diff --git a/shaders/cell.f.glsl b/shaders/cell.f.glsl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..9541056f6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shaders/cell.f.glsl
@@ -0,0 +1,8 @@
+#version 330 core
+
+/// The background color for this cell.
+flat in vec4 bg_color;
+
+void main() {
+    gl_FragColor = bg_color;
+}
diff --git a/shaders/cell.v.glsl b/shaders/cell.v.glsl
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..5cc0c4c01
--- /dev/null
+++ b/shaders/cell.v.glsl
@@ -0,0 +1,31 @@
+#version 330 core
+
+// The grid coordinates (x, y) where x < columns and y < rows
+layout (location = 0) in vec2 grid_coord;
+
+// The background color for this cell in RGBA (0 to 1.0)
+layout (location = 1) in vec4 bg_color_in;
+
+// The background color for this cell in RGBA (0 to 1.0)
+flat out vec4 bg_color;
+
+uniform vec2 cell_dims;
+uniform mat4 projection;
+
+void main() {
+    // Top-left cell coordinates converted to world space
+    vec2 cell_pos = cell_dims * grid_coord;
+
+    // Turn the cell position into a vertex point depending on the
+    // gl_VertexID. Since we use instanced drawing, we have 4 vertices
+    // for each corner of the cell. We can use gl_VertexID to determine
+    // which one we're looking at. Using this, we can use 1 or 0 to keep
+    // or discard the value for the vertex.
+    vec2 position;
+    position.x = (gl_VertexID == 0 || gl_VertexID == 1) ? 1. : 0.;
+    position.y = (gl_VertexID == 0 || gl_VertexID == 3) ? 0. : 1.;
+    cell_pos = cell_pos + cell_dims * position;
+
+    gl_Position = projection * vec4(cell_pos, 1.0, 1.0);
+    bg_color = bg_color_in;
+}
diff --git a/src/App.zig b/src/App.zig
index 5bff4d645..4838f1ca8 100644
--- a/src/App.zig
+++ b/src/App.zig
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@ const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
 const glfw = @import("glfw");
 const gl = @import("opengl.zig");
 const TextRenderer = @import("TextRenderer.zig");
+const Grid = @import("Grid.zig");
 
 const log = std.log;
 
@@ -16,6 +17,7 @@ alloc: Allocator,
 window: glfw.Window,
 
 text: TextRenderer,
+grid: Grid,
 
 /// Initialize the main app instance. This creates the main window, sets
 /// up the renderer state, compiles the shaders, etc. This is the primary
@@ -43,14 +45,21 @@ pub fn init(alloc: Allocator) !App {
         gl.glad.versionMinor(version),
     });
 
-    // Blending for text
+    // Culling, probably not necessary. We have to change the winding
+    // order since our 0,0 is top-left.
     gl.c.glEnable(gl.c.GL_CULL_FACE);
+    gl.c.glFrontFace(gl.c.GL_CW);
+
+    // Blending for text
     gl.c.glEnable(gl.c.GL_BLEND);
     gl.c.glBlendFunc(gl.c.GL_SRC_ALPHA, gl.c.GL_ONE_MINUS_SRC_ALPHA);
 
     // Setup our text renderer
     var texter = try TextRenderer.init(alloc);
-    errdefer texter.deinit();
+    errdefer texter.deinit(alloc);
+
+    const grid = try Grid.init(alloc);
+    try grid.setScreenSize(.{ .width = 3000, .height = 1666 });
 
     window.setSizeCallback((struct {
         fn callback(_: glfw.Window, width: i32, height: i32) void {
@@ -63,6 +72,7 @@ pub fn init(alloc: Allocator) !App {
         .alloc = alloc,
         .window = window,
         .text = texter,
+        .grid = grid,
     };
 }
 
@@ -78,8 +88,8 @@ pub fn run(self: App) !void {
         gl.clearColor(0.2, 0.3, 0.3, 1.0);
         gl.clear(gl.c.GL_COLOR_BUFFER_BIT);
 
