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I released a build of iTerm2 last year that accidentally disabled subpixel AA and everyone flipped out. People definitely notice. But the reason I’m sad is tha

I released a build of iTerm2 last year that accidentally disabled subpixel AA and everyone flipped out. People definitely notice. But the reason I’m sad is that this wonderful hack was short lived: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vfBq6vg409Zky-IQ7ne-Yy7olPtVCl0dq3PG20E8KDs/edit https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vfBq6vg409Zky-IQ7ne-Yy7o... My pet theory is that macOS is going to pull in a bunch of iOS code and iOS has never had subpixel AA.

1897235235 8y ago
They give justification for it in the video linked somewhere else in the comments. They say "it works better on a wider variety of displays" in reference to the gray-scale approach. I am guessing they are probably switching to oled across all of their products.
- red75prime 8y ago
  > They say "it works better on a wider variety of displays That's PR-speak. Translation "It works acceptably well for all pixel layouts, and it is easier for us to implement".
saagarjha 8y ago
Informative as always, George. > I released a build of iTerm2 last year that accidentally disabled subpixel AA and everyone flipped out. People definitely notice. On a Retina display at least I find that the most striking difference is that most text appears to have a lighter weight. Maybe that's the difference people are perceiving, rather than color fringing or whatever?
- raphlinus 8y ago
  It's simply a different setting for stem thickening, the subpixel AA modes added a lot. It would definitely be possible to set the same stem thickening for grayscale rendering, and on hi-res monitors it would look pretty similar.
coldtea 8y ago
>My pet theory is that macOS is going to pull in a bunch of iOS code and iOS has never had subpixel AA. Some Apple engineer said on reddit that it's because subpixel AA is not so useful in Retinas and HiDPI, but slows down processing and complicates pipelines. So it's part of the move to Metal and increasing graphics performance, even if it means external lo-res monitors will suffer.
- sorokod 8y ago
  Just a small nuance correction: monitors will not suffer, users will.
  - klodolph 8y ago
    “Monitors will suffer” is a metonym, there’s no need to correct it, it was already correct. Metonymy is common in casual speech but less so in formal writing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy
    - sorokod 8y ago
      Thank you for the link, it is very interesting. Having read the Wikipedia article, I think that metonym here is a bit too heavyweight for the simple thing expressed in the comment. Edit: personally I value simple and precise language. Constructs such as those mentioned in the Wikipedia article may convey similar meaning but the fact that they exist means that they allow for some variation in meaning and color which is unnecessary in this case.
      - coldtea 8y ago
        >Thank you for the link, it is very interesting. Having read the Wikipedia article, I think that metonym here is a bit too heavyweight for the simple thing expressed in the comment. Metonym is just a linguistic term. Such terms are not constrained to describe high uses of language by great masters of writing. They are merely names for specific constructs or linguistic phenomena. A drunken sailor swearing at someone at 3am could be using a metonym just as easily as Wallace Stevens.
cseelus 8y ago
That must have been one of the nightly builds from end of September 2017. For anyone who wants to see whats coming when Mojave gets released without subpixel AA, I made a few comparison screenshots on a non-Retina display: iTerm2 dark subpixel AA enabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7.png iTerm2 dark subpixel AA disabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly.... iTerm2 light subpixel AA enabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light.png iTerm2 light subpixel AA disabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-light.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-... On Retina screens, I don't see much of a difference: iTerm2 light subpixel AA enabled on Retina display: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light-retina.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light-retina.pn... iTerm2 light subpixel AA disabled on Retina display: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-light-retina.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-...
- ummonk 8y ago
  I'm confused. Are the screenshots somehow different so that the retina and non-retina screenshots will appear different even when viewing both on non-retina (or retina) display?
  - pivo 8y ago
    I can see a difference between pairs of each screen shot. I'm pretty confident though that I won't be able to tell when I don't have these nice comparison images, or care about the difference in practice.
    - lisper 8y ago
      I can't tell which is which even when I blow them up to the point where I can see the individual pixels.
      - 8y ago

1897235235 8y ago

They give justification for it in the video linked somewhere else in the comments. They say "it works better on a wider variety of displays" in reference to the gray-scale approach. I am guessing they are probably switching to oled across all of their products.

red75prime 8y ago
> They say "it works better on a wider variety of displays That's PR-speak. Translation "It works acceptably well for all pixel layouts, and it is easier for us to implement".

saagarjha 8y ago

Informative as always, George. > I released a build of iTerm2 last year that accidentally disabled subpixel AA and everyone flipped out. People definitely notice. On a Retina display at least I find that the most striking difference is that most text appears to have a lighter weight. Maybe that's the difference people are perceiving, rather than color fringing or whatever?

raphlinus 8y ago
It's simply a different setting for stem thickening, the subpixel AA modes added a lot. It would definitely be possible to set the same stem thickening for grayscale rendering, and on hi-res monitors it would look pretty similar.

coldtea 8y ago

>My pet theory is that macOS is going to pull in a bunch of iOS code and iOS has never had subpixel AA. Some Apple engineer said on reddit that it's because subpixel AA is not so useful in Retinas and HiDPI, but slows down processing and complicates pipelines. So it's part of the move to Metal and increasing graphics performance, even if it means external lo-res monitors will suffer.

sorokod 8y ago
Just a small nuance correction: monitors will not suffer, users will.
- klodolph 8y ago
  “Monitors will suffer” is a metonym, there’s no need to correct it, it was already correct. Metonymy is common in casual speech but less so in formal writing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metonymy
  - sorokod 8y ago
    Thank you for the link, it is very interesting. Having read the Wikipedia article, I think that metonym here is a bit too heavyweight for the simple thing expressed in the comment. Edit: personally I value simple and precise language. Constructs such as those mentioned in the Wikipedia article may convey similar meaning but the fact that they exist means that they allow for some variation in meaning and color which is unnecessary in this case.
    - coldtea 8y ago
      >Thank you for the link, it is very interesting. Having read the Wikipedia article, I think that metonym here is a bit too heavyweight for the simple thing expressed in the comment. Metonym is just a linguistic term. Such terms are not constrained to describe high uses of language by great masters of writing. They are merely names for specific constructs or linguistic phenomena. A drunken sailor swearing at someone at 3am could be using a metonym just as easily as Wallace Stevens.

cseelus 8y ago

That must have been one of the nightly builds from end of September 2017. For anyone who wants to see whats coming when Mojave gets released without subpixel AA, I made a few comparison screenshots on a non-Retina display: iTerm2 dark subpixel AA enabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7.png iTerm2 dark subpixel AA disabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly.... iTerm2 light subpixel AA enabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light.png iTerm2 light subpixel AA disabled: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-light.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-... On Retina screens, I don't see much of a difference: iTerm2 light subpixel AA enabled on Retina display: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light-retina.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3.1.7-light-retina.pn... iTerm2 light subpixel AA disabled on Retina display: https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-light-retina.png https://static.imeos.com/images/iTerm2-3_1_20170924-nightly-...

ummonk 8y ago
I'm confused. Are the screenshots somehow different so that the retina and non-retina screenshots will appear different even when viewing both on non-retina (or retina) display?
- pivo 8y ago
  I can see a difference between pairs of each screen shot. I'm pretty confident though that I won't be able to tell when I don't have these nice comparison images, or care about the difference in practice.
  - lisper 8y ago
    I can't tell which is which even when I blow them up to the point where I can see the individual pixels.
    - 8y ago