MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows • Hacker News Board

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#21

Post by gjsman-1000 » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

nwallin wrote: post #18

crazygringo wrote: post #7

It's bizarre that neither the README nor the associated minimal site explains what it does in detail, with screenshots or anything. I'm assuming this is a modern version of GDI++, which a decade ago brought Mac-style font rendering to Windows, but stopped being maintained a while ago. For people who aren't aware of the difference, it's essentially that Windows uses heavy font hinting to try to align character strokes…

It's wild to me that on both Windows and OSX that something that is obviously just personal preference is baked into the operating system, with no method for changing it. It's on the same level as having an operating system that didn't let you change your desktop background.

What if I want my window buttons on the bottom instead of the top?

What if I want my taskbar in the middle of the screen instead of the top or bottom?

What if I want textboxes to have flashing orange outlines around them?

What if I want the close button to be blue instead of red?

What if I want the Finder face to be a sad face instead of a smile?

Customizability needs to end at some point. Technical details about font rendering is not important to 99+% of users and is only confusing.

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#22

Post by ivank » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:50 PM UTC

speedgoose wrote: post #10

I connect my Windows 10 thinkpad and my M1 macbook to the same old 1080p external screens, and I prefer the Windows 10 text rendering. The MacOS text rendering looks a bit bolder and a bit more blurry. On the laptops screen, the high pixel density hides the difference.

Try

    defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

on macOS. That will stop it from making every font more bold than it should be. Mentioned in https://tonsky.me/blog/monitors/

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#23

Post by PakistaniDenzel » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:50 PM UTC

speedgoose wrote: post #10

I connect my Windows 10 thinkpad and my M1 macbook to the same old 1080p external screens, and I prefer the Windows 10 text rendering. The MacOS text rendering looks a bit bolder and a bit more blurry. On the laptops screen, the high pixel density hides the difference.

Yup definitely agree with this. MacOS rendering is horrendous on normal monitors, it only looks good on 4k monitors, whereas Windows looks decent on everything.

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#24

Post by toastercat » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:52 PM UTC

Call me nuts, but I enjoy font-rendering on my Windows machines even compared to my Ubuntu laptop. I legitimately find them sharper and easier to read.

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#25

Post by tomc1985 » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:54 PM UTC

nwallin wrote: post #18

crazygringo wrote: post #7

It's bizarre that neither the README nor the associated minimal site explains what it does in detail, with screenshots or anything. I'm assuming this is a modern version of GDI++, which a decade ago brought Mac-style font rendering to Windows, but stopped being maintained a while ago. For people who aren't aware of the difference, it's essentially that Windows uses heavy font hinting to try to align character strokes…

It's wild to me that on both Windows and OSX that something that is obviously just personal preference is baked into the operating system, with no method for changing it. It's on the same level as having an operating system that didn't let you change your desktop background.

Optionality is one of those things that product managers hate right now, so the likelihood of that appearing if it hasn't already are slim

That said, Windows has highly configurable font hinting/rendering so I'm perplexed as to why this project is a thing

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#26

Post by speeder » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:55 PM UTC

crazygringo wrote: post #7

It's bizarre that neither the README nor the associated minimal site explains what it does in detail, with screenshots or anything. I'm assuming this is a modern version of GDI++, which a decade ago brought Mac-style font rendering to Windows, but stopped being maintained a while ago. For people who aren't aware of the difference, it's essentially that Windows uses heavy font hinting to try to align character strokes…

On CRT screens win8 rendering was crazy blurry for me until I installed mactype

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#27

Post by garaetjjte » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:56 PM UTC

krona wrote: post #15

crazygringo wrote: post #7

It's bizarre that neither the README nor the associated minimal site explains what it does in detail, with screenshots or anything. I'm assuming this is a modern version of GDI++, which a decade ago brought Mac-style font rendering to Windows, but stopped being maintained a while ago. For people who aren't aware of the difference, it's essentially that Windows uses heavy font hinting to try to align character strokes…

I always thought the biggest difference was subpixel vs grayscale anti-aliasing. Prior to very high pixel density screens, I hated the Mac/android font rendering, mostly due to the migraines caused by my eyes straining to correct for the seemly out-of-focus text blur.

>I always thought the biggest difference was subpixel vs grayscale anti-aliasing.

It's mostly hinting. Windows actually doesn't do subpixel antialiasing in many applications anymore. (such as Start menu or new Settings panel)

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#28

Post by tambourine_man » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:57 PM UTC

One of the reasons I avoided Windows all these years. It seems a little brittle though. Messing with font rendering is such a basic OS feature. I wonder if it could ever be made robust without the help from the oficial vendor.

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#29

Post by ithinkso » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:57 PM UTC

oneplane wrote: post #20

nwallin wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's wild to me that on both Windows and OSX that something that is obviously just personal preference is baked into the operating system, with no method for changing it. It's on the same level as having an operating system that didn't let you change your desktop background.

At the same time, everything could be reconfigured at will, but if you can't provider a consistent UX, that wouldn't help a whole lot with sales and customer binding. How much you can, or can't modify as an end-user probably relates to the HIG and general usability and transferability as well. In some ways, there have been cases where you cannot change the background of things, or at least not in an obvious way. I su…

Or in other words - software isn't written to be used, it's written to be sold

Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows

#30

Post by fleaaaa » Sun, Aug 01, 2021, 7:58 PM UTC

pityJuke wrote: post #11

MacType works nice on the surface, but using it feels like a bit of a minefield, because if it interacts incorrectly with one of your programs, it can be an annoyance, and because you've gotten used to the font rendering, you might not immediately realize. When playing Riot's VALORANT, it caused massive lag spikes - and that was before I started worrying about the anticheat.

You can unload dll in the settings.json