iTerm Is Not Using My Font's Border Characters

Thanks for filing an issue! Please answer the questions below so I can help you.

• iTerm2 version: Build 3.1.2
• OS version: OSX Sierra 10.12.6 (16G29)
• Attach ~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist here (drag-drop from finder into this window) com.googlecode.iterm2.plist
• Attach a debug log, if possible. Instructions at https://iterm2.com/debuglog debuglog.txt
• Are you reporting a performance issue or a hang? Please attach a sample. Instructions at https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/wikis/HowToSample Neither reporting a performance issue nor a hang
• Are you reporting a crash? Please attach the crash log. Instructions at https://gitlab.com/gnachman/iterm2/wikis/crash-logs Not reporting a crash

Detailed steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Open iTerm
2. run echo -e "\xe2\x94\xbc" to print the four-way pipe or
3. type tree to dump a list with the same characters or
4. Start tmux and split the window to see window border character

You should see that the border characters are not printed in your font at all. Instead, they're printed as thin lines with sharp, 90-degree angles.

What happened: All of my border characters, are printed as sharp, thin lines with 90-degree angles.

What should have happened: All border characters should have been printed in my font.

#How it looks in Terminal

#How it looks in iTerm2

By any chance is your second font set wrong in the profile? Profile - text tab - non-ascii font.

The second font is turned off. The issue also persists when I turn on the second font and set it to the same font as my first.

Upon further inspection, iTerm2 doesn't seem to be using the non-ascii font for the borders (I think they may be called box drawing characters) in my terminal anymore. I started by just cycling through a bunch of fonts for my main font with the non-ascii font turned off. The box drawing characters would change size with fonts that were larger or smaller, but they would still just render as those thin lines.

Then I enabled a different font for non-ascii characters and started changing it to a bunch of fonts. The box drawing characters never changed size or appearance at all. Only the powerline characters would change. I've now set it back to not using a different font for non-ascii and I'm back on my old font with those boring tack characters.

iTerm2 uses its own drawing code for box-drawing characters. 3.1.2 lacked support for arcs, which makes it really stand out. This is fixed in 3.1.3.beta.1, which I encourage you to try. Let me know if it would be important to always use the font's characters for you. The reason for custom drawing is that some typefaces don't have line-drawing characters that line up properly, and if you increase the amount of line/column spacing then there would be gaps without the custom drawing code.

Ah, I see. Yes, it took me a long time to get these to line up well :) I remember playing around with iTerm's font spacing for a long time before hand editing the characters in the font file till they aligned better.

I'm sure I'll like the curved custom box drawing, and I'll probably use it going forward, but... Is it possible to have an optional list of characters that will be ignored by the custom drawing code? It feels invasive to take away something as fundamental as a few of my characters without an option to opt in/opt out.

Thanks again for all your work and for iTerm2. It's my favorite terminal.

Ok, I've updated to 3.1.3.beta.1 and I'm seeing no change. The box characters are still boxy. I dug around in preferences and couldn't find any options that indicated curved drawing.

Commit 2b4ccebf adds an advanced pref to disable the custom box-drawing code and use your typeface's glyphs instead. Turn on Prefs > Advanced > your typeface’s box-drawing characters instead of iTerm2’s custom drawing code..

closed

mentioned in issue #6175

mentioned in issue #6076 (closed)

Thank you so much! I'm glad to have my box drawing characters back. I'll keep an eye out in the change logs and check out curved drawing as it comes out, and I'll feel safer knowing I can always turn my characters back on if I need to.