Xfce Terminal is a popular terminal emulator that was developed specifically for the Xfce desktop environment. Designed to be fast and lightweight, it can run without using many computing resources. This is why many people still love using this terminal.
Not only that, Xfce Terminal also offers the flexibility of customization, allowing you to have many custom settings.
In this article, you will learn how to customize Xfce Terminal, from the basic steps, such as changing the font, to more advanced customization options to make it look beautiful.
I will guide you step by step, so by the end of this article, you should be able to make your Xfce Terminal look better.
Xfce Terminal Features
As the default terminal for the Xfce desktop environment, Xfce Terminal offers a range of impressive features. Some of its main features include:
- Fast and Lightweight. No more clunky and slow terminal interface, because the Xfce terminal is a very lightweight terminal that uses fewer resources of your computer.
- Customizable. Easy to customize out of the box because the customization is already provided by default in the Preferences menu.
- Easy to use interface. Thanks to its simple and clean interface, Xfce Terminal is incredibly user-friendly. It’s straightforward and intuitive to use, even for beginners.
- tabbed window. Xfce Terminal supports tabbed windows, allowing you to manage multiple terminal sessions within the same window efficiently.
These are some of the main features that make the Xfce terminal a great choice for you to use as a daily driver of terminal needs.
Install Xfce Terminal
Before proceeding to the customization section, ensure that you have Xfce Terminal installed on your Linux system. If you are already using the Xfce desktop environment, the Xfce Terminal should be pre-installed.
However, if you are using a different desktop environment or window manager, you will need to install the Xfce Terminal package through your respective Linux distribution’s package manager.
Ubuntu or Debian Based Distributions
For Ubuntu or Debian based distributions, you can easily install the Xfce terminal by using the apt package manager:
sudo apt install xfce4-terminal
Manjaro or Arch based Distributions
On Manjaro or Arch Linux, you will need to use the pacman package manager instead:
sudo pacman -S xfce4-terminal
Fedora
To install Xfce Terminal on Fedora, you can use the dnf package manager. Open a terminal and execute the following command:
sudo dnf install xfce4-terminal
Customize Xfce Terminal
Now, the fun part begins as we dive into customizing the Xfce Terminal to give it a beautiful appearance that will make your work more enjoyable.
As I mentioned earlier, many customization features are conveniently built into the Xfce Terminal and can be accessed directly from the Preferences menu. However, some advanced customization options may require editing configuration files.
Don’t worry, we will learn them all in the next sections, so be sure to follow along closely.
Change the Font and Font Size
Let’s begin by customizing the font in Xfce Terminal. The choice of font plays a significant role in the terminal’s appearance, and I recommend installing Nerd Fonts which is designed for terminal and text editors.
To change the font in Xfce Terminal, follow these steps:
- From the menu bar, click on Edit, then select Preferences, and finally choose Appearance.
- In the Preferences window, you’ll find a range of options to customize. Focus on the Font section, where you can change the terminal’s font.
- Click on the Select button next to the Font option, and a font selection window will appear. You’ll find a variety of fonts to choose from. I recommend using a Nerd Font, which is specifically designed for terminal use. In this example, I’m using “Iosevka Nerd Font Mono”.
- Once you’ve found the right font, you can also adjust the font size. The default font size is 12, but you’re free to set it to any size that suits your preferences.
- After selecting the font and adjusting the font size to your liking, click the Select button. The changes will be applied to your Xfce Terminal immediately.
Change the Background
By default, the background of the Xfce terminal is is transparent background with slightly darker opacity. This means you can see through the desktop wallpaper behind the terminal.
However, you have the flexibility to change the background to solid colors or even set an image as the terminal’s background. It’s pretty great, isn’t it?
To change the background in the Xfce terminal simply go to the Appearance menu from Edit > Preferences > Appearance.
Look for the Background section, there you should see a dropdown for selecting the background type you can use.
Click on the dropdown to see the available options.
There are 3 options available:
- None(use solid color)
- Background image
- Transparent background(default)
if you prefer to choose None(use solid color) or Transparent background, you can change the color for the background by navigating to the Colors menu and changing the background color option.
