Layman Linux

The linux terminal can get boring at times owing to lack of colors & a rigid black background. Hardcore Linux enthusiasts won’t think about the appearance of the terminal but normal users will surely get bored of the monochrome terminal sooner or later. Surprisingly beautifying the terminal is pretty simple & if you are tired of the same old black terminal then you should read ahead. Before proceeding, let me tell you that this guide is not for beautifying the terminal found on server machines (Runlevel 3) or those virtual terminals. This guide is intended to beautify the GNOME Terminal found under the GNOME desktop.

The first step is to launch the terminal offcourse which can be found under Applications>System Tools>Terminal under a GNOME desktop. Once the terminal opens up, head over to Edit>Profile Preferences. A new window should pop-up.

In the General Tab you will find options relating to font, font size, cursor shape etc. Most of these options are self-explanatory & require no explanation. To change the font, you will first need to uncheck “Use the system fixed width font” after which the font field should become active. Set as per your preferences & proceed to the next tab in the profile preferences window.

General Tab

The second tab i.e. Title & Command tab lets you change the title of the terminal to be displayed. Then you have option as to what should be done when terminal commands set their own titles. This again can be set as per your choice. The other options in this tab are not applicable in beautifying the terminal so I won’t be discussing them here. Now skip the Colors tab & jump over directly to Background tab.

Title & Command Tab

The Background tab controls the background image displayed in the terminal. You can browse & select image of your choice to be as a background for the terminal. This is what you will be seeing most of the times when you work over, so make it simple yet elegant so that it doesn’t distract. You can even further set the transparency of the image so that it doesn’t make the terminal text difficult to read & enter. Now step back & open the Color tab.

Background Tab

The third tab i.e. Colors tab an indispensable one for our beautifying guide. As per its name, this is where you can change the background color & even the text color. Again the color fields should be active only when you uncheck “Use colors from the system theme”. The reason why I told you to skip this tab before was that once you select a background image for the terminal it’s easier to set a color for it than doing it the other way round. Once you’re done head over to the Scrolling tab which is our final destination in this guide.

Colors Tab

The Scrolling tab gives you the option to reposition the scroll bar & other miscellaneous scrolling options. Again they are self explanatory & you can figure them out on yourself.

Scrolling Tab

Close the preference window & a wonderful terminal awaits you. Now that you have a beautiful terminal, go ahead show it off to your Linux friends.

Related posts:

1. Make Nautilus open Sub-Folders in current Window Fedora & Redhat Users are familiar with Nautilus behaviour of...

Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.