Install JetBrains Mono Font and Customize Visual Studio Code

One of the things I really enjoy is changing the theme of the applications I work with; it gives them a fresh look that is always welcome from time to time.

Recently, I've noticed that my installation of Visual Studio Code is pretty much default, so I feel like tweaking some appearance details such as the theme, icons, or font.

There are several fonts that I personally find very interesting, and one of them is JetBrains Mono Font. The JetBrains company uses this font in most of its IDEs and has made this font open-source.

It's a font I've used for quite some time, and I find it very comfortable to read and work with, so let's set it up.

Font Installation

The first step is to download the font from the JetBrains Mono Font link and install it on your system. To do this:

1. Extract the zip file.
2. If you're using a Mac, copy the font files (.ttf) to the /Library/Font folder.
   1. You can also open the "Font Book" application.

There you go! You now have the font installed on your system.

Visual Studio Code Configuration

Open VSCode and press the shortcut cmd + , to open the settings and open the file as JSON. You can also press cmd + shift + p and search for "open user settings json".

Now it's as simple as configuring the font by adding the parameter "editor.fontFamily": "JetBrains Mono". There's another parameter that I also like to add, which is "editor.fontLigatures": true, which improves text readability by replacing combinations of symbols with a single character, for example: >=, !=, => ...

Save the file and you're done. You've learned how to install a font on both your computer and how to configure and customize the Visual Studio Code editor. As I make changes to the customization layer, I'll share them on the blog. Don't miss out!