Menlo (typeface)

Menlo is a monospaced sans-serif typeface designed by Jim Lyles at Apple Inc. It was introduced in Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6) as the default monospaced font in Terminal.app and Xcode, replacing Monaco.

Menlo is based on the open-source Bitstream Vera Sans Mono font. Apple licensed the Vera fonts and created Menlo, adding a rounded appearance, modifying the letterforms slightly, and improving overall readability. The aim was to create a font that was clear and comfortable for extended coding and terminal use.

Key characteristics of Menlo include its consistent character width, which is essential for code alignment. It also features a relatively tall x-height, which contributes to its legibility. The typeface includes regular, bold, italic, and bold italic variations.

Menlo is primarily distributed as part of the Apple operating system and is typically not available for separate download or use on other platforms without extracting it from a macOS environment.