Why Kitty is My Favorite Terminal Emulator and How I Customize It
For no particular reason, Kitty has become my go-to terminal emulator. It’s the level of customization that has me hooked. This post will serve as my personal guide, making it easier for me to revisit and replicate my preferred setup the next time I install Kitty.
I’m not the type of person who spends hours fine-tuning every detail of my terminal’s appearance—”ricing” isn’t really my thing. Instead, I like things simple yet tailored to my preferences. A partially transparent background, a two-tone color scheme, and the Ubuntu font are all I need to feel at home. Nothing extravagant, just functional and comfortable. However, remembering the exact steps to recreate this setup has been a challenge for me in the past. That’s why I’m documenting the process here, so I don’t have to stumble through it again.
Getting Started with Kitty
Once you’ve installed Kitty, simply launch it by typing kitty in your default terminal. From there, I pin it to my taskbar—always in the first position, so I can open it quickly with a consistent shortcut across all my devices. I like to keep things streamlined: Super+1 will always open a terminal window for me, regardless of the machine I’m using. Consistency is key for building muscle memory.
Installing FZF
Next, I install fzf, a fuzzy finder that I swear by for navigating files quickly. It’s a game-changer. Once installed, type fzf to find the file path of your kitty.conf file. While many guides point to the path being .config/kitty, that hasn’t been my experience. I’ve found it in different locations depending on the distro, which was a source of frustration for me (and the reason I’m writing this post).
Locating and Editing kitty.conf
On my system, the config file is in /usr/share/doc/examples/kitty.conf. This is not the file that you can edit, this is, as the file says an example. You don’t need to worry too much about the exact location—once you find the file, simply copy it to the .config/kitty directory by typing:cp /usr/share/doc/examples/kitty.conf ~/.config/kitty
Now that the config file is in place, I open it using nano (because Vim motions are cool but —I’m in networking, not coding). The first thing I change is the font to Ubuntu Sans Mono, which I find clean and easy to read. Then, I search for the background opacity setting and adjust it to 0.75 to give it a nice level of transparency. Next, I disable the audio bell by setting enable_audio_bell to no. After saving and exiting with Ctrl + X, Y, and Enter, I’m nearly done with the basic setup.
Choosing a Theme
To add a little color, I use Kitty’s built-in theme manager. Type kitten themes in the terminal, and you’ll be able to select from a variety of pre-designed themes. After you choose one, the system creates a new file called current-theme.conf and automatically updates your kitty.conf file to use it. It’s a quick and easy way to apply a fresh look without needing to dive into the details of theme design.
Wrapping Up
Hopefully, this guide will serve as a useful reference for future me—or anyone else looking to get a terminal setup that’s simple yet satisfying. By taking these steps, I can quickly set up my terminal the way I like it whenever I switch distros or set up a new machine. It’s a few small tweak, but it’s these little customizations that make a big difference in creating a space where I can be more productive and comfortable.