Change Nmap/Zenmap fonts on Windows

Application design is very important. The user-interface (UI) for applications should be clean and easy to read, and the font choices (while subject to personal preference) is critical. Some applications do a great job while others, especially apps that are designed for cross-platform use, tend to be hit or miss. Nmap, which is an excellent network diagnosis tool, is a great application but the choice of monospace font on the Windows platform (Courier New) is dismal. Fortunately, it’s easy to change this. Simply open the file pango.aliases (usually found in C:\Program Files\Nmap\zenmap\etc\pango\) and edit the line that reads

monospace = "courier new,courier monothai,mingliu,simsun, ...

Just add whatever font you want for the monospace font at the beginning of the quoted string. For example, to use Microsoft’s new open-type Consolas, simply change that line to read:

monospace = "consolas,courier new,courier monothai,mingliu,simsun, ...

— Update March 31, 2009 @11:02: The latest beta (4.85b5) has changed the location where this file exists (and, in fact doesn’t include the file.) The new location is C:\Program Files\Nmap\py2exe\etc\pango … create a new file named pango.aliases (using Unix line-endings) and paste the line above into the file.
Here is a sample of the default (with Courier New):

Here is a sample of the application using Consolas:

Finally, here is a sample using Lucida Console, my favorite: