How popular is cool-retro-term on GitHub?

Swordfish90/cool-retro-term has 26,478 stars and 1,031 forks on GitHub, and gained 30 stars in the last 7 days.

Swordfish90/cool-retro-termPublic

A good looking terminal emulator which mimics the old cathode display...

AI summary: A highly customizable terminal emulator that mimics the visual style of old cathode tube screens.

Star on GitHub

Stars: 26.5K; +10 today
Forks: 1K
Watchers: 327
Open issues: 522
Open PRs: 49
Contributors: ~71
Commits: 858
Branches: 25

QMLNo licenseCreated Nov 22, 2013Last push 4mo agoLatest release 2.0.0-beta2+30 stars this week+270 this month

Quick answers

What is cool-retro-term?: A highly customizable terminal emulator that mimics the visual style of old cathode tube screens.
What does cool-retro-term do?: cool-retro-term is an eye-catching terminal emulator designed to replicate the nostalgic look and feel of vintage cathode tube (CRT) monitors. It offers extensive customization options, allowing users to tweak colors, fonts, and visual effects like screen curvature and phosphor glow directly through a context menu. The application is built using the QML port of qtermwidget (Konsole) and requires Qt6 to run. Despite its heavy visual styling, it remains reasonably lightweight and functions as a fully capable command-line interface. It is packaged for easy installation across Linux and macOS systems.
Who is cool-retro-term for?: Developers, system administrators, and retro-computing enthusiasts who want a visually unique terminal experience. It appeals to users who appreciate the aesthetics of vintage hardware but require a fully functional modern emulator.
How do I get started with cool-retro-term?: https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term/releases
How popular is cool-retro-term on GitHub?: Swordfish90/cool-retro-term has 26,478 stars and 1,031 forks on GitHub, and gained 30 stars in the last 7 days.

Star history

since Aug 31, 2014

26.5K stars as of Oct 4, 2026. Before Sep 13, 2026, reconstructed from public GitHub event archives (checked against the repository's real star total); since then measured daily.

Contribution activity

commits per day, last 52 weeks

68 commits in the last yearLessMore

Signals and awards

derived from tracked data

Widely adopted
26,478 stars
Battle-tested
12 years of history
Continuous integration
Automated checks passing

What cool-retro-term does

cool-retro-term is an eye-catching terminal emulator designed to replicate the nostalgic look and feel of vintage cathode tube (CRT) monitors. It offers extensive customization options, allowing users to tweak colors, fonts, and visual effects like screen curvature and phosphor glow directly through a context menu. The application is built using the QML port of qtermwidget (Konsole) and requires Qt6 to run. Despite its heavy visual styling, it remains reasonably lightweight and functions as a fully capable command-line interface. It is packaged for easy installation across Linux and macOS systems.

Developers, system administrators, and retro-computing enthusiasts who want a visually unique terminal experience. It appeals to users who appreciate the aesthetics of vintage hardware but require a fully functional modern emulator.

CRT emulation: Replicates the visual artifacts and phosphor glow of vintage cathode tube displays accurately.
Customizable aesthetics: Allows extensive configuration of colors, fonts, and screen effects via a context menu.
Cross-platform support: Runs seamlessly on both Linux and macOS operating systems.
Qt6 architecture: Built using modern Qt6 and the QML port of qtermwidget for reliable terminal performance.
Pre-packaged binaries: Offers AppImage for Linux and dmg files for macOS for immediate installation.
Nostalgic profiles: Includes default color profiles like amber and green IBM DOS themes out of the box.

Where teams use it

Nostalgic computing

Experience the aesthetic of early computing while performing modern command-line tasks.

Thematic development

Create a focused, distraction-free coding environment styled after vintage hardware.

Visual presentations

Use visually striking terminal sessions during live demos or video recordings.

Custom terminal design

Configure highly specific text rendering effects to match personal aesthetic preferences.

Getting started: https://github.com/Swordfish90/cool-retro-term/releases

README

master branch

cool-retro-term

> Default Amber	C:\ IBM DOS	$ Default Green

Description

cool-retro-term is a terminal emulator which mimics the look and feel of the old cathode tube screens. It has been designed to be eye-candy, customizable, and reasonably lightweight.

