Terminal Emulators replicate the functionality of traditional computer terminals within a GUI environment. They allow users to interact with the command line interface (CLI) of an operating system, providing a text-based interface for executing commands, running scripts, and managing files.

Best Terminal Emulators

1. Kitty
2. Ghostty
3. WezTerm
4. Alacritty

Alacritty

I am not really a power user of Alacritty, but I have heard good things about it. It has been known for its speed and simplicity, I liked it have some level of vim-like keybindings for navigation.

My Alacritty config files with Dracula theme.

Kitty

1. Install Kitty

sudo pacman -S Kitty

2. make config file

nvim ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

3. Create a symbolic link for the config file:

ln -s ~/dotfiles/kitty/kitty.conf ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

4. Create kitty config file. I used kitty config file from Fadilix.

nvim ~/.config/kitty/kitty.conf

5. I have updated my fish shell config such that my alias for ls uses exa with colors and icons. This is important to make use of hyperlinks in kitty. default ls users can use ls --hyperlink=auto.

alias ls='exa --hyperlink --icons --color=auto'

6. create a new file in ~/config/kitty/open-action.conf and add the following content

# Tail a log file (*.log) in a new OS Window and reduce its font size
protocol file
ext log
action launch --title ${FILE} --type=os-window tail -f -- ${FILE_PATH}
action change_font_size current -2

# Open any file with a fragment in vim, fragments are generated
# by the hyperlink-grep kitten and nothing else so far.
protocol file
fragment_matches [0-9]+
action launch --type=overlay --cwd=current vim +${FRAGMENT} -- ${FILE_PATH}

# Open text files without fragments in the editor
protocol file
mime text/*
action launch --type=overlay --cwd=current -- ${EDITOR} -- ${FILE_PATH}

# Open any image in the full kitty window by clicking on it
protocol file
mime image/*
action launch --type=overlay kitten icat --hold -- ${FILE_PATH}

protocol filelist
action send_text all ${FRAGMENT}

# Open directories
protocol file
mime inode/directory
action launch --type=overlay --cwd -- $FILE_PATH

these changes are based on kitty documentation :

• Scripting the mouse click
• Hyperlink Grep Kitten

7. Download themes using

kitty +kitten themes --list

8. my additional addons to kitty.conf

# Hyperlink hints
map ctrl+f kitten hints --type hyperlink

# focus_visible_window
map ctrl+; focus_visible_window