Any before / after screenshots?
I really don't understand when someone makes a project such as this (which seems to have been around for a while), and does not include at least 1 screenshot
MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
31–40 of 130 posts
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#32I just switched from Windows to a Mac, and I immediately found that the colors and contrast and the clarity of images and text on the same monitor I connect my laptop too improved. I wasn't sure if it was just in my head, but something about the rendering in Mac seems better to me. I don't know if they have better calibration for colors and contrast, better anti-aliasing, etc., but I seem to see the screen much bette…
Have you tried to use the windows ClearType Text Tuner to improve the font rendering? Windows tries to take advantage of subpixels to improve crispness but it can cause color fringing which makes text harder to read. The tuner utility helps with that. You can also disable cleartype entirely to get standard anti-aliasing, which is what macOS does on non-retina screens. Personally I find the macOS way of rendering on s…
The text drawn in most places doesn't match the cleartype tuner (try choosing the most grayscale option each time), and the cleartype in general doesn't take into account screen rotation. Turning off cleartype leaves you with text with odd per-pixel kerning.
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#33Earlier 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.
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 fon…
Sure, there should be a line somewhere, but not allowing the user to enable/disable hinting is obviously on the wrong side of the line. If it wasn't, we wouldn't have half the comments on this post opining about Windows vs OSX font rendering.
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#34I 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.
It looks a bit more blurry because it _is_ a bit more blurry. As another commenter explained a little, Windows' font rendering attempts to 'cut off' at pixel boundaries for straight edges, making characters appear sharper. This is at the expense of being less true to the font design.
I used to prefer the Windows text rendering for this reason, but since so-called 'Retina' screens, everything looks the same to me.
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#35Call 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.
Same here. My primary work machines have all been Macs for years now, I find Mac to be a far better environment than Windows in most respects. The two main exceptions are gaming and font rendering, both of which Windows seems to do much better.
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#36It'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.
> something that is obviously just personal preference
I have a feeling that this exact idea is the reason why most Linux DEs look like crap [to me]. The way fonts look (especially those used in the system UI) is, just like colors or margins, [in my opinion] a matter of design, not just personal preference.
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#37It'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.
I remind you that Microsoft did in fact release an operating system where you couldn't change the desktop background, Windows 7 Starter.
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#38Good way to run into cryptic font rendering bugs.
MacType effectively replaces GDI's font renderer (DirectWrite replacement is experimental) with FreeType (used on Linux, not sure about Mac). If you enable ttfautohint ("Auto tuning") instead of bytecode hinting ("Standard tuning"), the fonts may end up with different metrics, and cut off the tops and bottoms of characters. There's a workaround where you can tell MacType to report larger font metrics than GDI would, but this apparently causes rendering errors as well.
Another bug is that MacType makes Sublime Text in GDI font rendering mode chop off the right side of wide CJK characters. Enabling MacType's experimental DirectWrite support makes Sublime Text's DirectWrite text fuzzier, but not chopped off.
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#39Earlier 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.
I remind you that Microsoft did in fact release an operating system where you couldn't change the desktop background, Windows 7 Starter.
easily change the background, that is; registry editing and even binary patching are pretty common amongst Windows power users. (Why a power user would end up with Win7 starter is a different question. But a quick search shows that it can be done, they just removed the GUI.)
Edit: for those who don't believe me for whatever reason, https://www.howtoguides.org/change-your-desktop-background-i...
Re: MacType: Better Font Rendering for Windows
#40I just switched from Windows to a Mac, and I immediately found that the colors and contrast and the clarity of images and text on the same monitor I connect my laptop too improved. I wasn't sure if it was just in my head, but something about the rendering in Mac seems better to me. I don't know if they have better calibration for colors and contrast, better anti-aliasing, etc., but I seem to see the screen much bette…
Another possibility is that macOS actually does proper color management throughout the entire OS - the Windows shell/desktop is simply not color managed and it's especially irritating when you have a wide color gamut monitor.