diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/app/right-sidebar/terminal/use-terminal-session.ts b/apps/desktop/src/app/right-sidebar/terminal/use-terminal-session.ts
index 64ba7c8ef..1e5d4d275 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/app/right-sidebar/terminal/use-terminal-session.ts
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/app/right-sidebar/terminal/use-terminal-session.ts
@@ -328,13 +328,19 @@ export function useTerminalSession({ cwd, onAddSelectionToChat }: UseTerminalSes
 
     const term = new Terminal({
       allowProposedApi: true,
-      allowTransparency: true,
+      // Opaque canvas = WebGL's crisp fast-path. allowTransparency instead bakes
+      // glyphs as grayscale-alpha for compositing over a see-through canvas, which
+      // reads soft on every platform; VS Code keeps it off and our surface
+      // (--ui-bg-chrome) is opaque anyway, so withSurface paints it solid.
+      allowTransparency: false,
       convertEol: true,
       cursorBlink: true,
       fontFamily: "'JetBrains Mono', 'Cascadia Code', 'SF Mono', Menlo, Consolas, monospace",
       fontSize: 11,
-      fontWeight: '500',
-      fontWeightBold: '700',
+      // VS Code's terminal renders 'normal'/'bold' (400/700); we were using Medium
+      // (500) as the base, which reads a touch heavy at this size.
+      fontWeight: 'normal',
+      fontWeightBold: 'bold',
       letterSpacing: 0,
       lineHeight: 1.12,
       // Full-screen TUIs (hermes --tui, vim) grab the mouse, so a plain drag
@@ -617,12 +623,12 @@ export function useTerminalSession({ cwd, onAddSelectionToChat }: UseTerminalSes
       startSession()
     }
 
-    // fonts.ready settles only already-requested faces; the regular (500),
+    // fonts.ready settles only already-requested faces; the regular (400),
     // bold (700) and italic aren't asked for until styled output paints (past
     // atlas init), so warm them up front — otherwise the WebGL atlas bakes a
     // fallback face and the terminal renders thin until a repaint.
     const warm = document.fonts?.load
-      ? Promise.allSettled(['500', '700', 'italic 500'].map(v => document.fonts.load(`${v} 11px 'JetBrains Mono'`)))
+      ? Promise.allSettled(['400', '700', 'italic 400'].map(v => document.fonts.load(`${v} 11px 'JetBrains Mono'`)))
       : Promise.resolve()
 
     void warm.then(mount, mount)
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/fonts/JetBrainsMono-Medium.woff2 b/apps/desktop/src/fonts/JetBrainsMono-Medium.woff2
deleted file mode 100644
index 669d04cdf..000000000
Binary files a/apps/desktop/src/fonts/JetBrainsMono-Medium.woff2 and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/apps/desktop/src/styles.css b/apps/desktop/src/styles.css
index 86b2205c6..31f7c2025 100644
--- a/apps/desktop/src/styles.css
+++ b/apps/desktop/src/styles.css
@@ -26,13 +26,6 @@
   font-display: swap;
   src: url('./fonts/JetBrainsMono-Regular.woff2') format('woff2');
 }
-@font-face {
-  font-family: 'JetBrains Mono';
-  font-style: normal;
-  font-weight: 500;
-  font-display: swap;
-  src: url('./fonts/JetBrainsMono-Medium.woff2') format('woff2');
-}
 @font-face {
   font-family: 'JetBrains Mono';
   font-style: normal;