Courier may not be the easiest on the eyes when staring into code all day long. The default font setting in jEdit can be found in global options > text area > text font. I suggest a mono spaced font like Bitstream Vera Mono, or better yet, Monaco, my favorite.
After the font is installed, tweak the font smoothing in jEdit to antialiased smoothed text subpixel and fractional font metrics as shown below:
Plugins: I recommend installing BufferTabs plugin and deactivating the default BufferSwitcher in the preferences. Also, if you’re going to use jEdit for writing HTML, XHTML, PHP and/or working directly with your server, try the XML, the PHPParserPlugin, and the FTP plugins.
Keywords: cleartype, clear type, font smoothing, smooth fonts, font display, jedit options, jedit plugins
