Powershell: Powershell doesn't list all installed monospace fonts

[JoeUX]

Powershell 7.0.0 and 7.0.1 don't list all installed monospace fonts. In particular, they don't list Roboto Mono, my preferred font. Screenshot and system details below.

The Powershell font settings are in the Defaults and Properties menus. Same issue in both.

The installed Roboto Mono font file is a .ttf, and it's version 2.002 of that font (the latest).

Name Value
---- -----
PSVersion 7.0.1
PSEdition Core
GitCommitId 7.0.1
OS Microsoft Windows 10.0.18363
Platform Win32NT
PSCompatibleVersions {1.0, 2.0, 3.0, 4.0…}
PSRemotingProtocolVersion 2.3
SerializationVersion 1.1.0.1
WSManStackVersion 3.0

[iSazonov]

Do you see the same for Windows PowerShell window? For cmd.exe?

[JoeUX]

Yes, I see the same problem in Windows Powershell and cmd.exe.

[iSazonov]

The problem is not in the applications.

Perhaps @DHowett could add more info.

[vexx32]

If anything this would be an OS issue rather than a PowerShell issue. PowerShell has zero control over what the OS chooses to show in that menu. From what I recall, fonts shown in that menu may require some changes to the registry if you want to add more than what is shown by default.

There's a good walkthrough of how to go about that here: https://www.maketecheasier.com/add-custom-fonts-command-prompt-windows10/

Make Tech Easier

How to Add Custom Fonts to Command Prompt in Windows 10 - Make Tech Easier

The Command Prompt in Windows comes with only a limited selection of fonts. This shows how you can add your favorite custom fonts to the Command Prompt.

[JoeUX]

@vexx32 FYI, there are at least three applications that correctly show all the monospaced fonts, including Roboto Mono:

1. Windows Terminal (from Microsoft)
2. Sublime Text
3. UltraEdit

So applications seem to have some control over it, though I'm not sure how they interface with the relevant APIs.

With Windows Terminal, I just edited the settings.json file to specify Roboto Mono. For the two editors, Roboto Mono shows up in their font selector UI.

[vexx32]

Yep. Applications not using Windows' own conhost can handle fonts however they like... but as far as I'm aware, using conhost means you essentially have to take what you're given when it comes to fonts. Windows Terminal uses conpty (a newer implementation that IIRC is also developed by the Windows Terminal team) rather than the older conhost.

PowerShell operates _within_ a terminal rather than being a terminal in and of itself... so it's beholden to whatever rules the terminal itself sets in terms of fonts etc.

[DHowett]

[DHowett]

Conhost has very specific rules for what fonts it presents, and we are not likely to change those rules. Sorry!

[SeeminglyScience]

Note that some of the fonts that don't show up can still be used if manually set. I use this in my profile to set the font to FuraCode NF from nerd fonts:

https://github.com/SeeminglyScience/dotfiles/blob/c4fa75ceddbdb5d9b6d16b90428969cc1c37fbe7/PowerShell/SetConsoleFont.ps1

GitHub

SeeminglyScience/dotfiles

Contribute to SeeminglyScience/dotfiles development by creating an account on GitHub.

[JoeUX]

@SeeminglyScience Thanks, how do I run that? Do I just invoke that .ps1 file on the command line?

[SeeminglyScience]

Yeah, here's where I call it in my profile.ps1

https://github.com/SeeminglyScience/dotfiles/blob/c4fa75ceddbdb5d9b6d16b90428969cc1c37fbe7/PowerShell/profile.ps1#L84

GitHub

SeeminglyScience/dotfiles

Contribute to SeeminglyScience/dotfiles development by creating an account on GitHub.

[JoeUX]

@SeeminglyScience Oh, okay, I'm not familiar with profile.ps1 files. Are they comprehensive settings for Powershell? I'm glad there's a way to set up any font.

[vexx32]

It's essentially just a script that gets run whenever you start PowerShell.

You can call $profile in your PowerShell console to see the path it'll be looking for, and create or edit the file at that location to add anything you need available in your typical powershell sessions 🙂

[msftbot[bot]]

This issue has been marked as external and has not had any activity for 1 day. It has been be closed for housekeeping purposes.