For no particular good reason, Visual Studio.NET 2002/2003 doesn't seem to pick up all the fonts you may have installed on your system. In particular, Bitstream Vera Sans Mono from Gnome is one of those. It's a very legible monospace font and perfect for coding. Problem is, by default it is not possible to set this as the default font in the VS editor. Here are a few simple steps to take to get this (or any other font of your chosing) to be displayed in VS.NET.

1. Install the Gnome Bitstream fonts.
2. Open VS.NET 2002 or 2003. Select Tools from the menu and click Options. From the option dialog select Environment folder on the left and then the Fonts and Colors from the submenu.
3. Select Text Editor from the top dropdown listbox.
4. Select "Bitstream Vera Sans Mono Bold" from the Font list.
5. Click OK to verify the changes and then close Visual Studio.
6. Open RegEdit.
7. Navigate to HKEY_CURRENT_USER -> Software -> Microsoft -> VisualStudio -> 7.x (0 for 2002, 1 for 2003) -> FontAndColors -> {Big-Long-GUID}
8. There should be a key for FontName. Double click that, and remove the " Bold" from the end. Click OK and close RegEdit.
9. Restart VS.NET and rejoice at having a pleasant font to stare at.

• If you make any further changes to the VS Options, you'll probably have to edit the registry all over again. Sorry.
• I made this page because I got tired of figuring out the correct Google / MSDN search terms to find the information I was looking for.
• I suggest using Bitstream Vera Sans Mono as the default font. It's easy on the eyes and the difference between zeros and the letter O and ones and the lowercase letter L are very discernable.
• You may also be interested in using an alternate font in the Windows Command Prompt.
• Font suggestions:
  • Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
  • Proggy Clean
  • Raize
  • Andale

• http://weblogs.asp.net/rweigelt/archive/2003/11/13/37223.aspx
• http://www.meat.net/archives/2004/06/28/font_selection.html