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As a Mac user, whenever I run Linux, I get depressed about how bad the font rendering is. It's getting better, though it sometimes requires installing a special

As a Mac user, whenever I run Linux, I get depressed about how bad the font rendering is. It's getting better, though it sometimes requires installing a special non-free version of Freetype and setting some global config that I can never remember. I always lose track of which distros get it right without requiring any tweaks. However: While the glyph rendering in the article's screenshots looks quite, the kerning is just awful. For example, here [1], upper left quadrant: "Ap plications", "A ppC enter", "C alendar". Anyone know why it's so bad? Is it a configuration flag? [1] http://bitcannon.net/images/2017/4k-elementary.png http://bitcannon.net/images/2017/4k-elementary.png

wezm 10y ago
Interesting. I see it now and I was expecting this to be an issue with switching but I haven't really noticed it. Here are the same words rendered by macOS (9pt Open Sans): http://bitcannon.net/images/2017/open-sans-on-macos.png http://bitcannon.net/images/2017/open-sans-on-macos.png I think it's showing similar spacing.
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  Here's macOS, comparing Helvetica and Open Sans: http://i.imgur.com/6uGxKbQ.png http://i.imgur.com/6uGxKbQ.png While Open Sans is clearly not perfect, it's not as bad as the Linux screenshot.
  - wezm 10y ago
    Yeah definitely looks like it's Open Sans when viewed like that.
Hydraulix989 10y ago
Looks kerning related
deleted 10y ago
[deleted]
notamy 10y ago
> For example, here [1], upper left quadrant: "Ap plications", "A ppC enter", "C alendar". Anyone know why it's so bad? Is it a configuration flag? Perhaps I'm just used to font-weirdness, but I honestly would never have noticed that had you not directly pointed it out.
- cachvico 10y ago
  https://xkcd.com/1015/ https://xkcd.com/1015/
staplor 10y ago
Check out the program Infinality. It has settings for different rendering methods including one that mimics OSX. It works great for me although I will admit that I am not one who notices this stuff easily.
- wezm 10y ago
  Ohh thanks for this, I'll definitely play around with that: Main website appears to be down, GitHub repo is here: https://github.com/bohoomil/fontconfig-ultimate https://github.com/bohoomil/fontconfig-ultimate
- da_n 10y ago
  Apparently Infinality has been abandoned, and can cause problems, so might want to be careful installing it. I recently had an issue where I could not log into Gnome, I took it as an opportunity to reinstall Arch as I wanted to do a fresh install anyway, but have since found out (from the podcast Linux Action Show) that the issue was very likely due to Infinality. Just a heads up.
bluedino 10y ago
More disturbing is the LCD font smoothing being applied when on the Mac you can shut it off when using a Retina display
hvis 10y ago
"Calendar" looks fine to me. I see the problems with "Applications" and "AppCenter", though. Maybe the problem is just with the particular font used. See the browser window on the right side of the screenshot. It mentions "Apple", and it's rendered well there.
- lobster_johnson 10y ago
  In "Calendar", "ndar" has tighter spacing than "Cale". It looks really off to me. It definitely seems that Open Sans has weaker kerning than the other font used in the web browser in that screenshot.

wezm 10y ago

Interesting. I see it now and I was expecting this to be an issue with switching but I haven't really noticed it. Here are the same words rendered by macOS (9pt Open Sans): http://bitcannon.net/images/2017/open-sans-on-macos.png http://bitcannon.net/images/2017/open-sans-on-macos.png I think it's showing similar spacing.

lobster_johnson 10y ago
Here's macOS, comparing Helvetica and Open Sans: http://i.imgur.com/6uGxKbQ.png http://i.imgur.com/6uGxKbQ.png While Open Sans is clearly not perfect, it's not as bad as the Linux screenshot.
- wezm 10y ago
  Yeah definitely looks like it's Open Sans when viewed like that.

Hydraulix989 10y ago

Looks kerning related

deleted 10y ago

[deleted]

notamy 10y ago

> For example, here [1], upper left quadrant: "Ap plications", "A ppC enter", "C alendar". Anyone know why it's so bad? Is it a configuration flag? Perhaps I'm just used to font-weirdness, but I honestly would never have noticed that had you not directly pointed it out.

cachvico 10y ago
https://xkcd.com/1015/ https://xkcd.com/1015/

staplor 10y ago

Check out the program Infinality. It has settings for different rendering methods including one that mimics OSX. It works great for me although I will admit that I am not one who notices this stuff easily.

wezm 10y ago
Ohh thanks for this, I'll definitely play around with that: Main website appears to be down, GitHub repo is here: https://github.com/bohoomil/fontconfig-ultimate https://github.com/bohoomil/fontconfig-ultimate
da_n 10y ago
Apparently Infinality has been abandoned, and can cause problems, so might want to be careful installing it. I recently had an issue where I could not log into Gnome, I took it as an opportunity to reinstall Arch as I wanted to do a fresh install anyway, but have since found out (from the podcast Linux Action Show) that the issue was very likely due to Infinality. Just a heads up.

bluedino 10y ago

More disturbing is the LCD font smoothing being applied when on the Mac you can shut it off when using a Retina display

hvis 10y ago

"Calendar" looks fine to me. I see the problems with "Applications" and "AppCenter", though. Maybe the problem is just with the particular font used. See the browser window on the right side of the screenshot. It mentions "Apple", and it's rendered well there.

lobster_johnson 10y ago
In "Calendar", "ndar" has tighter spacing than "Cale". It looks really off to me. It definitely seems that Open Sans has weaker kerning than the other font used in the web browser in that screenshot.