IBM Plex Mono vs JetBrains Mono
Two monospace faces, set live below in their own letters — then the honest take on which to pick and when.
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Mike Abbink, Bold Monday (IBM) · 2017 · weights 400, 500, 600, 700
The quick brown fox 0123456789
Philipp Nurullin, Konstantin Bulenkov (JetBrains) · 2020 · weights 400, 500, 600, 700, 800
At a glance
- Built for
- Design systems, brand
- Coding, editors
- Ligatures
- None
- Yes, programming ligatures
- Character
- Humanist, slab-tinged
- Tall x-height, code-tuned
- Designer
- Bold Monday for IBM, 2017
- JetBrains, 2020
IBM Plex MonoJetBrains Mono
The honest take
Two well-loved free monospaces with different priorities. IBM Plex Mono (Bold Monday for IBM, 2017) is the monospaced member of IBM's Plex superfamily — it carries the same subtly humanist, slightly slab-tinged character as Plex Sans, so it reads as branded and slightly warm, and it coordinates perfectly with Plex Sans and Plex Serif in a design system. JetBrains Mono (JetBrains, 2020) is purpose-built for coding, with a taller x-height, increased lowercase height and optional programming ligatures for sequences like != and =>. Choose IBM Plex Mono for code samples inside a Plex-based brand, or when you want a mono with a bit of institutional character and no ligatures. Choose JetBrains Mono for the editor and terminal, where its coding-focused tuning and ligatures earn their keep. Plex Mono is the design-system team player; JetBrains Mono the coder's tool.
The x-ray
Same size, same baseline — IBM Plex Mono over JetBrains Mono. Where they agree the strokes merge; where they argue, fringes.
“Hamburgefonstiv” is the type designer's test word — it carries most of the shapes that give a face away.
Read more
More about each face: IBM Plex Mono · JetBrains Mono