Template:Mxt/User CSS for a monospaced coding font

Template:Wikipedia how-to

To consistently use a monospaced font with well-designed characters for coding so as to clearly distinguish between l, 1, and I, and between O and 0, and between -, −, –, and —, the system-default monospaced font can be changed:

If like it as-is, you can simply @import (transclude) it: see meta:User:SMcCandlish/codefont.css for quick instructions.

Otherwise, copy one of the code snippets below to your Special:MyPage/common.css or meta:Special:MyPage/global.css page, replacing "Roboto Mono" in the code with your preferred coding font. (Roboto Mono was used in this example as it is good, free coding font, for user-editable material on the wiki).

This code will:

Apply a consistent monospace font of choice to all the normally monospaced HTML elements like <code>, <pre>, etc.
Fallback to system-default monospace font, should the chosen font be unavailable or lack the necessary characters.
Do the same for the output of all Example-formatting templates, such as {{mxt}} and {{xt}}.
Apply to additional site-wide classes identified so far (e.g., .monospaced) that output as monospace.
Make the three most frequently encountered editing fields also use this font stack: the main editing window, the edit summary line, and the search entry box.
If any additional classes are known that should be added, please update this page or mention it on the talk page.

Horizontal style

/* Use my font, when available, for code */
code, pre, samp, kbd, tt, .example-mono, .userlinks-username, .monospaced, .keyboard-key, .button, .plaincode { font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important; }
/*  Make some of the editable stuff monospaced */
#wpTextbox1, #wpSummary, #searchInput, #searchText { font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important; }

Vertical style

/* Use my font, when available, for code */
code,
pre,
samp,
kbd,
tt,
.example-mono,
.userlinks-username,
.monospaced,
.keyboard-key,
.button
.plaincode {
  font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important;
}
/*  Make some of the editable stuff monospaced */
#wpTextbox1,
#wpSummary,
#searchInput,
#searchText {
  font-family: "Roboto Mono", monospace !important;
}

Cleanup efforts

If you'd like to help clean up instances of the <tt>...</tt> element – which has been discouraged since the 1990s, and should usually be replaced with <code>...</code> (this may vary by context) – you can add something like the following to your common.css to make <tt> stick out like a sore thumb:

/* Flag bad code for cleanup */
tt { color: DarkRed; background: Pink; }

You can also do this with <font>, <center>, <strike>, and other deprecated elements. For CSS you can just import for this, see meta:User:SMcCandlish/lint.css.