Terminal font rendering

Yet another weird issue with terminal font rendering:

It looks like it temporarily switched to a completely different font? I have no idea what's going on here.

I can't give you steps to reproduce, because font rendering in the terminal is just super unpredictable and random - I have weird aliasing issues and blurry fonts (as reported by many) on the daily, but this one was new to me.

There are many issues with terminal font rendering - to name a few that might be related:

Do a search for terminal font, it's kind of wild.

Text is arguably the most important feature in a text editor, I can't understand why this isn't treated like a serious issue? At what point do you give up, just tear it down and rewrite the thing? It's been broken for a way too long. 😐

Rasmus Schultz (@mindplay-dk)

Rasmus Schultz (@mindplay-dk) same issue here!

Description

After upgrading VS Code from 1.122.1 to 1.123.0 on Ubuntu/Linux, the integrated terminal renders selected text as black square blocks. The issue appears mostly when selecting text in the terminal, but appears also for normal command output - seems to be a rendering issue.

Downgrading back to 1.122.1 fixes the issue.

VS Code versions tested

Broken:
code/stable 1.123.0-1780481570 amd64

Working:
code/stable 1.122.1-1780040850 amd64

Environment

OS: Ubuntu/Linux
Shell: zsh with oh-my-zsh
Theme: pixegami-agnoster
Terminal font tested:

MesloLGS NF
JetBrainsMono Nerd Font
monospace

The issue still happens with different VS Code themes and also with terminal.integrated.fontFamily set to monospace.

Steps to reproduce

Install VS Code 1.123.0 on Linux.
Open the integrated terminal.
Run any command, for example:

   fc-list | grep -i "JetBrains"
   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts

Select terminal text using the mouse.
Some selected characters are rendered as black square boxes (mostly numbers).

5. Some selected characters are rendered as black square boxes (mostly numbers).

Yikes 😅

I've never seen that before - I don't think that's the same issue?

But it's starting to look like the larger issue is font rendering overall - it probably starting to need a rewrite...

@mindplay-dk same issue here!

Description

After upgrading VS Code from 1.122.1 to 1.123.0 on Ubuntu/Linux, the integrated terminal renders selected text as black square blocks. The issue appears mostly when selecting text in the terminal, but appears also for normal command output - seems to be a rendering issue.

Downgrading back to 1.122.1 fixes the issue.

VS Code versions tested

Broken: code/stable 1.123.0-1780481570 amd64

Working: code/stable 1.122.1-1780040850 amd64

Environment

OS: Ubuntu/Linux Shell: zsh with oh-my-zsh Theme: pixegami-agnoster Terminal font tested:
* MesloLGS NF

* JetBrainsMono Nerd Font

* monospace
The issue still happens with different VS Code themes and also with terminal.integrated.fontFamily set to monospace.

Steps to reproduce
1. Install VS Code 1.123.0 on Linux.

2. Open the integrated terminal.

3. Run any command, for example:
fc-list | grep -i "JetBrains"
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts
4. Select terminal text using the mouse.

5. Some selected characters are rendered as black square boxes (mostly numbers).

I suspect this issue is related to VS Code's overall rendering. When I select all the text in the terminal and VS Code loses focus, more of these black squares appear. However, they disappear as soon as VS Code regains focus.

I am using version 1.123.0 (6a44c35). It seems like this was introduced in the latest VS Code update?

Top suspects:

8748be1f1a8 — feat: update to Electron v42 (feat: update to Electron v42 #316661)
Major Chromium bump. Selection-glyph rendering on Linux frequently regresses with new Skia/Chromium versions, and this is the kind of change that affects exactly one platform (Linux) the way the second reporter describes.
103a85ad836 — Update xterm.js to 6.1.0-beta.220 (Update xterm.js to 6.1.0-beta.220 #317936)
Touches the terminal renderer/glyph atlas directly. A change in xterm's WebGL/canvas glyph caching could produce the "black square on selected glyphs" symptom.

Rasmus Schultz (@mindplay-dk)

Faced the issue in the integrated terminal only, ide text renders correctly - xterm issue?
Also I am on Wayland - ubuntu 24.04.

Rasmus Schultz (@mindplay-dk) are you also using a Linux distro?

@mindplay-dk same issue here!

Description

After upgrading VS Code from 1.122.1 to 1.123.0 on Ubuntu/Linux, the integrated terminal renders selected text as black square blocks. The issue appears mostly when selecting text in the terminal, but appears also for normal command output - seems to be a rendering issue.

Downgrading back to 1.122.1 fixes the issue.

VS Code versions tested

Broken: code/stable 1.123.0-1780481570 amd64

Working: code/stable 1.122.1-1780040850 amd64

Environment

OS: Ubuntu/Linux Shell: zsh with oh-my-zsh Theme: pixegami-agnoster Terminal font tested:

MesloLGS NF

JetBrainsMono Nerd Font

monospace

The issue still happens with different VS Code themes and also with terminal.integrated.fontFamily set to monospace.

