Terminal Fonts and Display

Last updated: April 2026

Changing the Terminal Font

To change the font used in the terminal emulator, open Settings (Ctrl+,) and navigate to Appearance > Font. Select a font from the dropdown list, which is populated from the monospace fonts installed on your system. The change takes effect immediately across all open sessions.

You can also configure the font on a per-connection basis. Open the Connection Manager (Ctrl+Shift+N), select or edit a saved connection, and expand the Appearance section to override the global font setting for that connection.

Recommended Monospace Fonts

Terminal emulators require monospace (fixed-width) fonts so that columns align correctly, TUI applications render properly, and cursor positioning is accurate. Proportional fonts will cause severe display corruption and are not selectable in RockTerm.

The following monospace fonts are recommended:

• Cascadia Code — Ships with Windows Terminal and is available on most modern Windows 10/11 installations. Includes programming ligatures and a dedicated Cascadia Mono variant without ligatures. An excellent default choice.
• Consolas — Ships with every version of Windows since Vista. A reliable fallback that is always available without installing anything. RockTerm uses Consolas as the default font.
• JetBrains Mono — A free, open-source font from JetBrains designed for developer tooling. Download from https://www.jetbrains.com/lp/mono/ and install via Windows font settings. Offers increased letter height and distinctive character forms that reduce ambiguity between similar glyphs (e.g., 1, l, I).
• Fira Code — A free, open-source font with extensive programming ligature support. Download from https://github.com/tonsky/FiraCode. Well-suited for reading configuration files and code on remote hosts.

After installing a new font on your system, you may need to restart RockTerm for it to appear in the font list.

Font Size Adjustment

The default font size can be set in Settings > Appearance > Font Size. The value is specified in points (pt).

For quick, temporary zoom adjustments within an active session, use the following shortcuts:

• Ctrl+Scroll Up — Increase font size (zoom in)
• Ctrl+Scroll Down — Decrease font size (zoom out)
• Ctrl+Plus (+) — Increase font size one step
• Ctrl+Minus (-) — Decrease font size one step
• Ctrl+0 — Reset to the configured default font size

Session-level zoom changes are not persisted. When you open a new tab or reconnect, the font size reverts to the value configured in settings.

Color Scheme Configuration

RockTerm ships with several built-in color schemes and supports custom color definitions. To configure colors, go to Settings > Appearance > Colors.

Each color scheme defines the following values:

• Background — The terminal background color. Common choices are pure black (#000000), soft black (#1e1e1e), or dark blue (#0c0c28).
• Foreground — The default text color. Typically white (#ffffff) or light gray (#cccccc).
• Cursor Color — The color of the blinking or steady cursor.
• Selection Background — Highlight color when selecting text in the terminal.
• 16 ANSI Colors — The standard set of 8 normal colors and 8 bright colors used by terminal applications. These map to ANSI escape codes 30–37 (normal) and 90–97 (bright):

  Color 0:  Black          Color 8:  Bright Black (Gray)
  Color 1:  Red            Color 9:  Bright Red
  Color 2:  Green          Color 10: Bright Green
  Color 3:  Yellow         Color 11: Bright Yellow
  Color 4:  Blue           Color 12: Bright Blue
  Color 5:  Magenta        Color 13: Bright Magenta
  Color 6:  Cyan           Color 14: Bright Cyan
  Color 7:  White          Color 15: Bright White

Many CLI tools and shell prompts rely on these ANSI colors. If output from tools like ls --color, grep --color, or vim looks wrong, check that your color scheme defines all 16 ANSI colors with sufficient contrast against your background.

High DPI and Display Scaling

RockTerm is DPI-aware and respects the Windows display scaling setting (e.g., 100%, 125%, 150%, 200%). In most cases, fonts and UI elements scale automatically and appear crisp at any scaling factor.

If you experience display issues such as blurry text, incorrect window sizing, or misaligned UI elements, try the following:

1. Check your Windows scaling setting. Go to Settings > System > Display > Scale and confirm it is set to a recommended value for your monitor.
2. Restart RockTerm after changing display settings. Some scaling changes require an application restart to take full effect.
3. Multi-monitor setups with mixed DPI. If you use multiple monitors at different scaling factors, drag the RockTerm window to the target monitor and then restart the application. Windows per-monitor DPI awareness should handle this automatically, but some edge cases may require a restart.
4. Override DPI behavior (advanced). If problems persist, right-click the RockTerm shortcut or executable, go to Properties > Compatibility > Change high DPI settings, and experiment with the High DPI scaling override option. Set it to Application or System (Enhanced).

If text appears blurry specifically in the terminal viewport but the rest of the UI is sharp, try switching to a different font. Some fonts render poorly at certain sizes and scaling factors. Cascadia Code and Consolas generally perform well across all DPI configurations.

← Back to Support Articles

Still need help?

If you're still experiencing issues, contact us or email info@rockriverresearch.com.