# Preferences

## Text

### Font

Allows you to specify the font, size, and face for all terminal windows. Click the “Change…” button to display a font panel.

Fonts that are not fixed-width are not supported and may not appear correctly.

In addition to the font you may fine-tune the character and line spacing using the sliders available in the font panel.

- Antialias Text: Enables or disables anti-aliasing. Some fonts may appear clearer on low-resolution screens with this turned off.
- Display ANSI Colors: ANSI color commands will be ignored when this is turned off.

### Colors

- Automatic: Keep Serial in sync with the current system appearance setting on Macs that support Dark Mode (running macOS 10.14 or later). This option is not available on Macs running older versions of macOS.

- Light: Use the “Light” appearance. The appearance will not change if the system appearance changes.

- Dark: Use the “Dark” appearance. The appearance will not change if the system appearance changes.

- Custom: This option allows you to fully customize the appearance of Serial using the adjacent color controls. The appearance will not change if the system appearance changes.

### Cursor

- Block: Use a rectangle to show the current cursor position.

- Underline: Use a horizontal bar to show the current cursor position.

- Vertical Bar: Use a vertical bar to show the current cursor position.

- Blink Cursor: Uncheck this box to stop the cursor from blinking.

## Terminal

### Scrollback

Determines the maximum number of lines to save in the scrollback buffer. If “None” is selected no lines that scroll off the top of the screen will be retained.

Larger values can impact performance by using more memory and requiring more time to re-wrap as a result of changes to the window size.

### Copy & Paste

If “Paste on Right-Click” is selected, a right-click will paste the current clipboard contents into the terminal.

If “Copy Selection to Clipboard” is selected, any text selected within a terminal window will automatically be copied to the clipboard.

Use caution when enabling the above options.

### Clear All

If “Preserve Prompt” is checked the currently active line will be preserved. This is useful when working with an interactive device that presents a shell prompt.

### Default Bel Sound

Choose the sound that will be played when a BEL character is received. Individual sessions can be configured to use a different BEL sound if desired. Choose “Off” to disable the BEL sound.

### Visual Bel

If this is enabled the terminal window will flash briefly in addition to any sound that may be played.

## General

### Sleep

Allows you to prevent the machine from sleeping while a device is attached. If “Except while on battery power” is checked the machine will be allowed to sleep if it’s not plugged in to AC power.

### Launch

Controls whether the “Open Port” window is always shown at launch.

## Logging

### Automatically Log All Sessions

Check this box to log every new session automatically.

### File Name

Specify the file name. The default value is:

    &y-&m-&d &H-&M-&S &N.log

### Output Format

- Printable Text: Log text as it appears on screen.
- Raw Bytes: Log all data exactly as received from the device.