OSX and XFT2 AA font comparisons

zenlunatic · Guru Joined: 09 Apr 2003 Posts: 312

I was just wondering what peoples opinions were on the AA in OS X and in XFT2. I've noticed on my 12" ibook the fonts in OS X look fuzzy. I've seen other screenshots of ibooks running XFT2 (i haven't got it up yet on mine) and the fonts looks much less fuzzy than on OS X. According to my poll lots of folks like AA. I know a big selling point of OS X is the supposed gajlion dollars worth of font and the graphic AA system, but really it looks to my like AA on XFT2 is better. What do you guys think? To me the AA in XFT2 just look more shapely, and less blury than OS X, although I haven't used jaguar yet.

stew · n00b Joined: 08 Oct 2002 Posts: 16

For OS X on an iBook, I definately recommend using SuperCal to adjust OS X' colour correction to your screen. It makes a huge difference, really.

That said, I prefer XFT2 over Quartz fonts too. I want my fonts rather sharp than "pretty".
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zhenlin · Veteran Joined: 09 Nov 2002 Posts: 1361

It really depends. I want my fonts smooth, I don't mind them blurry.

Besides, you may not have (or you may have) enabled subpixel hinting (aka ClearType (TM))

Lycander · Guru Joined: 10 Apr 2003 Posts: 468

I like the way Linux handles fonts in general, AA or no AA but preferably AA

The reason being in KDE/Gnome or whatever WM, we can set global font settings that will affect all apps, and some apps can have their own custom font settings as well. With OSX, we can't change system fonts, such as System Preferences app, the text in each icon is smaller than I would like - can that be changed? Also the font on Window titles, on the desktop, etc.
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