Microsoft’s open-source Windows Terminal is getting some nice updates this week. As ever, Windows Terminal Preview is a point release ahead and shows off the next batch of features. On the slate for version 1.16 are several features designed to make your Terminal look as good as it can. And that starts with themes.
Windows Terminal has always been very customizable but from 1.16 onwards it’ll be even better and easier. Themes can be enabled through a dropdown menu in the appearance settings, but at least initially, can only be put together in the Settings JSON file. There are pre-determined objects which can be customized, including the background, application theme, and the tab and tab row can be customized separately. Microsoft’s blog post has some sample code to get you going or you can check out the full documentation for more. There’s also a sample gallery to give you an idea of what to expect, such as the “Under Construction” theme pictured below.
Additional visual enhancement tools include refinements to the default colors, and Windows Terminal Preview will now automatically launch in dark mode. Regardless of your system settings. If you really want a searing white terminal, you still can, but you’ll have to enable it yourself.
What’s also neat is the introduction of a new text rendering engine, first introduced a few versions ago as an experiment.
In version 1.13, we released the new, experimental text rendering engine under an experimental feature you could enable for a profile. In this release, we are making this new renderer the default text renderer for all profiles. The new renderer is more performant and now supports additional pixel shaders (including the retro effect), bold text, and underline/overline/hyperlink lines.
The blog post goes into all the details, including the bug fixes and more minor improvements. Alongside Windows Terminal Preview 1.16, the regular Windows Terminal is being updated to version 1.15, with all the features available previously in the 1.15 Preview. Download both from the Microsoft Store, GitHub, or using Windows Package Manager.
Source: Microsoft