New windows do not restore saved zoom

[lobre]

What Happened?

If I change Terminal zoom to 110%, that zoom is restored correctly when I fully close Terminal and open it again.

But if Terminal is already running and I open an additional Terminal window from the dock or app launcher, the new window starts at 100% instead of keeping the same zoom level.

This feels inconsistent because new tabs keep the current zoom, detached tabs also keep their zoom, and a full reopen restores the saved zoom. Only newly opened additional windows reset it.

I have seen a few other issues about the Zoom restoration on the tracker, but I don’t know how this one is relevant in regard to the previous constraints that were discussed.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Open Terminal.
2. Zoom in to 110%.
3. Confirm that new tabs keep the same zoom.
4. Leave Terminal running.
5. Open another Terminal window from the dock or app launcher.
6. Observe that the new window opens at 100%.

Expected Behavior

If Terminal is already running, opening an additional Terminal window should keep the same zoom level as the existing Terminal session, instead of resetting to the default zoom.

OS Version

8.x (Circe)

OS Architecture

amd64 (on most hardwares)

Session Type

Secure Session (Wayland, This is the default)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

Hardware Info

No response

[jeremypw]

In the first window, each tab has its own zoom level, which is restored from settings. Adding a new tab generally takes its zoom from the current tab. Zooming individual tabs does not change the zoom level of other tabs but does change the default zoom. However, the behaviour of subsequent windows in this respect has not been addressed. It may be tricky to get the zoom level of the current tab of the currently focused terminal (if it is focused) in the case where the new window is created from the dock or otherwise externally to Terminal. However, if the new window is created from within an existing Terminal window then it should be possible for it to inherit the zoom of the current tab.

[jeremypw]

The default zoom is not explicitly exposed but it corresponds to the last zoom value in any tab that was set by the user (using Ctrl-Scroll or the hot-keys). Not sure that is ideal - maybe the default zoom should be constant and exposed in the app menu?

[lobre]

I think exposing the default zoom explicitly could indeed make the behavior clearer/predictable.

One approach could be to distinguish between:

• a persistent global default zoom value exposed in the settings
• the temporary zoom level of the current tab or window

The settings could expose:

• a configurable default zoom value
• a checkbox such as "Persist zoom changes globally"

If that checkbox is enabled, manually changing the zoom level in a tab or window would automatically update the global default zoom value. As a result, every newly created tab or window, whether created from an existing terminal or from an external source such as the dock, would inherit that updated default.

If the checkbox is disabled, zoom changes would remain local to the current tab or window only, without affecting the global default. Newly created tabs or windows would still inherit the configured default zoom value.

This would support both workflows cleanly:

• users who want zoom adjustments to persist globally across all future windows and tabs
• users who want a stable baseline zoom level while still being able to temporarily adjust zoom for specific situations, such as screen sharing

What do you think?