On the other hand, if you prefer to choose the Background image option, you can directly select the image file and set the style as Filled.
Change the Default Window Size
The window size in a terminal emulator is usually determined by characters wide. This also applies to the Xfce terminal. By default, the size of the Xfce terminal window is 80 x 24. This means it can have up to 80 columns of characters and 24 rows of characters.
But sometimes, you want to set the default window size to be bigger or smaller depending on your preference. You can easily modify the default window size of the Xterm terminal by changing it in the preferences menu.
First, go to the appearance menu by going from Edit > Preferences > Appearance.
Then look for the option called Default geometry. There should be two fields available, the columns field and the rows field.
- The columns field is for setting the horizontal width of the terminal.
- The rows field is for setting the vertical height of the terminal.
Set the values in these fields to your desired window size. For example, you can set it to 75 columns wide and 20 rows high by entering 75 in the columns field and 20 in the rows field.
Now, when you reopen the Xfce Terminal, it should launch with the new default window size that you have just configured.
Disable the Title Bar
The title bar is a part of the terminal window that displays the window’s title. However, if you prefer a cleaner and more minimalist look for your Xfce Terminal, you can choose to remove the title bar.
To do so you can go to the Appearance menu from Edit > Preferences > Appearance.
Then under the Opening New Windows option, look for the Display borders around new windows. By default, it was enabled.
To disable the title bar, simply uncheck or disable this option.
Now when you reopen the Xfce terminal, the terminal will be launched without a title bar, which makes it look cleaner.
Disable the Scrollbar
While a scrollbar can be useful for navigating long outputs, you may find that for your day-to-day terminal use, it’s unnecessary and prefer a cleaner look for your Xfce Terminal.
To disable the scrollbar, first, you need to navigate to the Preferences menu by clicking on Edit and selecting Preferences.
Then in the General menu, find the section called Scrolling.
Under that section you should see the Scrollbar is option. Change the value to Disabled
.
Now close the Preferences menu, and go back to the terminal. You will notice that the scrollbar is already gone.
Customize the Color Scheme
Color scheme plays an important role when customizing the Xfce terminal. It can make your terminal look beautiful or ugly depending on the color scheme you use.
In the Xfce terminal, you are free to modify the 16 colors that can be accessed from Edit > Preferences > Colors.
However, instead of editing the colors one by one, I recommend you simply use the color schemes that are already provided by the Xfce terminal.
These color schemes are available under the Presets section, which has some presets you can choose such as Black on White, Dark Pastels, Green on Black, Solarized, and a few others.
From the available presets, the solarized(dark) is the best one in terms of look and feel. But you are free to choose the one that you like.
Import Custom Color Scheme
Rather than relying solely on built-in color schemes, you can import custom color schemes to personalize your Xfce Terminal.
Start by creating a folder named colorschemes
to store your custom color schemes. You can do this by running the following command:
mkdir -p ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/colorschemes
Then, navigate to the newly created colorschemes
directory:
cd ~/.config/xfce4/terminal/colorschemes
Now, use the nano text editor to create a new file for your custom color scheme. For example:
nano customcolor1.theme
Inside the file, copy and paste the color scheme configuration:
[Scheme]
Name=customcolor1
ColorCursor=#dfdfc9c9d2d2
ColorForeground=#dfdfc9c9d2d2
ColorBackground=#151509090f0f
ColorPalette=#212111111818;#2c2c18182121;#434327273434;#62623c3c4d4d;#898956566d6d;#b7b776769393;#cecea9a9b8b8;#ececdfdfe4e4;#f4f4acac6d6d;#c2c29999f4f4;#dbdbcacaf4f4;#e8e89a9a4a4a;#d7d791914c4c;#aaaac2c27272;#3f3fb6b69696;#e6e6a7a7c2c2
After pasting the configuration, save the file by pressing CTRL + O
, then press Enter
. To exit the nano text editor, press CTRL + X
.
