Fonts and Colours in xterm

A note on how to set fonts and colors for xterms for freebsd & macos.

In FreeBSD

Get the list of available fonts

fc-list :fontformat=TrueType -f "%{family}\n" | sort -u | grep -i mono
DejaVu Sans Mono
Luxi Mono
Noto Mono
....

Try one out in xterm

xterm -fa 'Noto Mono' -fs 12 &

Make selections permanent in .Xresources

vi ~/.Xresources
XTerm*foreground:   green
XTerm*background:   black
XTerm*faceName: Noto Mono
XTerm*faceSize: 12

Note: Anytime you edit .Xresources, tell X about those changes by merging with xrdb

xrdb -merge .Xresources

Fire up an xterm

xterm

In macos

Get a list of available fonts

fc-list :fontformat=TrueType -f "%{family}\n" | sort -u | grep -i mono
Andale Mono
Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
Luxi Mono
PT Mono
...

Try one out in xterm

xterm -fa 'Bitstream Vera Sans Mono' -fs 12 &

Make selections permanent in .Xresources

vi ~/.Xresources
XTerm*foreground:   green
XTerm*background:   black
XTerm*faceName: Bitstream Vera Sans Mono
XTerm*faceSize: 12

Note: Anytime you edit .Xresources, tell X about those changes by merging with xrdb

xrdb -merge .Xresources

Fire up an xterm

xterm

Celebrate!

post added 2022-12-02 08:44:00 -0600