In my QT application, I want to have it so some real-time information prints in the terminal if I run the application from the terminal.
When I use printf(\"print this\"
To write to stdout, you should add this CONFIG += console to your project file config and use cout of printf for your liking. qDebug prints by default to stderr. Check this topic for more info - How to print to console when using Qt
CONFIG += console
cout
printf
qDebug
stderr