-        try self.text.render("sh $ /bin/bash -c \"echo hello\"", 25.0, 25.0, .{ 0.5, 0.8, 0.2 });
-        //try self.text.render("hi", 25.0, 25.0, .{ 0.5, 0.8, 0.2 });
+        try self.grid.render();
+        //try self.text.render("sh $ /bin/bash -c \"echo hello\"", 25.0, 25.0, .{ 0.5, 0.8, 0.2 });
 
         try self.window.swapBuffers();
         try glfw.waitEvents();
diff --git a/src/Grid.zig b/src/Grid.zig
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..e01b6dcb5
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/Grid.zig
@@ -0,0 +1,165 @@
+//! Represents a single terminal grid.
+const Grid = @This();
+
+const std = @import("std");
+const assert = std.debug.assert;
+const Allocator = std.mem.Allocator;
+const Atlas = @import("Atlas.zig");
+const FontAtlas = @import("FontAtlas.zig");
+const gl = @import("opengl.zig");
+const gb = @import("gb_math.zig");
+
+const log = std.log.scoped(.grid);
+
+/// The dimensions of a single "cell" in the terminal grid.
+///
+/// The dimensions are dependent on the current loaded set of font glyphs.
+/// We calculate the width based on the widest character and the height based
+/// on the height requirement for an underscore (the "lowest" -- visually --
+/// character).
+///
+/// The units for the width and height are in world space. They have to
+/// be normalized using the screen projection.
+///
+/// TODO(mitchellh): we should recalculate cell dimensions when new glyphs
+/// are loaded.
+const CellDim = struct {
+    width: f32,
+    height: f32,
+};
+
+/// The dimensions of the screen that the grid is rendered to. This is the
+/// terminal screen, so it is likely a subset of the window size. The dimensions
+/// should be in pixels.
+const ScreenDim = struct {
+    width: i32,
+    height: i32,
+};
+
+/// Current cell dimensions for this grid.
+cell_dims: CellDim,
+
+/// Shader program for cell rendering.
+program: gl.Program,
+
+pub fn init(alloc: Allocator) !Grid {
+    // Initialize our font atlas. We will initially populate the
+    // font atlas with all the visible ASCII characters since they are common.
+    var atlas = try Atlas.init(alloc, 512);
+    errdefer atlas.deinit(alloc);
+    var font = try FontAtlas.init(atlas);
+    errdefer font.deinit(alloc);
+    try font.loadFaceFromMemory(face_ttf, 30);
+
+    // Load all visible ASCII characters and build our cell width based on
+    // the widest character that we see.
+    const cell_width: f32 = cell_width: {
+        var cell_width: f32 = 0;
+        var i: u8 = 32;
+        while (i <= 126) : (i += 1) {
+            const glyph = try font.addGlyph(alloc, i);
+            if (glyph.advance_x > cell_width) {
+                cell_width = @ceil(glyph.advance_x);
+            }
+        }
+
+        break :cell_width cell_width;
+    };
+
+    // The cell height is the vertical height required to render underscore
+    // '_' which should live at the bottom of a cell.
+    const cell_height: f32 = cell_height: {
+        // TODO(render): kitty does a calculation based on other font
+        // metrics that we probably want to research more. For now, this is
+        // fine.
+        assert(font.ft_face != null);
+        const glyph = font.getGlyph('_').?;
+        var res: i32 = font.ft_face.*.ascender >> 6;
+        res -= glyph.offset_y;
+        res += @intCast(i32, glyph.height);
+        break :cell_height @intToFloat(f32, res);
+    };
+    log.debug("cell dimensions w={d} h={d}", .{ cell_width, cell_height });
+
+    // Create our shader
+    const program = try gl.Program.createVF(
+        @embedFile("../shaders/cell.v.glsl"),
+        @embedFile("../shaders/cell.f.glsl"),
+    );
+
+    // Set our cell dimensions
+    const pbind = try program.use();
+    defer pbind.unbind();
+    try program.setUniform("cell_dims", @Vector(2, f32){ cell_width, cell_height });
+
+    return Grid{
+        .cell_dims = .{ .width = cell_width, .height = cell_height },
+        .program = program,
+    };
+}
+
+/// Set the screen size for rendering. This will update the projection
+/// used for the shader so that the scaling of the grid is correct.
+pub fn setScreenSize(self: Grid, dim: ScreenDim) !void {
+    // Create a 2D orthographic projection matrix with the full width/height.
+    var projection: gb.gbMat4 = undefined;
+    gb.gb_mat4_ortho2d(
+        &projection,
+        0,
+        @intToFloat(f32, dim.width),
+        @intToFloat(f32, dim.height),
+        0,
+    );
+
+    // Update the projection uniform within our shader
+    const bind = try self.program.use();
+    defer bind.unbind();
+    try self.program.setUniform("projection", projection);
+
+    log.debug("screen size w={d} h={d}", .{ dim.width, dim.height });
+}
+
+pub fn render(self: Grid) !void {
+    const pbind = try self.program.use();
+    defer pbind.unbind();
+
+    // Setup our VAO
+    const vao = try gl.VertexArray.create();
+    defer vao.destroy();
+    try vao.bind();
+
+    // Element buffer (EBO)
+    const ebo = try gl.Buffer.create();
+    defer ebo.destroy();
+    var ebobinding = try ebo.bind(.ElementArrayBuffer);
+    defer ebobinding.unbind();
+    try ebobinding.setData([6]u32{
+        0, 1, 3,
+        1, 2, 3,
+    }, .StaticDraw);
+
+    // Vertex buffer (VBO)
+    const vbo = try gl.Buffer.create();
+    defer vbo.destroy();
+    var binding = try vbo.bind(.ArrayBuffer);
+    defer binding.unbind();
+    try binding.setData([_][6]f32{
+        .{ 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1 },
+        .{ 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1 },
+        .{ 2, 0, 0, 0, 1, 1 },
+    }, .StaticDraw);
+    try binding.attribute(0, 2, [6]f32, 0);
+    try binding.attribute(1, 4, [6]f32, 2);
+    try binding.attributeDivisor(0, 1);
+    try binding.attributeDivisor(1, 1);
+
+    try gl.drawElementsInstanced(
+        gl.c.GL_TRIANGLES,
+        6,
+        gl.c.GL_UNSIGNED_INT,
+        3,
+    );
+    try gl.VertexArray.unbind();
+}
+
+const face_ttf = @embedFile("../fonts/FiraCode-Regular.ttf");
diff --git a/src/TextRenderer.zig b/src/TextRenderer.zig
index 2d0770cfe..1119403a6 100644
--- a/src/TextRenderer.zig
+++ b/src/TextRenderer.zig
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ pub fn init(alloc: std.mem.Allocator) !TextRenderer {
     // Update the initialize size so we have some projection. We
     // expect this will get updated almost immediately.
     try res.setScreenSize(3000, 1666);
+    //try res.setScreenSize(1432, 874);
 
