Enable Monospaced Programming Fonts with Ligatures in VS Code

Typographic ligatures are when multiple characters combine into a single unique character. In simple terms, when you type two or more characters, they magically merge together. Some fonts are designed with ligatures specifically for software development, making your code look cleaner and more readable.

Here are some popular free fonts that support ligatures: JetBrains Mono, Cascadia Code, Fira Code, Iosevka, Hasklig, Monoid, and Victor Mono.

This tutorial will show you how to set up font ligatures in Visual Studio Code. I’m assuming you’ve already downloaded and installed a ligature font on your machine. Let’s get started!

First, you’ll need to change your editor font. Open VS Code settings by going to File → Preferences → Settings, then navigate to Text Editor → Font. Change the font family to the ligature font you want to use. For example, I’m using JetBrains Mono.

Next, you’ll need to explicitly enable ligatures. This requires editing the settings.json file directly. Add the "editor.fontLigatures" setting to enable them. Your settings should look something like this:

{
  "editor.fontFamily": "JetBrains Mono",
  "editor.fontLigatures": true,
  "...": "your other settings",
}

That’s it! Once you’ve made these changes, you’re ready to enjoy beautiful ligatures in your code.