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Explaining how subpixel rendering technically works seems like the worst possible argument against something that exists purely for aesthetics. Just because som

by kneath 16y ago

Explaining how subpixel rendering technically works seems like the worst possible argument against something that exists purely for aesthetics. Just because something is more technically complicated does not make it a better option. There are plenty of situations in which things are far less readable using subpixel rendering. Examples: WITH subpixel: http://share.kyleneath.com/captures/Your_Dashboard_-_GitHub-20100826-175340.png http://share.kyleneath.com/captures/Your_Dashboard_-_GitHub-... WITHOUT subpixel: http://share.kyleneath.com/captures/Your_Dashboard_-_GitHub-20100826-175319.png http://share.kyleneath.com/captures/Your_Dashboard_-_GitHub-... Furthermore, so long as the fonts are ~14px+ and sans-serif I think non-subpixel rendering makes the design cleaner and more aesthetically pleasing. Since I started slowly rolling it out to GitHub, I've been getting nothing but compliments. Case in point: http://github.com/training http://github.com/training — I've had several people email me to ask me how I got the fonts to look so good on this page. The answer? The majority of the text uses antialiased fonts instead of subpixel. Do I use this effect everywhere? Of course not. That's what being a good designer/developer being is about — surveying your options and choosing the one you feel is the best fit. Now, you want to talk about font-rendering? Let's talk about monospaced fonts and Ubuntu for a minute because I've got a few rants down that road. Ubuntu's font-smoothing is nearing a crime against humanity. -webkit-font-smoothing doesn't have jack on it.

fadeyev 16y ago
Yes, but the whole point of subpixel rendering is aesthetics. Its job is to make fonts look smoother and crisper, and in majority of cases it does just that. I'll accept that OS X's rendering of bold fonts on dark backgrounds is terrible, which is where the text-shadow trick comes in handy (or antialiasing, which I think is the same thing in that case), but I'm not sure that for body fonts this is the right way to go. I see this technique popping up here and there and in many cases the fonts end up looking worse. Sure, it's up to the designer to decide what's best--it always is--which is why it's good to have this discussion so that people can better understand which choices to make.
- audionerd 16y ago
  The text-shadow hack stopped working when Snow Leopard was released. -webkit-font-smoothing seems to be a specific solution to the same problem. via: http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/resources/html-css/thinning-text-in-webkit-safari/ http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/resources/html-css/thinni...
  - fadeyev 16y ago
    It hasn't stopped working, it just behaves differently. It stopped working on shadow blur amount of 0, but it works at 1px or more.

by kneath 16y ago

fadeyev 16y ago

Yes, but the whole point of subpixel rendering is aesthetics. Its job is to make fonts look smoother and crisper, and in majority of cases it does just that. I'll accept that OS X's rendering of bold fonts on dark backgrounds is terrible, which is where the text-shadow trick comes in handy (or antialiasing, which I think is the same thing in that case), but I'm not sure that for body fonts this is the right way to go. I see this technique popping up here and there and in many cases the fonts end up looking worse. Sure, it's up to the designer to decide what's best--it always is--which is why it's good to have this discussion so that people can better understand which choices to make.

audionerd 16y ago
The text-shadow hack stopped working when Snow Leopard was released. -webkit-font-smoothing seems to be a specific solution to the same problem. via: http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/resources/html-css/thinning-text-in-webkit-safari/ http://orderedlist.com/our-writing/resources/html-css/thinni...
- fadeyev 16y ago
  It hasn't stopped working, it just behaves differently. It stopped working on shadow blur amount of 0, but it works at 1px or more.