No Modified Version of the Font Software may use the Reserved Font
Name(s) unless explicit written permission is granted by the corresponding
Copyright Holder. This restriction only applies to the primary font name as
presented to the users.
The main goals seem to be to: Avoid collisions, Protect authors, Minimize support, and Encourage derivatives
If you are limited to monospaced fonts (because of your terminal, etc) then pick a font with Nerd Font Mono (or NFM).
If you want to have bigger icons (usually around 1.5 normal letters wide) pick a font without Mono i.e. Nerd Font (or NF). Most terminals support this, but ymmv.
If you work in a proportional context (GUI elements or edit a presentation etc) pick a font with Nerd Font Propo (or NFP).
Ligatures
Ligatures are generally preserved in the patched fonts.
Nerd Fonts v2.0.0 had no ligatures in the Nerd Font Mono fonts, this has been dropped with v2.1.0.
If you have a ligature-aware terminal and don't want ligatures you can (usually) disable them in the terminal settings.
Explanation
Once you narrow down your font choice of family (Droid Sans, Inconsolata, etc) and style (bold, italic, etc) you have 2 main choices:
Option 1: Download already patched font
For a stable version download a font package from the release page
Or download the development version from the folders here
Option 2: Patch your own font
Patch your own variations with the various options provided by the font patcher (i.e. not include all symbols for smaller font size)
