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Terminal Fonts

ZestSSH bundles professional monospace fonts optimized for terminal use. Font settings apply to the terminal emulator only — the app UI uses system fonts.

FontInternal KeyDescription
JetBrains MonoJetBrainsMonoDefault. Designed by JetBrains specifically for developers. Excellent readability at small sizes with programming ligatures.
Fira CodeFiraCodeMozilla’s monospace font with extensive ligature support. Popular in VS Code and terminal emulators.
Source Code ProSourceCodeProAdobe’s open-source monospace family. Clean, neutral design optimized for code.
Cascadia CodeCascadiaCodeMicrosoft’s font for Windows Terminal. Balanced weight with cursive italic variants.
HackHackPurpose-built for source code. High x-height for readability.
System DefaultmonospaceFalls back to the platform’s default monospace font.

The terminal font size is adjustable from the default of 14.0 pixels.

  • Range: 10 — 24 pixels
  • Default: 14.0 px
  • Adjustment: Settings slider or keyboard shortcuts (desktop)

On desktop platforms, font size can be adjusted without opening settings:

ShortcutAction
Ctrl+= (or Cmd+=)Increase font size
Ctrl+- (or Cmd+-)Decrease font size
Ctrl+0 (or Cmd+0)Reset to default (14px)
Ctrl+ScrollScroll wheel adjusts font size in the terminal area
  1. Open Settings > Appearance (or Settings > Terminal).
  2. Under Font, select a font family from the dropdown.
  3. Adjust the font size slider.
  4. Changes apply immediately to all open terminal sessions.

The terminal style includes a comprehensive fallback chain for international character support:

  1. Noto Sans Mono CJK KR (Korean)
  2. Noto Sans Mono CJK SC (Simplified Chinese)
  3. Noto Sans Mono CJK TC (Traditional Chinese)
  4. Noto Sans Mono CJK JP (Japanese)
  5. Noto Sans Mono CJK HK (Hong Kong Chinese)
  6. Noto Color Emoji
  7. Noto Sans Symbols
  8. monospace (platform default)
  9. sans-serif (last resort)

This ensures that CJK characters, emoji, and special symbols render correctly regardless of the primary font choice.

Ligature rendering is always on if the selected font supports ligatures. There is no toggle to disable ligatures — they are rendered automatically by the terminal emulator. Fonts that include programming ligatures (JetBrains Mono, Fira Code, Cascadia Code) render ligatures automatically in the terminal. Common ligatures include:

  • -> renders as an arrow
  • => renders as a fat arrow
  • != renders as not-equal
  • >= / <= render as comparison operators
  • && / || render as logical operators

If you prefer discrete characters without ligatures, select Hack, Source Code Pro, or System Default, which do not include ligature tables.

Font settings are persisted via SettingsService:

  • Font family is stored as the enum key (e.g., jetBrainsMono).
  • Font size is stored as a double (e.g., 14.0).

Both survive app restarts and are synced if Cloud Sync is enabled.