Font configuration

How fonts are set up, rendered, and installed in these dotfiles.

Recommended fonts

Primary: JetBrains Mono Nerd Font

The default font is JetBrains Mono with Nerd Font patches. It's designed for code readability, supports ligatures, includes Powerline/Nerd Font glyphs, and clearly distinguishes similar characters (0/O, 1/l/I).

Alternatives

Font	Style	Best for
Fira Code	Modern	Ligature fans
Cascadia Code	Microsoft	VS Code users
Hack	Classic	Traditional monospace look
Source Code Pro	Adobe	Clean aesthetic
Iosevka	Narrow	Small screens

Installation

macOS (Homebrew)

brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts
brew install --cask font-jetbrains-mono-nerd-font

# Or use the dot CLI
dot fonts install

Linux (manual)

wget https://github.com/ryanoasis/nerd-fonts/releases/download/v3.4.0/JetBrainsMono.zip
unzip JetBrainsMono.zip -d ~/.local/share/fonts/
fc-cache -fv

Patching your own fonts

To patch a custom font with Nerd Font glyphs:

~/.dotfiles/scripts/fonts/patch-fonts.sh /path/to/font.ttf

Terminal configuration

Ghostty

font-family = JetBrains Mono Nerd Font
font-size = 14

WezTerm

config.font = wezterm.font("JetBrains Mono Nerd Font")
config.font_size = 14.0

Alacritty

font:
  normal:
    family: JetBrains Mono Nerd Font
  size: 14.0

Kitty

font_family JetBrains Mono Nerd Font
font_size 14.0

Font size recommendations

Display	Size
13" laptop	12-13pt
15" laptop	13-14pt
24" monitor	14-15pt
27" 4K monitor	15-16pt

Troubleshooting

Fonts not displaying correctly

Verify the font is installed: fc-list | grep JetBrains
Restart your terminal
Double-check the terminal's font settings

Nerd Font icons missing

Make sure you're using a Nerd Font variant (not the plain version)
Confirm the terminal supports the required Unicode range
Try a different Nerd Font if the issue persists

Ligatures not working

Enable ligatures in your terminal's settings
Some terminals don't support ligatures (e.g., Terminal.app)
Ghostty, WezTerm, and Kitty all handle ligatures well