JetBrains font not applying.

[JohnSmith000000]

Issue Description

Font fallback is not applied correctly.

I'm using JetBrains Mono and Symbols Nerd Font Mono instead of the built-in font, but they aren't applied. The left screenshot is Ghostty, the right is Wezterm.

The issue with small icon size and misalignment occurs with JetBrains Mono Nerd Font (i.e., Ghostty's built-in font).

Expected Behavior

font fallback applied like wezterm, iterm, etc..

Actual Behavior

If the font names are completely different, it seems the font fallback is applied. It appears to be conflicting because the name is similar to the built-in font.

Reproduction Steps

Fonts

font-family = "JetBrains Mono"
font-family = "Symbols Nerd Font Mono"

Ghostty Logs

No response

Ghostty Version

$ ghostty +version                                                                       [15:55:25]
Ghostty 1.2.2

Version
  - version: 1.2.2
  - channel: stable
Build Config
  - Zig version   : 0.14.1
  - build mode    : builtin.OptimizeMode.ReleaseFast
  - app runtime   : apprt.Runtime.none
  - font engine   : font.main.Backend.coretext
  - renderer      : renderer.generic.Renderer(renderer.Metal)
  - libxev        : kqueue

OS Version Information

macos 26.0.1

(Linux only) Display Server

None

(Linux only) Desktop Environment/Window Manager

macos 26.0.1

Minimal Ghostty Configuration

# Fonts
font-family = "JetBrains Mono"
font-family = "Symbols Nerd Font Mono"
font-size = 14


font-thicken = true

Additional Relevant Configuration

No response

I acknowledge that:

• I have reviewed the FAQ and confirm that my issue is NOT among them.
• I have searched the Ghostty repository (both open and closed Discussions and Issues) and confirm this is not a duplicate of an existing issue or discussion.
• I have checked the "Preview" tab on all text fields to ensure that everything looks right, and have wrapped all configuration and code in code blocks with a group of three backticks (```) on separate lines.

[danielwe]

There are many different questions and assertions mixed together here.

JetBrains Mono Nerd Font (i.e., Ghostty's built-in font)

Ghostty's built-in font is no longer JetBrains Mono Nerd Font. Instead, JetBrains Mono and Symbols Nerd Font are built-in separately, and Ghostty performs all the scaling and alignment calculations that the nerd font patcher would do to match the nerd font icons to whatever primary font you're using (in fact, it can do even better with icons that need to align across cells).

The left screenshot is Ghostty, the right is Wezterm

Wezterm does its own scaling of nerd font icons. It appears that they're mostly blown up to the maximum size that can fit within two character cells, though I don't know the details of what's going on. In any case, Wezterm is not a good reference for faithful representation of nerd fonts.

It appears to be conflicting because the name is similar to the built-in font

No, Ghostty is never going to confuse a configured font with a built-in font. If you specify a font in the config, it will be loaded from the system.

In short, what you're seeing is the correct result of specifying your config, but since the fonts you're specifying are the same as the built-in ones, what you see is almost identical to what you would get with a blank config (the only difference is that you're using Symbols Nerd Font Mono instead of Symbols Nerd Font, which means a small number of icons will be smaller than the default).

[danielwe]

If you want to use the Mono variant of nerd fonts, I would recommend using a patched font like font-family = JetBrains Mono Nerd Font Mono, rather than specifying the primary font and symbols font separately. The reasons for this are quite technical and I won't get into them here, but it has to do with how both nerd font patching and Ghostty's font loader scales these icons to match the height and width of your primary font.

That said, Ghostty still won't reproduce all nerd font mono icons faithfully. The wide powerline symbols (flames et cetera) will still be stretched to cover two cells if there's room for it. But I think most icons should remain in their small mono size if you use a patched nerd font mono as your primary font.

In short:

• Try font-family = JetBrains Mono Nerd Font Mono as your config
• If something still doesn't look right to you, please send screenshots pointing out exactly what's different from what you're expecting
• If you're comparing to other terminals, please describe exactly how you've configured the fonts in those terminals

[JohnSmith000000]

ghostty 'jetbrains mono nerd font', 'jetbrains mono nerd font mono'.

If use 'jetbrains mono nerd font', the icon is not aligned left and right. This seems to be a problem with the patched font.
When use 'jetbrains mono nerd font mono', the icon size looks too small.

iterm, wezterm, tabby

All settings use 'jetbrains mono' as default font and 'symbols nerd font' as fallback. All other fallback font settings work.
Differences exist in anti-aliasing and hinting across terminals, but icons are aligned left and right.

[danielwe]

Thanks for the screenshots!

• Large Nerd font icons (that is, icons that are wider than a character cell) are supposed to be aligned to the left. This discussion board received several complaints until Ghostty got this fixed. I don't know why the other terminals choose to center them across two cells.
• Nerd Font Mono icons are supposed to be small---they're scaled down to fit in a single character cell, that's the whole point!
• Having spent an embarrassing number of hours reading the nerd font patcher script forwards, backwards, and sideways, I can assure you that, out of all the screenshots you shared, Ghostty is by far the most faithful to how nerd font icons are expected to look. That's true both for Nerd Font and Nerd Font Mono.

If you want a good reference, try JetBrains Mono Nerd Font in Alacritty. Alacritty doesn't come with built-in icons, and it doesn't do any scaling and alignment internally, so it will show you exactly how the icons are expected to look in a patched font. (But that also means you won't get the benefits of Ghostty's built-in icon handling, such as pixel perfect alignment of semigraphical glyphs.)

[JohnSmith000000]

I'm not a developer, so I don't know the advantages of scaling down to fit in a single character cell, but it's true that it looks ugly. Is there any way to improve this? I've been using various terminals and am trying to settle on ghostty, but the poor visual appearance right now makes me reluctant to use it.

[danielwe]

I don't know the advantages of scaling down to fit in a single character cell

It's just a preference. If you don't want it, use a Nerd Font, not a Nerd Font Mono. Or better yet, in Ghostty, don't use a nerd font at all, since it's built in---as is JetBrains Mono, so if that's your preference, you don't need to do any config at all.

the poor visual appearance

Not sure what to say. This is what nerd fonts look like. Once again, try a more barebones terminal like Terminal.app or Alacritty with JetBrains Mono Nerd Font, and you'll see it looks similar to Ghostty with a blank config.

The terminals you're comparing to are doing their own rescaling and realignment that makes the icons look different from how they're specified in the font. If you like that look better, then you should use those terminals.

The one opinionated and debatable choice Ghostty makes is the one discussed in #9172. Would love to hear your opinion on that one!

Ghostty looked more like the other terminals for a period while we worked on getting all the rules right, and it caused a lot complaints that you can read by searching this forum. Since the 1.2.2 release, it's been quiet with the exception of this thread.