macOS: Cmd + Shift + Plus should increase font size too

[mitchellh]

Discussed in #3888

^{Originally posted by thiagowfx December 29, 2024}
Out-of-the-box, the shortcut to increase/decrease font sizes in Ghostty on macOS is Cmd + + and Cmd + -, respectively (no Shift).

With Shift:

Observed: Cmd + Shift + + inserts a literal '+', and Cmd + Shift + - decreases the font size.

Expected: Cmd + Shift + + should increase the font size as well, consistently.

Why is the behavior for Cmd + Shift + + different? This seems unintentional.

Note that this is the out-of-the-box behavior in both Terminal.app and iTerm2.

[mitchellh]

Note: the solution here doesn't appear on the surface to be a missing binding (but may be). Some research is required why cmd+shift+- works but not plus on macOS currently.

[alexhollinghead]

I'm not able to reproduce this on 15.1 Sequoia; both CMD + Shift + + and CMD + Shift + - adjust the font size for me. I do already have font size manually configured in my config file. Could this account for your issue?

[curtbushko]

I can reproduce this on Sequoia 15.2.

Cmd + Shift + + gives me = in my shell.
Cmd + Shift + - reduces the font size.

From: Mac keyboard shortcuts

Shift–Command–Minus sign (-): Decrease the size of the selected item.

Shift–Command–Plus sign (+): Increase the size of the selected item. Command–Equal sign (=) performs the same function.```

Also, the Cmd + Shift shortcuts are not listed in the Apple Terminal guide

[mdznr]

You should be able to just set ⌘+ as the menu item’s key equivalent and AppKit will do the keyboard localization for you for this well-known key equivalent. This is inspectable in other apps that have similar menu items (Safari, TextEdit, Preview, Terminal, and others).

I verified locally that removing:

    try result.keybind.set.put(
        alloc,
        .{ .key = .{ .translated = .equal }, .mods = inputpkg.ctrlOrSuper(.{}) },
        .{ .increase_font_size = 1 },
    );

from src/config/Config.zig:2052 and adding:

        GHOSTTY_KEY_PLUS: "+",

to macos/Sources/Ghostty/Ghostty.Input.swift:150 resolves the issue on macOS.
I have not inspected/tested the impact of this on other platforms, though.

[curtbushko]

@mdznr I tried that out and it didn't work for me. Command + Shift + plus just gives me + in the terminal.

Here is my diff:

[curtbushko]

Give this a try and see if it works for you.

[mateossh]

@curtbushko your change fixes issue with shortcut, but there's still something wrong. While testing I noticed that shortcut isn't associated with "increasing font" action in menu bar.

[curtbushko]

@mateossh Interesting. I have Increase Font Size Command =. Even using the default ghostty config I get this. I am using a M1 laptop and I wonder if it is different because of the built in keyboard.

What version of Mac are you on?
Does your regular/downloaded copy of ghostty have the same problem?

[mateossh]

I ran ghostty +show-config --default --docs > ~/.config/ghostty/config when started using Ghostty, but didn't change any keybind.

Without config file I have the same behavior as you but with default config applied I don't have shortcut.

Ghostty 2f6860fb on M3 MacBook Pro with ANSI keyboard, Mac OS Sequoia 15.2.

[curtbushko]

Awesome. Thank you. We must have 2 semi-related bugs here.

[jcollie]

I ran ghostty +show-config --default --docs > ~/.config/ghostty/config when started using Ghostty, but didn't change any keybind.

This is not how we recommend configuring Ghostty as there are a number of ways that this can mess up. Try removing everything except the configuration entries that you changed and try again.

[maranix]

Same for meCmd + Shift + Plus doesn't work on Sequoia 15.2 but Cmd + Shift + Minus works.

However, Cmd + = and Cmd + - does increase and decrease the font sizes.

[peterjc]

You probably don't need any more confirmation, but me too on macOS Sequoia 15.2 with a non-US layout.

Specifically with a Japanese MacBook Air and the builtin keyboard. Note here plus is shift+semi-colon, the key right of letter l, and unlike the US or UK layout, minus and equals are the same key, minus+shift gives equals):

Ghosty v1.0.1 with Apple Japanese keyboard:

• command+minus works to shrink the font size
• command+zero works to reset the font size
• command+shift+semi-colon (i.e. command+plus) types a plus sign.
• command+shift+minus (i.e. command+equals) enlarges the font

i.e. This works as per the built-in menu shortcut labels, but is missing the command+plus behaviour which the Apple Terminal has:

Apple Terminal with Apple Japanese keyboard:

• command+minus works to shrink the font size
• command+zero works to reset the font size
• command+shift+semi-colon (i.e. command+plus) enlarges the font
• command+semi-colon also enlarges the font
• command+shift+minus (i.e. command+equals) just beeps

Also, I thought it worth mentioning the plus/minus keys on the number-pad ought to work too - with an external Windows style USB keyboard and Ghosty v1.0.1, I can use Windows+num-pad-minus to shrink the text, and Windows+num-pad-zero to reset the size, but not the Windows+num-pad-plus to increase the text (which works in Apple Terminal).

[bennettp123]

FWIW, this works as expected for me on macOS 15.2 with Ghostty v1.0.1:

keybind = super+shift+plus=increase_font_size:1

With this enabled, cmd+shift+plus increases font size, otherwise it just prints a + character. I haven't disabled or replaced any other keybinds.

Not sure why this works when the defaults don't—+ is produced by shift+=, so super+plus should be the same as super+shift+plus (the extra shift is redundant).

But I'm happy to use this keybind as a workaround. 👍🏻

[peterjc]

Good news, this works with the main keyboard's plus key:

keybind=super+shift+plus=increase_font_size:1

Bad news, it does not work with the numpad's plus on my external keyboard. So only a partial workaround for me.

[mitchellh]

Bad news, it does not work with the numpad's plus on my external keyboard. So only a partial workaround for me.

That's a separate key: kp_add

[peterjc]

Thanks! Add rather than plus, that's why I couldn't find it in https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/blob/v1.0.1/src/input/key.zig (I did find a couple of typos - PR submitted) - this works for me:

keybind=super+kp_add=increase_font_size:1

[CanRau]

No idea why I've got it mapped to cmd+= I'm on Sequoia 15.2 & ghostty 1.0.1

[peterjc]

@CanRau on many layouts "+" is shift+"=" (they are the same key on the UK layout for example), so the shortcut is in fact command+"=" and typically command+shift+"=" works too.