MonoLisa v3
Shares rank 5 of 25 monospace fonts by recommenders
Developers praise its legibility, balance and careful construction for terminals and code editors. The price is the most common objection, and some find the license restrictive.
Developers praise its legibility, balance and careful construction for terminals and code editors. The price is the most common objection, and some find the license restrictive.
40 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 23
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 58%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 23 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Legible and well balanced
“It's really well balanced easy on the eye.”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “It's really legible and nice!”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” Thoughtfully built, well crafted
“I genuinely like how MonoLisa is built compared with the others you've listed.”
Comment from 7 Jul 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “I adore MonoLisa, thank you for all the effort that's gone into making it”
Comment from 22 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Price too high for personal use
“$149 for a font for personal computer use is kind of steep!”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “it's a nice font but that's a bit steep”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “I still don't understand how a font for programming can be worth that much.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” - Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
- Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
- Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
- Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
- Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
- Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
Restrictive license limits use
“Nice but pricey with a restrictive license.”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “Any font license that prohibits this just gets ignored by me”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “sounds like you can't even screenshot it”
Comment from 25 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” Character shapes and alignment issues
“Capital "i" has crossbars? NOPE, so no dice.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “Regarding coding, the characters “:={” are all vertically centered differently.”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” Free or rival fonts preferred
“Absolutely ludicrous price, especially when there's so many amazing free fonts available.”
Comment from 26 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives” “Input Mono font, which is superior to Monolisa in pretty much any way I can think of”
Comment from 24 Jun 2026 in “Show HN: Monolisa v3 – a typeface for developers and creatives”
Other monospace fonts people recommend
The four most recommended other monospace fonts, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Iosevka | 108 | 10 | 92% | 9 | 5 yrs7 owners | Approved |
| Nordwand Mono | 40 | 4 | 91% | 1 | — | — |
| Myna | 29 | 10 | 74% | 1 | — | — |
| Berkeley Mono | 27 | 6 | 82% | 7 | — | Approved |
| MonoLisa v3This page | 23 | 17 | 58% | 5 | — | — |
What people said
35 of the 40 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I use MonoLisa for the same reason”
“I ended up liking Mono Lisa more”
“I genuinely like how MonoLisa is built compared with the others you've listed.”
“Absolutely ludicrous price, especially when there's so many amazing free fonts available.”
“It's really legible and nice!”
“Nice but pricey with a restrictive license.”
“I don't think the marketing works for achieving this”
“in fact supports the Russian one, which is different and very often overlooked as the same by font designers.”
“sounds like you can't even screenshot it”
“Monolisa is not my cup of tea design-wise, but I have friends who absolutely love it”
“the price was enough of a showstopper for me”
“it's a nice font but that's a bit steep”
“Classic marketing pricing strategy.”
“I couldn't believe how much they wanted this time around.”
“Capital "i" has crossbars? NOPE, so no dice.”
“Who would pay $149 to use a font?”
“Input Mono font, which is superior to Monolisa in pretty much any way I can think of”
“this is obviously a pure marketing play”
“$149 for a font for personal computer use is kind of steep!”
“They all look basically the same to me.”
“Regarding coding, the characters “:={” are all vertically centered differently.”
“I'm not sure this font is $250 better than VGA”
“I absolutely love it. It was a fair bit cheaper when I bought it (80 Euro IIRC), but was well-worth it!”
“I still don't understand how a font for programming can be worth that much.”
“super expensive for the normal developer”
“Weight 300 and grade 0 are the lower boundary of readability IMO.”
“Any font license that prohibits this just gets ignored by me”
“$250 AUD for a font? Even for local and personal use?”
“I'm not all too crazy for real ligatures but whitespace adjustments otherwise seem nice.”
“Won't ever buy a font though.”
“20k (30$) for font for someone living in India is too much to ask.”
“Have been using it every since they launched, in both my terminal, and my code editors.”
“I adore MonoLisa, thank you for all the effort that's gone into making it”
“It's really well balanced easy on the eye.”
“It's also one of my favorite UNIX puns (up there with pine).”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.