     return res;
 }
diff --git a/src/opengl/Buffer.zig b/src/opengl/Buffer.zig
index afa9274b6..d5fffac62 100644
--- a/src/opengl/Buffer.zig
+++ b/src/opengl/Buffer.zig
@@ -150,6 +150,12 @@ pub const Binding = struct {
         try b.enableAttribArray(idx);
     }
 
+    /// VertexAttribDivisor
+    pub fn attributeDivisor(_: Binding, idx: c.GLuint, divisor: c.GLuint) !void {
+        c.glVertexAttribDivisor(idx, divisor);
+        try errors.getError();
+    }
+
     pub inline fn attributeAdvanced(
         _: Binding,
         idx: c.GLuint,
diff --git a/src/opengl/Program.zig b/src/opengl/Program.zig
index 4f22f7efc..0e961b4c7 100644
--- a/src/opengl/Program.zig
+++ b/src/opengl/Program.zig
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ pub inline fn setUniform(p: Program, n: [:0]const u8, value: anytype) !void {
 
     // Perform the correct call depending on the type of the value.
     switch (@TypeOf(value)) {
+        @Vector(2, f32) => c.glUniform2f(loc, value[0], value[1]),
         @Vector(3, f32) => c.glUniform3f(loc, value[0], value[1], value[2]),
         @Vector(4, f32) => c.glUniform4f(loc, value[0], value[1], value[2], value[3]),
         gb.gbMat4 => c.glUniformMatrix4fv(
diff --git a/src/opengl/draw.zig b/src/opengl/draw.zig
index e66944375..bcb573812 100644
--- a/src/opengl/draw.zig
+++ b/src/opengl/draw.zig
@@ -20,6 +20,16 @@ pub fn drawElements(mode: c.GLenum, count: c.GLsizei, typ: c.GLenum, offset: usi
     try errors.getError();
 }
 
+pub fn drawElementsInstanced(
+    mode: c.GLenum,
+    count: c.GLsizei,
+    typ: c.GLenum,
+    primcount: usize,
+) !void {
+    c.glDrawElementsInstanced(mode, count, typ, null, @intCast(c.GLsizei, primcount));
+    try errors.getError();
+}
+
 pub fn viewport(x: c.GLint, y: c.GLint, width: c.GLsizei, height: c.GLsizei) !void {
     c.glViewport(x, y, width, height);
 }