diff --git a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.2.rst b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.2.rst
index c95ed818c9da0..d6fe59a5c4114 100644
--- a/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.2.rst
+++ b/doc/source/whatsnew/v0.24.2.rst
@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ Bug Fixes
 
 **I/O**
 
+- Better handling of terminal printing when the terminal dimensions are not known (:issue:`25080`);
 - Bug in reading a HDF5 table-format ``DataFrame`` created in Python 2, in Python 3 (:issue:`24925`)
 - Bug where float indexes could have misaligned values when printing (:issue:`25061`)
 -
diff --git a/pandas/io/formats/terminal.py b/pandas/io/formats/terminal.py
index bb34259d710c7..cf2383955d593 100644
--- a/pandas/io/formats/terminal.py
+++ b/pandas/io/formats/terminal.py
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@
 
 import os
 import shutil
+import subprocess
 
 from pandas.compat import PY3
 
@@ -94,22 +95,29 @@ def _get_terminal_size_tput():
     # get terminal width
     # src: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/263890/how-do-i-find-the-width
     # -height-of-a-terminal-window
+
     try:
-        import subprocess
         proc = subprocess.Popen(["tput", "cols"],
                                 stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
                                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-        output = proc.communicate(input=None)
-        cols = int(output[0])
+        output_cols = proc.communicate(input=None)
         proc = subprocess.Popen(["tput", "lines"],
                                 stdin=subprocess.PIPE,
                                 stdout=subprocess.PIPE)
-        output = proc.communicate(input=None)
-        rows = int(output[0])
-        return (cols, rows)
+        output_rows = proc.communicate(input=None)
     except OSError:
         return None
 
+    try:
+        # Some terminals (e.g. spyder) may report a terminal size of '',
+        # making the `int` fail.
+
+        cols = int(output_cols[0])
+        rows = int(output_rows[0])
+        return cols, rows
+    except (ValueError, IndexError):
+        return None
+
 
 def _get_terminal_size_linux():
     def ioctl_GWINSZ(fd):
diff --git a/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_console.py b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_console.py
index 055763bf62d6e..45c5e982c1c48 100644
--- a/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_console.py
+++ b/pandas/tests/io/formats/test_console.py
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
+import subprocess  # noqa: F401
+
 import pytest
 
 from pandas.io.formats.console import detect_console_encoding
+from pandas.io.formats.terminal import _get_terminal_size_tput
 
 
 class MockEncoding(object):  # TODO(py27): replace with mock
@@ -72,3 +75,19 @@ def test_detect_console_encoding_fallback_to_default(monkeypatch, std, locale):
         context.setattr('sys.stdout', MockEncoding(std))
         context.setattr('sys.getdefaultencoding', lambda: 'sysDefaultEncoding')
         assert detect_console_encoding() == 'sysDefaultEncoding'
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("size", ['', ['']])
+def test_terminal_unknown_dimensions(monkeypatch, size):
+    mock = pytest.importorskip("unittest.mock")
+
+    def communicate(*args, **kwargs):
+        return size
+
+    monkeypatch.setattr('subprocess.Popen', mock.Mock())
+    monkeypatch.setattr('subprocess.Popen.return_value.returncode', None)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(
+        'subprocess.Popen.return_value.communicate', communicate)
+    result = _get_terminal_size_tput()
+
+    assert result is None