What is andale?

Andale is a monospaced sans-serif typeface designed by Steve Matteson and commissioned by Microsoft. It was initially released as part of the Windows TrueType core fonts package. The font's primary purpose was to provide a standard, high-quality font for developers and users working with command-line interfaces, programming environments, and other applications requiring consistent character widths.

A notable feature of Andale Mono is its clear distinction between visually similar characters like the number zero and the uppercase letter "O", and the lowercase letter "l" and the number "1". This is crucial for readability and avoids errors in coding and data entry.

Andale Mono became popular among software developers and system administrators due to its clarity and consistency across different platforms. It was distributed freely for many years, contributing to its widespread adoption. Later versions of Andale Mono included broader Unicode support. While it's been superseded by other monospaced fonts in some areas, Andale Mono remains a respected and recognizable typeface in the computing world.