Did you know that Windows Terminal and Visual Studio have a special default font called Cascadia Code? It just received a major update (the first one in three years after the release of version 2111.01) with several additions, such as quadrants, sextants, octants, large type pieces, additional legacy computing symbols, and Nerd Fonts support.
Quadrants, sextants, and octants are special block mosaics divided into four (quadrants), six (sextants), and eight (octants) parts. They can now be used to render graphics and color images in Windows Terminal. Overall, Cascadia Code now provides 256 octants for graphics. Here is some Octant ANSI art Microsoft provided in the announcement post:
Large Type Pieces are another addition to Cascadia Code 2111.01. These are 55 different characters for making large text in Terminal and plain-text Unicode files.
As for new "legacy computing symbols," they include eights, checkboards, digits, diagonals, and more. Here they are in their full pixelated glory:
Finally, Cascadia Code now includes two NF variants (Nerd Fonts) that include the latest Nerd Font glyphs. The latest Nerd Fonts version offers over 9,200 various icons.
You can download the latest Cascadia Code version from its GitHub repository (it will also arrive with future Windows Terminal updates). The project is open-source, and many contributed to the development of version 2111.01. Cascadia code is available in four formats: ttf variable, ttf static, otf static, and WOFF2.
To install Cascadia Code, download its ZIP from GitHub, unpack in any folder, right-click the files, and select "Install." Windows users can manage fonts on their system by heading to Settings > Personalization > Fonts. Unlike other components and apps, installing fonts on Windows 10 and 11 does not require elevated privileges.
You can find more information about Cascadia Code version 2111.01 in a blog post on the official website.