As well as the list of steps you linked to, This article lists some further
restrictions.
To test that things are working, you should be able to do this (I did, in Win7
64-bit):
Go to
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Console\TrueTypeFont
Add a string entry 000 with value Courier New
- Close the CMD windows and open a new one. (If you do not do this, the font
appears in the Properties > Fonts list but does not actually work when
clicked).
If you use a font that does not meet the criteria, it just won't appear, which
is frustrating. Here are the restrictions repeated from the MS support
article:
The fonts must meet the following criteria to be available in a command
session window:
- The font must be a fixed-pitch font.
- The font cannot be an italic font.
- The font cannot have a negative A or C space.
- If it is a TrueType font, it must be FF_MODERN.
- If it is not a TrueType font, it must be OEM_CHARSET.
Additional criteria for Asian installations:
- If it is not a TrueType font, the face name must be "Terminal."
- If it is an Asian TrueType font, it must also be an Asian character set.
[...]
The name needs to be incremented with 0 for each additional font. The
Data entry needs to match the font’s entry in the following registry
location:
HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Fonts
I found that the DejaVu Sans Mono font worked, and
that font has a wider range of unicode characters than Consolas, Lucida Console,
or Courier New.
The font has to be monotype. In other words, they all have to be the same size.
II WW
not monotype. :( – RookieTEC9 – 2015-10-25T21:30:21.083
@RookieTEC9 the font I was attempting is monospace ( not Monotype, that's a brand). – Mark Ransom – 2015-10-25T23:53:56.113
I meant monospace sorry for the confusion. – RookieTEC9 – 2015-10-25T23:56:49.700
In case you want Courier New (which is the best option IMO): there is indeed a glitch, it shows italics and gives some error popups (something "size must be .."). So you choose Courier New, then check "Bold fonts" then choose e.g. size 16, just click OK on error message boxes several times, after console restart it should be OK. And Bold looks much better than Regular anyway. – Mikhail V – 2017-03-11T00:43:45.807
To be more precise, after error message, choose size 16 first, then check "Bold fonts", it should work. – Mikhail V – 2017-03-11T00:53:22.543
@MikhailV you're right, thanks for the tip. It never would have occurred to me to try Bold. Now I wonder, since I'm still using Windows 7, have they fixed these bugs in later versions of Windows? – Mark Ransom – 2017-03-11T03:41:28.690
@MarkRansom On Windows 10 console I can choose all monospaced fonts by default without any registry tricks. And the console has some improvements, e.g. Ctrl-C Ctrl-V shortcuts are working. – Mikhail V – 2017-03-11T13:32:18.103
The problem is to get Unicode and UTF-8 glyphs to show properly, when used is various console programs (such as python CLI tools). To find good fonts with this support is hard. For installation of a good glyph font
– not2qubit – 2018-12-07T12:44:45.540DejaVu, see my solution here.@not2qubit for me the problem was not with the character set, I wasn't trying to print anything odd; I just wanted a font with a different appearance. This question is so old now that it's no longer relevant to me. – Mark Ransom – 2018-12-07T14:15:51.577
You sure it is a raster font? "Before doing any of this, please read the article "Why are console windows limited to Lucida Console and raster fonts?", which explains in great detail why you shouldn't do that anyway." – Der Hochstapler – 2012-02-17T08:47:02.547
@OliverSalzburg, no it's not a raster font - it's TrueType. The article merely explains why the window will be ugly, not why the workaround won't show the font at all. – Mark Ransom – 2012-02-17T14:39:53.453