The good thing is you can now add custom fonts to the Command Prompt.
Before You Get Started
One thing to note is that you can only add monospace fonts to the Command Prompt. If the font you are trying to add is not monospace, then the Command Prompt won’t recognize it and won’t show it in the list of available fonts. Also, if you don’t already have your favorite monospace fonts installed on your system, there are many web services like Google Fonts, Font Squirrel, DaFont, etc., where you can download a variety of monospace fonts. Once you have the monospace font you like, the next thing is to install it. For that, right-click on the downloaded fonts(s) and select “Install” to add the font to your system. After installing the font, you can proceed to add it to the Command Prompt.
Add Custom Fonts to Command Prompt
Command Prompt doesn’t allow you to add fonts via the user interface. You have to manually add them via the Registry Editor.
To open Windows Registry Editor, search for regedit in the Start menu and open it. Now, go to the following location:
On the right-panel you will see a list of fonts like Consolas and Lucida Console that are currently listed in the Command Prompt. Each of these strings has a unique value like “0,” “00,” etc.
To add a custom font, you have to create a new string value with a unique name. To do that, right-click on the right panel and select “New > String Value.” Name the string value as “01” and press Enter. If you already have a value with “01,” then name it something else like “02.” Just make sure that all the values have unique numbers.
Double-click on the newly created value. In the value data field enter the font name along with any capitalization and spaces in the name of the font. In my case I wanted to add the “Inconsolata” font, so I typed in “Inconsolata” in the value data field. After adding the font name, click on the “OK” button to save the changes.
To use the font, launch Command Prompt, right-click on the title bar and select “Properties.”
In the Properties window go to the “Font” tab and find your font under the Fonts section. Select the font and click on the “OK” button to apply the changes. Sometimes you need to play with different font sizes to make the font look better in Command Prompt.
If you cannot see your font in the font list, try restarting your system. If you still can’t see the font, either the font you added may not be monospace or the Command Prompt just doesn’t support it, even if it is monospace. Just to demonstrate, I’ve gone ahead and installed two more fonts, Fira Mono and Ubuntu Mono, and this is how it looks in the registry. As you can see, I’ve named the string values “02” and “03.”
Personally, I think Fira Mono looks good in the Command Prompt.
Play with different monospace fonts and see what works for you. Comment below sharing your thoughts and experiences regarding using the above method to add fonts to Command Prompt in Windows.
