Fixedsys

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Fixedsys is a non-proportional Windows font (actually a series of .fon files for different codepages). The name means fixed system, although it is often pronounced "fixed size" because its glyphs are monospace or fixed-width. It is the oldest font in Windows, and was the system font in Windows 1.0 and 2.0. For Windows 3.x, the system font was changed to a sans-serif font named System (used in menu bars, for instance). However, many applications used the more aesthetically-pleasing MS Sans Serif for their windows and dialogs.

Fixedsys attempts to emulate the ASCII system font shown during the boot process on most PCs, and all older ones.

In Windows 95, 98, and Windows Me, Fixedsys is used as the default font for Notepad. This font was superseded by Lucida Console in Notepad for later versions of Windows. In Windows 95, this default font cannot be changed.

The font has an interesting method of distinguishing between zero and the capital letter "O". Instead of the usual subtle difference in shape between the two, or crossing a line through the zero, or placing a dot in its center, there are two barbs in the bowl of the character, pointing to each other. This also prevents confusion with the numeral "8".

Due to its clean style and easy readability, it has enjoyed some popularity with the programming community, even giving rise to an imitation font - Fixedsys Excelsior - which, based on the original Fixedsys typeface, also includes a large number of unicode script ranges.

[edit] Example

The following paragraph will be in Fixedsys if you have it on your system. If not, a serif font will be used:

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

Here is the complete set of characters, unshifted above shifted characters. After the alphabet, it is in US-English keyboard order, left to right:

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz
ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
`1234567890-=
~!@#$%^&*()_+
[]\ ;' ,./
{}| :" <>?