Now in the Xfce terminal, navigate to Edit > Preferences > Colors.
Under the Presets section, click the dropdown menu to view the available color schemes. You should see customcolor1
among the options.
You can import more custom color schemes if you want. Here I provide more custom color schemes below if you want to use them.
[Scheme]
Name=customcolor2
ColorCursor=#cacadadadddd
ColorForeground=#cacadadadddd
ColorBackground=#060608080808
ColorPalette=#0c0c0f0f0f0f;#161619191a1a;#27272b2b2c2c;#3d3d44444545;#5a5a63636464;#7d7d88888a8a;#a5a5b4b4b7b7;#dadae4e4e7e7;#a5a5a3a3d8d8;#7474bfbfcbcb;#6a6aaeae8b8b;#ababadad6262;#9191c1c1c9c9;#6f6fa0a08686;#b3b3b4b48282;#6565acac8787
[Scheme]
Name=customcolor3
ColorCursor=#cdcdc2c2dada
ColorForeground=#cdcdc2c2dada
ColorBackground=#15150e0e1c1c
ColorPalette=#212117172b2b;#2b2b1f1f3737;#3e3e2f2f4e4e;#585844446d6d;#79795e5e9595;#9a9a8383b3b3;#bdbdafafcece;#e6e6e0e0ecec;#f6f6a5a54444;#bfbf9d9de3e3;#efefa3a34e4e;#e1e1d5d5f0f0;#a2a2bdbd6d6d;#f1f1cacaadad;#c0c0e4e47474;#d5d5c1c1eeee
[Scheme]
Name=customcolor4
ColorCursor=#babaeaead3d3
ColorForeground=#babaeaead3d3
ColorBackground=#010102020202
ColorPalette=#030304040303;#0e0e14141111;#1d1d27272222;#323241413939;#4c4c62625757;#6c6c89897b7b;#9292b8b8a5a5;#c0c0ececd7d7;#4545adad8484;#f2f294945e5e;#5e5e91919c9c;#5858a4a48484;#9e9e9393d0d0;#eaea8989c4c4;#5a5a9d9dacac;#6565a5a58989
Feel free to import any color schemes you like.
All the Recommended Customizations
Now that we’ve explored all the available customization options, let’s combine them to transform the Xfce terminal into a stunning and visually appealing workspace.
This is how my Xfce terminal looks with proper configuration, proper font, and proper color scheme. It’s simple, clean and beautiful.
In the image above, I use the Solarized(dark) color scheme, which is already built in from the Xfce terminal. I also remove all the scroll bar, title bar, and menu bar. For the shell, I’m using Zsh shell with the powerlevel10k plugin.
Use the Right Font
The choice of font is crucial when customizing your terminal because most of what you see in the terminal is text-based. Here are some fonts that I recommend:
- FantasqueSansMono Nerd Font Mono
- Iosevka Nerd Font Mono
- Ubuntu Nerd Font
Why Nerd Fonts? These fonts are specifically designed for terminal and text editor use. Additionally, they come pre-packaged with the necessary glyphs and icons, making them easier to use for customization.
I have already made a guide on how to install nerd fonts.
Opt for a Solid Background Color
With solid background color, the foreground will be more contrast and of course, the overall color will be more visible.
In order to change the background, please refer to the previous section about Changing the background.
Use the Right Color Scheme
If you prefer the built-in color scheme, I recommend you to use the Solarized(dark) color scheme, because the color combinations already match very well.
Or if you prefer the custom scheme, you can use the one that is already provided in the How to import custom color scheme section.
Disable the Title Bar, Scrollbar, and Menubar Altogether
Indeed they are useful in the first place, but removing them is going to make your terminal look clearer. So I believe it’s better to disable them and opt for a cleaner terminal space.
Conclusion
That concludes my comprehensive guide on customizing the Xfce Terminal. It may have been a lengthy journey, but I hope you enjoyed following along.
Should you encounter any difficulties while implementing these customizations, please don’t hesitate to ask questions or seek assistance in the comments section below. Your feedback and inquiries are always welcome.