You’ve Been Reading Terminal Wrong This Whole Time: Learn How to Increase Line Spacing on Your Mac Now!

Are you tired of squinting at your Mac’s Terminal screen every time you need to read code or run commands? If so, chances are you’ve been reading Terminal wrong this whole time. The good news is that with a few simple steps, you can learn how to increase line spacing on your Mac and make your Terminal sessions much easier on the eyes. Here’s what you need to do.

Step 1: Open Terminal Preferences

The first step in increasing line spacing in Terminal is to open the Terminal Preferences window. You can do this by typing Command+, or by selecting “Preferences” from the Terminal menu in the top left corner of the screen.

Step 2: Select the “Profiles” Tab

Once you have the Terminal Preferences window open, select the “Profiles” tab. This will show you a list of your current Terminal profiles.

Step 3: Select Your Current Terminal Profile

Next, select the profile you’re currently using. You’ll know which profile is selected because it will be highlighted in blue.

Step 4: Click on the “Text” Tab

After selecting your current profile, click on the “Text” tab. This will bring up a number of text-related options for your profile.

Step 5: Adjust the “Line Spacing” Slider

To increase line spacing, simply adjust the “Line Spacing” slider to your desired value. You can drag the slider to the right to increase line spacing or to the left to decrease it. As you adjust the slider, you’ll see the changes in line spacing reflected in the preview window.

Step 6: Save Your Changes

Once you’re happy with your new line spacing settings, click the “Default” button in the lower left corner of the window to save your changes. This will apply your new line spacing to all future Terminal sessions.

With these six simple steps, you can increase line spacing and make your Terminal sessions much more comfortable to read. Whether you’re a seasoned developer or a casual user, this simple tweak can greatly improve your overall Terminal experience. Give it a try today and see the difference it can make!

If you are a Mac user whose job includes playing around with the Terminal, then you must have noticed the tiny line spacing in between the commands that make typing and reading difficult. While Apple has taken care to ensure that its Mac looks as crisp and sharp as possible, it seems the Terminal design has a bit of a flaw. So when you would type in multiple commands or get command results in multiple lines, you’d find it a bit difficult to read it due to the thin line spacing.

Well, there’s a workaround that can help you make reading Terminal results easier. You don’t need to use an app to do this, as your Mac does allow you to change the line spacing, and it isn’t as difficult as you may think. Just go through some Mac settings panels, and you will be done. Here’s how:

Changing Line Spacing in the Terminal

Click on the Launchpad icon in your dock and type “Terminal” in the search box. Click on the Terminal icon to launch the Terminal app.

Once Terminal launches, click on “Terminal” (it is next to the Apple icon) followed by “Preferences…” This is where you can change the settings for the Terminal app.

Click on the “Settings” tab. Under the “Text” sub-tab; you should see a button saying “Change…” Click on it. It will let you change the text settings for the Terminal app.

The window that opens up is what lets you change the line spacing. It also allows you to change various other things, such as the font family, typeface, font size, and a few other options. The size bar you see at the bottom is for line spacing. Just drag it to the right side, and the line spacing will increase. Dragging it to the left will decrease the line spacing. Adjust it to whatever you feel good with and then close the window.

You should be able to see the changes taking place in real time, so keep a Terminal window open and see things changing for yourself. It will help you know what size works the best for you.

Once you are done with that, you can begin typing some commands to see the changes. For example, type in “cal” and you should see a calendar in the Terminal window. Can you see it properly and think the line spacing is good? You are all set. If not, just go back to the Preferences panel and increase the line spacing until it feels good to you.

This method is fully reversible, and you can always set the line spacing to default by going to the same settings menu and changing the values.

Conclusion

Whether you have a weak eyesight or you just don’t like clogged-up text, the tip above should help you make reading and typing in Terminal a bit better and more enjoyable.

Mahesh Makvana is a freelance tech writer who’s written thousands of posts about various tech topics on various sites. He specializes in writing about Windows, Mac, iOS, and Android tech posts. He’s been into the field for last eight years and hasn’t spent a single day without tinkering around his devices.

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