How to change the console font size

Question

How can I change the font size in a console app on Windows? Simplest way? What is the difference between changing console color using system("") and windows.h?

Solution

You can change the font size using SetCurrentConsoleFontEx.
Below is a small example that you can play around with, make sure you #include <cwchar> and #include <windows.h>

CONSOLE_FONT_INFOEX cfi;
cfi.cbSize = sizeof(cfi);
cfi.nFont = 0;
cfi.dwFontSize.X = 0;                   // Width of each character in the font
cfi.dwFontSize.Y = 24;                  // Height
cfi.FontFamily = FF_DONTCARE;
cfi.FontWeight = FW_NORMAL;
std::wcscpy(cfi.FaceName, L"Consolas"); // Choose your font
SetCurrentConsoleFontEx(GetStdHandle(STD_OUTPUT_HANDLE), FALSE, &cfi);

std::cout << "Font: Consolas, Size: 24\n";

If you choose Arial or others, you may have to give it a font size width. For more information.

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The difference between system() calls and using Windows.h is that system() calls are resource heavy and unsafe. More information here.

Comments

[IInspectable]

"If you choose Arial or others" - which ones? "[...] you may have to give it a font size width." - under what conditions?

[dxiv]

Maybe worth noting that SetCurrentConsoleFontEx requires Vista or later ( _WIN32_WINNT >= 0x0500). Also, the documentation is not clear on how exactly cfi.nFont = 0; works ("nFont = The index of the font in the system's console font table.").

[serup]

any chance you know how to do this on Ubuntu?