What are font ligatures
Font ligatures are special glyphs that combine multiple characters into a single, elegant symbol. For example, =>, ===, or != can appear as smooth connected symbols instead of separate characters. They don’t change your code—just make it more readable and visually appealing.- 🎨 Aesthetic boost – Makes your code look clean and modern without changing functionality.
- 👁️ Better readability – Reduces visual clutter, making code easier on the eyes.
- 🔍 Clearer syntax – Turns multi-character operators like
=>or===into neat symbols for quick recognition. - ⚡ Faster comprehension – Helps spot patterns and logic flow at a glance.
In case you want to enable Font ligatures inside VS 2026, Visual Studio 2026, you actually have to resort to running a Powershell script or similar to alter the registry a bit.
EnableFonLigatures.ps1 | Powershell
# Enable Font Ligatures for Visual 2026 (18.x)
$basePath = "HKCU:\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio"
$targetPrefixes = @("18.0_")
foreach ($prefix in $targetPrefixes) {
$vsKeys = Get-ChildItem -Path $basePath | Where-Object { $_.PSChildName -like "$prefix*" }
if ($vsKeys.Count -eq 0) {
Write-Host "No keys found for prefix $prefix. Open Visual Studio and change Fonts & Colors once, then rerun."
} else {
foreach ($key in $vsKeys) {
$fontColorsPath = Join-Path $key.PSPath "FontAndColors\Text Editor"
# Create the path if missing
if (-not (Test-Path $fontColorsPath)) {
Write-Host "Creating missing path: $fontColorsPath"
New-Item -Path $fontColorsPath -Force | Out-Null
}
# Set EnableFontLigatures to 1
Set-ItemProperty -Path $fontColorsPath -Name "EnableFontLigatures" -Value 1 -Type DWord
Write-Host "Ligatures enabled for: $fontColorsPath"
}
}
}
The following screenshot shows two ligatures symbols. Note the special symbols for => ('goes to') and != ('not equals') that are combined into one elegant symbol, which is more readable for the reader.
