When comparing TheSans Mono vs Inconsolata, the Slant community recommends TheSans Mono for most people. In the question“What are the best programming fonts?” TheSans Mono is ranked 41st while Inconsolata is ranked 52nd.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Characters readable even at small sizes
The characters in Inconsolata have a slightly "wide" appearance that aids in readability, especially at small font sizes.
Pro Excellent readability
Very clear, distinct characters with decent spacing make Inconsolata very readable.
Pro Efficient scalability
Inconsolata scales well without loss of readability.
Pro Slashed zero characters are distinguishable from capital "O" and "Q" characters
Inconsolata-g screws this up by replacing the slashed zero with a dotted zero. A dotted zero is better than a zero with nothing in it, but worse than a slashed zero.
Pro Open source
It's an open source font, meaning it's freely available.
Pro No visible character breaks
Inconsolata renders lines in TUIs without visible character breaks; apparently unlike Inconsolata-g.
Pro Widely available
Inconsolata is available in the package managers of almost every open source OS.
Cons
Con Not a free font
This is not a free font. It doesn't either come free with any software. So this isn't very accessible. There are free downloads for the wide version and the Condensed version, but none for the SemiCondensed width, which is the medium width.
Con Lacks in Unicode coverage
This font doesn't cover WGL4, therefore it lacks a lot in Unicode coverage.
Con Arched braces
Too much arched braces, decreases clarity, touching characters almost.