codex - 💡(How to fix) Fix Codex Desktop terminal view renders with excessive character spacing and sparse layout

Summary

The terminal view in Codex Desktop appears to render text with excessive horizontal character spacing and oversized whitespace compared with standard terminal views in VS Code, Trae, and other editors.

In the observed screenshot, the shell prompt text is spread out almost letter-by-letter, e.g. the username/path appears visually spaced as individual characters rather than a normal compact terminal prompt. This makes the terminal harder to read and reduces usable terminal density.

Environment

• App: Codex Desktop
• Platform: macOS / MacBook Air, based on visible prompt text
• Shell: zsh, based on visible % prompt
• Codex version: not captured

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Codex Desktop.
2. Open a terminal view/session.
3. Observe the shell prompt and terminal text rendering.

Expected Behavior

The terminal should render with a standard terminal typography treatment, similar to common editor terminals such as VS Code or Trae:

• Normal monospace letter spacing
• Compact/readable line height
• Reasonable terminal padding
• A reliable terminal font stack such as SF Mono, Menlo, Monaco, JetBrains Mono, or equivalent

Actual Behavior

The terminal text appears overly spaced out horizontally, with a sparse layout and excessive whitespace. The prompt becomes harder to scan, and the terminal feels less dense than comparable editor terminal views.

Suggested Improvement

Please consider adjusting the terminal typography and spacing defaults:

• Set terminal letter-spacing to 0 or very close to 0
• Ensure the view uses a proper monospace terminal font stack
• Reduce vertical padding and/or line height if currently oversized
• Match the density closer to standard terminal views in VS Code, Trae, iTerm, etc.

Additional Context

This appears more like a rendering/style issue than an intentional terminal design choice. It may be related to the desktop app terminal font stack or CSS tracking/letter-spacing.