It uses the QML port of qtermwidget (Konsole): https://github.com/Swordfish90/qmltermwidget.

This terminal emulator works under Linux and macOS and requires Qt6.

Settings such as colors, fonts, and effects can be accessed via context menu.

Screenshots

Install

If you want to get a hold of the latest version, just go to the Releases page and grab the latest AppImage (Linux) or dmg (macOS).

Alternatively, most distributions such as Ubuntu, Fedora or Arch already package cool-retro-term in their official repositories.

Building

Check out the wiki and follow the instructions on how to build it on Linux and macOS.

View on GitHub

Recent activity

commits and pull requests

fixing main problems of nostalgic terminalOpen
#980 by imasoomigit · updated 10d ago
Accept Finder file drops on visible terminal (fixes #803)Draft
#979 by Jaxsbr · updated 16d ago
feat: export composited CRT frame as PNGOpen
#977 by mvanhorn · updated 20d ago
feat: comfort effects mode for photosensitive / long sessionsOpen
#978 by mvanhorn · updated 20d ago
Validate named argument valuesOpen
#975 by dajiaohuang · updated 21d ago
Add CJK fallback fonts and 1.x classic profilesOpen
#974 by aouyitanaka · updated 24d ago
Add checkbox to settings for terminal size overlayOpen
#882 by reentim · updated 1mo ago
Update qmltermwidget keyboard variants fixOpen
#972 by ungatonipon · updated 1mo ago
Update qmltermwidget submodule.
Swordfish90 committed 1394ce8 · 4mo ago
Add missing lineSpacing setting to composeProfileObject() (#947)
DavDood committed 4b7c120 · 4mo ago
Load fontName after fontSource in loadProfileString() (#948)
DavDood committed 713ace0 · 4mo ago
Tentative fix for resize crash. (#937)
Swordfish90 committed 86ee7da · 6mo ago

Recent open issues

view all

THIS IS AMAZING!!!
#982 · 7d ago · by xQuandaleDinglex
the instructions for building the beta are stale
#981 · 7d ago · by dualboot91
Support to windows?
#976 · 20d ago · by wisamidris77 · 1 comments
No x86_64 support for macOS?
#973 · 27d ago · by armdn

Releases and announcements

11 total

2.0.0-beta22.0.0-beta2May 31, 20266.5K downloads
* Fix some crashes on resize on Linux * Add tab management shortcuts * Some smaller fixes
Rolling ReleaserollingJan 22, 2026pre-release2.3K downloads
2.0.0-beta12.0.0-beta1Jan 22, 20266K downloads
* Migrate to Qt6 * Add support for multiple tabs and windows * New frame with customizable size, color and shininess * New and updated fonts and profiles * Plenty of small fixes and improvements
Cool-Retro-Term 1.2.01.2.0Jan 29, 202260.1K downloads
* Migrated QtQuickControls from 1.x to 2.x * Fixed a lot of issues with MacOS build * Added support for blinking cursor * Added sub-pixel rasteration * Updated qtermwidget engine * Updated many fonts to the latest version
Cool-Retro-Term 1.2.0-beta11.2.0-beta1Jan 9, 2022pre-release363 downloads
* Migrated QtQuickControls from 1.x to 2.x * Fixed a lot of issues with MacOS build * Added support for blinking cursor * Updated qtermwidget engine * Updated many fonts to the latest version

Code frequency

additions and deletions

+6.8K lines added, -5.2K removed over the last year.

Commits per week

last 52 weeks

68 commits in the last 52 weeks.

When work happens

weekday and hour

Commit volume by weekday and hour (UTC). Larger dots mean more commits.

Who is committing

last 52 weeks

Maintainer commits67 (94%)

Community commits4 (6%)

71 commits in total over the last year.

Date	List	Rank	Stars gained
Sep 14, 2026	daily	#14	+98
Sep 13, 2026	daily	#14	+98

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