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The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

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Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#31

Post by b3orn »

dartharva wrote: post #18
scblock wrote: post #7

Windows has the worst font rendering of all modern operating systems. Wanting anything like Windows font rendering is insane. Windows 10 makes it near impossible to properly turn off subpixel hinting without also turning off all anti-aliasing, which on a QD-OLED screen makes for horrific color fringing. Windows 11 is better, but still pretty weak. Linux is roughly as good as Mac OS, both of which are miles better tha…

Heavily disagree as a longtime Linux user. I don't know about MacOS but Windows has always had better font rendering than Linux in my experience.

I'm currently using a Mac for private stuff, used to use Linux for work stuff, currently forced to use Windows. My font rendereing ranking is MacOS > Linux > Windows.

Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#32

Post by sunnyps »

bradfitz wrote: post #23

I haven't used displays with under ~215ppi in over 10 years. I find these subpixel opinion discussions still ongoing very... quaint. :)

So you haven't used a 32 inch 4K monitor which is ~135 ppi? What do you get at that size, a 5K or 6K monitor? Not many of those available and they have specific requirements like higher display port or thunderbolt bandwidth.

There's also an entire world of users still on 720p and 1080p displays. They deserve better font rendering even if it doesn't affect us personally.

Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#34

Post by TLLtchvL8KZ »

dartharva wrote: post #18
scblock wrote: post #7

Windows has the worst font rendering of all modern operating systems. Wanting anything like Windows font rendering is insane. Windows 10 makes it near impossible to properly turn off subpixel hinting without also turning off all anti-aliasing, which on a QD-OLED screen makes for horrific color fringing. Windows 11 is better, but still pretty weak. Linux is roughly as good as Mac OS, both of which are miles better tha…

Heavily disagree as a longtime Linux user. I don't know about MacOS but Windows has always had better font rendering than Linux in my experience.

I feel exactly the same, the font rendering in Linux drives me absolutely insane. The amount of hours I've spent over the past 15 years tweaking fontconfig, having to compile special patched packages etc etc doesn't bare thinking about.

I don't even have to edit anything on Windows now, and when I did a few years ago it was only on a clean install going through I think what was called cleartype config, you had a panel of 6 images/samples to choose from and after going through it all everything looked pretty damn perfect.

Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#35

Post by vouaobrasil »

zekica wrote: post #4

Subpixel rendering works completely fine on Linux. I'm using it right now, using "full" hinting and "RGB" subpixel rendering. It even works completely fine with "non-integer" scaling in KDE, even in firefox when "widget.wayland.fractional-scale.enabled" is enabled.

On the other hand, subpixel rendering is absent from MacOS and makes it very difficult to using regular ol' 1920x1080 screens with modern MacOS. Yes, those Retina displays look nice, but it's a shame that lower res screens do not because they work perfectly fine except for the font rendering.

Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#36

Post by [deleted] »

ranger207 wrote: post #20
ivape wrote: post #13

I still don't know why MacOS can't render sharp text on 1440p external monitor.

Well see Apple doesn't sell 1440p external monitors, so the answer is you should stop using that trash and move to one that brute forces the sharpness problem and costs way too much because it has an Apple logo on it

[deleted]

Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#37

Post by sunnyps »

zuhsetaqi wrote: post #16
ivape wrote: post #13

I still don't know why MacOS can't render sharp text on 1440p external monitor.

Because 1440p is not a sharp external monitor.

Ever heard of subpixel rendering? You can have pretty sharp text at even 90 ppi if your OS supports it. MacOS doesn't, probably because they didn't want the complexity of supporting it throughout their compositing/graphics stack, and also likely because Apple doesn't sell any low ppi displays.

Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#38

Post by vouaobrasil »

bradfitz wrote: post #23

I haven't used displays with under ~215ppi in over 10 years. I find these subpixel opinion discussions still ongoing very... quaint. :)

Maybe you can afford such a display. But I still like regular HD displays because they are cheap and functional.

Re: The sad state of font rendering on Linux (2018)

#40

Post by type0 »

not_a_bot_4sho wrote: post #27
scblock wrote: post #7

Windows has the worst font rendering of all modern operating systems. Wanting anything like Windows font rendering is insane. Windows 10 makes it near impossible to properly turn off subpixel hinting without also turning off all anti-aliasing, which on a QD-OLED screen makes for horrific color fringing. Windows 11 is better, but still pretty weak. Linux is roughly as good as Mac OS, both of which are miles better tha…

I suppose this is a subjective area. I would rank Windows on top, Mac as a close second, and Linux ... well, I love Linux for reasons other than UI.

it's not subjective if you use OLED screen
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