Blurred heads and tails look horrible

[arkaitzsilva]

Hi, I'm usin MesloLGS NF font in my Konsole terminal but it looks horrible I don't know why, I configured powerlevel10k in Chakra Linux an Elementary and I had no issues but with Nitrux I'm not able to configure the terminal properly, blurred heads and tails have different types of tiny dots.

¿Is there something I'm missing?

Thanks

[romkatv]

These glyphs looks good in terminals that have native support for Block Elements. Konsole isn't one of them. You can file a feature request with Konsole, use a different terminal, or type p10k configure and select style that looks better in Konsole.

[romkatv]

OK, there is another way, although it requires a bit of work on your part. If your zsh version is >= 5.7.1, and your terminal supports truecolor, and you can figure out the rgb values for the terminal background and the prompt line, then you can make it look nice.

Here's a screenshot from Konsole I just took:

I selected "dark" color in p10k configure, which sets POWERLEVEL9K_BACKGROUND=236 in ~/.p10k.zsh. Color 236 is #303030 (see here). My background color in Konsole is completely black -- #000000. So these three colors are equally spaced in between: #1E1E1E, #121212, and #060606. You can verify this with the following command:

print -P '%K{#303030} %B%F{39}~%f%b %K{#1E1E1E} %K{#121212} %K{#060606} %K{#000000} %k'

I opened ~/.p10k.zsh and changed the following parameters:

# The right end of left prompt.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_LAST_SEGMENT_END_SYMBOL='%K{#1E1E1E} %K{#121212} %K{#060606} %k'
# The left end of right prompt.
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_FIRST_SEGMENT_START_SYMBOL='%K{#060606} %K{#121212} %K{#1E1E1E} %k'

And voilà! With this technique you can make blur as long or as short as you like.

[arkaitzsilva]

Thanks! the workaround worked but it has to be something else, not only the fact that Konsole is not supported because I installed Chakra Linux and powerlevel10k works perfectly in Konsole without the workaround.

[romkatv]

it has to be something else

Blurred heads and tails look good in terminals that have built-in support for Block Elements. They look bad in terminals that pull Block Elements from the font. I'm 100% certain this is true.

If blurred heads and tails look good in Chakra Linux, it means Block Elements enjoy built-in support in Chakra Linux.

not only the fact that Konsole is not supported

This isn't the right way to put it. Konsole in some environments renders Block Elements poorly.

[phoenixleonardo]

Hello @romkatv ,

I'm using the Powerline10K theme on my MacBook Pro with Oh-My-ZSH and iterm 2. I've followed all the steps and installed the MesloLGS NF font. However, the blurred heads look similar to what is mentioned in this issue.

I've followed the workaround which you mentioned above. Is this happening because iterm 2 doesn't support Block elements natively or is it something else.

I've also tried it in the Terminal app and also in VS Code with the same results.

Could you please let me know if there is anything else that can be done for the blurred endings to be rendered correctly?

[romkatv]

Is this happening because iterm 2 doesn't support Block elements natively

Yes.

Could you please let me know if there is anything else that can be done for the blurred endings to be rendered correctly?

Either use a terminal that renders block elements natively (I don't know if any macOS terminal can do this) or use the workaround from #537. There are no other ways.

[phoenixleonardo]

Thanks for the quick reply! 👍

[leocifer]

And voilà! With this technique you can make blue as long or as short as you like.

This was the only way I was able to get it working with kitty. With st it seems to work fine without the workaround.

[prldm]

I have exactly the same issue, but on macOS, with the inbuilt Terminal and iTerm2 too. I don't really understand it, it must be a user error or smth like that. I watched a few videos, and asked friends, and noone had an issue like this, they just installed the MesloLGS NF font, and worked in both terminals without any workaround. What should I do?

[romkatv]

@preludium975 Your screenshot looks as expected. That's how it looks in iTerm2 and Apple Terminal. It looks the same for everyone, so it's not something that's broken just for you. The first two comments on this issue provide the explanation for this and list what you can do.

[prldm]

Could you recommend me a Terminal on macOS which renders block elements properly? I tried a few but none of them worked.

[romkatv]

I don’t know.

[gusbemacbe]

@preludium975

I have exactly the same issue, but on macOS, with the inbuilt Terminal and iTerm2 too. I don't really understand it, it must be a user error or smth like that. I watched a few videos, and asked friends, and noone had an issue like this, they just installed the MesloLGS NF font, and worked in both terminals without any workaround. What should I do?

You do not need to try to find another terminal. On both Linux and macOS, you need to change the Unicode codes to pure hexadecimal colours. Compare the left and the right:

Use colour picker to imitate the colours of Unicode codes. Go to the file p10k.zsh, find the ugly blurry heads and change from, for example:

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_FIRST_SEGMENT_START_SYMBOL='░▒▓'
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_LAST_SEGMENT_END_SYMBOL='▓▒░'

to

typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_LEFT_PROMPT_FIRST_SEGMENT_START_SYMBOL='%K{#585854} %K{#84847C} %K{#B1B1A5} %k'
typeset -g POWERLEVEL9K_RIGHT_PROMPT_LAST_SEGMENT_END_SYMBOL='%K{#B1B1A5} %K{#84847C} %K{#585854} %k'

[romkatv]

@gusbemacbe This is already mentioned in the second comment of this issue: #537 (comment)

[gusbemacbe]

@gusbemacbe This is already mentioned in the second comment of this issue: #537 (comment)

I am very sorry.

Maybe he did not read or understand your comment or thought that worked only for Konsole or Linux users.

Since I was macOS user for a decade, there is not any terminal that can make ░▒▓ and ▓▒░ smooth. The only terminal that I know, can make these heads smooth, it is Termite.

I am not sure if he can compile and make Termite on macOS. He need to use Homebrew, Linuxbrew and Macports to port Termite on macOS.

[romkatv]

Maybe he did not read or understand your comment or thought that worked only for Konsole or Linux users.

Maybe, although there is no indication of this. The question @preludium975 has asked is reasonable either way.

Since I was macOS user for a decade, there is not any terminal that can make ░▒▓ and ▓▒░ smooth. The only terminal that I know, can make these heads smooth, it is Termite.

All terminals based on VTE render block elements nicely. This includes arguably the most popular Linux terminal -- GNOME Terminal -- as well as a plethora of niche terminals such as Termite.

I am not sure if he can compile and make Termite on macOS.

Termite is a Linux-only terminal.

[DrymarchonShaun]

I know this is a really old issue, but I thought it was worth adding for anyone that might come across this in the next few days/weeks/months before Alacritty releases a stable update -- support for this was just merged a few days ago. For anyone thats on arch, the alacritty-git AUR package includes it. alacritty/alacritty@f717710

[makzef]

In Konsole (or Yakuake) there is an option use line characters contained in font, the blur works correctly if this option is disabled. It seems disabled by default. But I mistakenly enabled option and thats why I got strange-looking head/tail.