Steps to reproduce

Install VS Code 1.123.0 on Linux.

Open the integrated terminal.

Run any command, for example:

fc-list | grep -i "JetBrains"
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/fonts

Select terminal text using the mouse.

Some selected characters are rendered as black square boxes (mostly numbers).

I'm experiencing the same issue. At first, I thought it was a Claude Code problem, but I later noticed that other commands are affected as well—for example, fastfetch shows the same behavior.

The output looks fine in an external terminal (e.g., Ghostty), and the issue only occurs in the integrated terminal.

The image above was captured in Ghostty, where the output renders correctly.

In some cases, the black squares make the text unreadable. Selecting text can also cause additional black squares to appear.

However, if I copy and paste the affected text elsewhere, it appears correctly, which suggests that the output itself is fine and the problem is related to how the integrated terminal renders it.

fastfetch   
                     ./o.                   user@host
                   ./sssso-                 -----------
                 `:osssssss+-               OS: EndeavourOS x86_64
               `:+sssssssssso/.             Host: Dell Pro 14 PC14250
             `-/ossssssssssssso/.           Kernel: Linux 7.0.11-arch1-1
           `-/+sssssssssssssssso+:`         Uptime: 7 hours, 45 mins
         `-:/+sssssssssssssssssso+/.        Packages: 1264 (pacman)
       `.://osssssssssssssssssssso++-       Shell: zsh 5.9.1
      .://+ssssssssssssssssssssssso++:      Display (LG FULL HD): 1920x1080 in 22", 60 Hz [External]
    .:///ossssssssssssssssssssssssso++:     Display (BOE0CB7): 1920x1200 @ 1.25x in 14", 60 Hz [Built-in] *
  `:////ssssssssssssssssssssssssssso+++.    DE: KDE Plasma 6.6.5
`-////+ssssssssssssssssssssssssssso++++-    WM: KWin (Wayland)
 `..-+oosssssssssssssssssssssssso+++++/`    WM Theme: Breeze
   ./++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++/:.      Theme: Breeze (Dark) [Qt], Breeze-Dark [GTK2], Breeze [GTK3]
  `:::::::::::::::::::::::::------``        Icons: breeze-dark [Qt], breeze-dark [GTK2/3/4]
                                            Font: Noto Sans (10pt) [Qt], Noto Sans (10pt) [GTK2/3/4]
                                            Cursor: breeze (24px)
                                            Terminal: code 1.123.0
                                            CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) Ultra 5 235U (14) @ 4.90 GHz
                                            GPU: Intel Graphics @ 2.05 GHz [Integrated]
                                            Memory: 11.69 GiB / 15.07 GiB (78%)
                                            Swap: 6.27 GiB / 16.58 GiB (38%)
                                            Disk (/): 72.42 GiB / 450.09 GiB (16%) - ext4
                                            Local IP (wlan0): 10.200.132.32/16
                                            Battery (DELL 60GY056G): 100% [AC Connected]
                                            Locale: en_US.UTF-8

Glyphs rendering was xterm issue and should be fixed with xtermjs/xterm.js#5986 . Let's hope fix will arrive in vscode soon.

"terminal.integrated.gpuAcceleration": "off"

i added this on the settings. the black square box on text didn't appear for me.

Julia Kasper (@jukasper)

(Verified by Julia Kasper (@jukasper))

@mindplay-dk are you also using a Linux distro?

I use both Windows and Linux (Zorin 18) daily, and I'm seeing these issues on both platforms.

Rasmus Schultz (@mindplay-dk)

Rasmus Schultz (@mindplay-dk) Please, can you test on latest insiders Insiders build

hotfix(vscode): upgrade vscode to solve terminal issues

I haven't seen the issue on insiders, but I haven't seen the issue again in regular VS Code either. It's very intermittent.

Navigation Menu

Repository navigation

Terminal font rendering #320367

Description

VS Code versions tested

Environment

Steps to reproduce

Description

VS Code versions tested

Environment

Steps to reproduce

Description

VS Code versions tested

Environment

Steps to reproduce

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Terminal font rendering #320367

Description

Activity

Akshaychdev commented on Jun 8, 2026

Description

VS Code versions tested

Environment

Steps to reproduce

mindplay-dk commented on Jun 8, 2026

SharpIceX commented on Jun 8, 2026

Description

VS Code versions tested

Environment

Steps to reproduce

meganrogge commented on Jun 8, 2026

Akshaychdev commented on Jun 8, 2026

ricardo-dlc commented on Jun 8, 2026

Description

VS Code versions tested

Environment

Steps to reproduce

tomkr4l commented on Jun 9, 2026

sanjayr-12 commented on Jun 9, 2026

jruales commented on Jun 16, 2026

mindplay-dk commented on Jun 16, 2026

anthonykim1 commented on Jun 16, 2026

mindplay-dk commented on Jul 2, 2026

Metadata

Metadata

Assignees

Labels

Type

Projects

Milestone

Relationships

Development

Issue actions