How can I change default fonts for a shell?

Question

How can I change default fonts for a shell? Is this the same as changing fonts for xTerm? I am using JeOS and would like to change the fonts, as all of the work I do is in the terminal.

Second, I would prefer to change XTerm's fonts, rather than bash's. I am planning to shift to zsh or fishshell.

Any recommendations for the shell?

Solution 1

Shells don't have fonts, but the terminal they run in probably does.

Change the font for xTerm.

Solution 2

First you have to find out what type your terminal is. Issue "echo $TERM" and if it is

vt100, vt200, ansi or the like

you have to change the font in the terminal emulation software you use (putty, hyperterm, whatever).

xterm or aixterm

right-click into the window while you hold down the ALT-key (or the CTRL-key? not sure, just try) and select a different size from the upcoming menu. To change the fonts selected by the menu entries (if you do not like them altogether) enter the appropriate X-resource string into your "$HOME/.Xdefaults" file.

Here is an example, which will add a font with german diacriticals ("Umlauts") to the XTerm font menu and label it "ISO8859-Charset":

Code:

XTerm*VT100*font1: -ibm--medium-r-medium--20-14-100-100-c-90-iso8859-1
XTerm*fontMenu*font1*Label:   ISO8859-Charset

dtterm

simply select "Options" from the menu. To make the change lasting change the preferences of CDE.

(source)

Comments

[akira]

:) i really meant "put it directly into the comment section underneath the question", where the other 'perspective and sunglasses' comment is lurking around ...

[Almir Sarajčić]

Yeah, but I saw that comment about sunglasses and didn't want to go near it.

[Vivek Sharma]

$TERM it gives xterm in gui mode, and in the terminal-mode ie (ctrl+alt+F1) it give linux. i would like to change the fonts (thinner fonts, with lower dpi or something, say courier-new than monospace)