Mar 23, 2014 at 8:48
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    A little to late for my comment but I think almost all fonts have monospaced numbers.
    – Rafael
    Feb 5, 2015 at 21:52

10 Answers 10

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The most condensed monospace, open-source font I've found is via fontsquirrel and is called M+ 1m.

M+ 1m font

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    Though M+ fonts missing ligatures and it looks like they will always be
    – Geradlus_RU
    Oct 31, 2019 at 17:24
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Another narrow monospace font I've found recently is Iosevka. It's very clean and legible even on (relatively) low resolutions. And it's completely free and opensource. I really love this font and use it everywhere.

Iosevka sample

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Latin Modern Mono is available from FontSquirrel (and also a core font from LaTeX) which is very tight in condensed form.

Latin Modern Mono Light Cond sample at 18pt

As an additional option, Anka Coder comes in both Condensed and Narrow widths.

The Narrow version is one of the other narrowest open-source monospace fonts I have seen. It runs neck and neck with M+1M for width, but with a more divergent style.

Anka Coder Narrow sample at 18pt

p.s. I could have sworn you hadn't mentioned Anka Coder when I read the question, If you had, my apologies for serving it up to you again. At least this gives you the option to see it next to the other options.

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  • +1 completely missed the condensed form of Latin modern, nice find.
    – Adam Schuld
    Mar 21, 2014 at 3:31
  • I use Latin Modern Mono Condensed a lot for documentation in LaTeX and it works very well — readable even at small sizes, letterforms well distinguished (0/O and 1/l/I). But it's relatively light, so it doesn't sort easily with heavier body fonts.
    – Peter Flynn
    Apr 14, 2017 at 16:53
  • I've tried great many mono fonts today, and Latin Modern is the only one I truly like for the application where I need. I mean, there are many great fonts for e.g. code editors, but they all look wrong in my application. Thanks a lot! P. S. The other good one is Roboto Mono Light from Google, it's not a wide font either.
    – Violet Giraffe
    Oct 4, 2017 at 16:53
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An old truetype font...

http://www.dafont.com/crystal.font

It is a bit odd looking but the digits are very distinctive and easy to tell apart at small sizes.

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Inconsolata now has plenty of different widths apart from regular width:

  • SemiCondensed, Condensed, ExtraCondensed, UltraCondensed
  • SemiExpanded, Expanded, ExtraExpanded, UltraExpanded
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Check out this site. https://www.programmingfonts.org/

The most condensed is Quinze, but it may be too much. I found glyphs were touching each other in some cases. Then there is sudo, wich works great with line-height 1.0 and is an OK compromise if you really want to save space.

Many fonts are as condensed as Iosevka: M+, Terminus, Inconsolata Regular, etc...

I found that the best way to compare widths was by typing a ruler of ten sets of 0-9 digits on the top and a second one below that for the tenths.

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  • I really appreciate the tip to determine which font is wider.
    – Julien
    Aug 29, 2020 at 2:05
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I suggest NK57 Monospace Condensed Extrabold, by Ray Larabie.

enter image description here

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    Hi Victor, thanks for your contribution. While your answer is technically correct, could you edit it to include, the reasons why you think it's a good match, a link to the font and maybe an image showing the font? Thanks! Feel free to keep contributing, browse the site, leave more answers and maybe ask a question of your own.
    – PieBie ♦
    Jan 15, 2020 at 8:00
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    That's a pretty good one, thank you for sharing this, Victor!
    – Julien
    Jan 15, 2020 at 21:51
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I personally suggest Meslo LG

Meslo LG is a customized version of Apple’s Menlo-Regular font (which is a customized Bitstream Vera Sans Mono).

I like the dotted zero version

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TLDR: The best narrow mono font available today (July 2023) in Google Fonts is Nanu Gothic Coding

Nanum Gothic Coding is a contemporary monospaced sans-serif typeface with a warm touch, and it is expertly hinted for screen use. It is part of the Nanum fonts (나눔글꼴) – a set of high quality Unicode fonts designed especially for the Korean-language script “Hangeul” that also support Latin. Designed by Sandoll Communications (산돌 커뮤니케이션) and Fontrix (폰트릭스,) and published by Naver (네이버.)

Why this is the best

  • It's elegant, but not too striking to be distracting
  • Its line height is very close to Arial or Helvetica, i.e. unlike many nice fonts that are just too blocky and disproportionately tall, i.e. JetBrains Mono or Roboto Mono
  • Line weight is a bit thinner than Arial or Helvetica, great for dense "wall of numbers" reports

Comparison of all monospace Google Fonts

Notice the line length, and how precise or messy the special characters are in some fonts.

monospace Google Fonts

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"American Typewriter" is not strictly monospace, but on MS Powerpoint it gives an impression of a monospace, and useful for distinguishing code/commands from the rest of text. Consolas takes more width, otherwise it would have been perfect.

enter image description here

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