OS X - fonts & font smoothing

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

DAMAGED FONTS:
I lost most of my fonts when I switched to OS X. Everything conflicts or is damaged. I get by now with minimal fonts. Fine. Still, every once in a while I'll get the message that another font is damaged. I think OS X just chews 'em up.

FONT SMOOTHING:
I'm used to throwing away fonts by now, but this font smoothing thing gives me a headache. Every webpage I look at looks like it was created in Flash because all the fonts are blurry and "smooth". I used Tinkertool™ to turn it off, but the results were ugly and for some reason, just stopped working after a while. I hope I didn't screw up anything by using Tinkertool™.

Does anyone know how to get websites to look good in OS X with antialias fonts like good old Classic Mac or good old Windows?

Does anyone know how to save fonts from getting "damaged" all the time in OS X?

Much appreciated.

― Triple Ho, Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:26 (twenty-one years ago)

Fonts, like alot of files, can just randomly go corrupt. It shouldn't happen as often as you're describing. But I hope you're backing them up.

― Thermo Thinwall (Thermo Thinwall), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 19:43 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah this is weird, you should get rid of all of them and reinstall them (if you still have the origs on disk somewhere). Or maybe you should try doing a clean install of OSX - i.e. back up your home directory, applications, fonts, wipe the hardrive clean, and install fresh. I really really really want to do this with my computer because even though I'm suffering no problems, I have a feeling it's just going to make everything snappier and I bet I get to reclaim some of my (puny) harddrive space. I did a completely fresh reinstall of WIndows on my parents' machine over the holidays and it's like night and day. I have NEVER wiped my harddrive once in the four years I've had it.

― You've Got to Pick Up Every Stitch (tracerhand), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 22:39 (twenty-one years ago)

If it's just font smoothing you want on and off, open a terminal window --

disable font smoothing:
defaults write -g AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 128

enable font smoothing:
defaults write -g AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 12

― 57 7th (calstars), Wednesday, 29 December 2004 23:24 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry 57 7th I have no idea what you're talking about.

Damaged fonts is not that weird because I have 4,000+ fonts and it's pretty common knowledge that only the most standardized fonts (adobe, for instance) made the cut in the OS X switch.

Thanks for the feedback.

― Triple Ho, Thursday, 30 December 2004 02:29 (twenty-one years ago)

1. Go to your Applications folder, open the Utilies subfolder,
2. run the Terminal program.
3. type the following: defaults write -g AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 128

That's what 57 7th is saying.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 30 December 2004 04:36 (twenty-one years ago)

(4. press Enter)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 30 December 2004 04:37 (twenty-one years ago)

Cool. Thanks! It's always nice when someone bothers to give a shit and help someone. I still don't know jack about OS X under the hood.

― Triple Ho, Thursday, 30 December 2004 16:47 (twenty-one years ago)

The only problem with this solution is that I think it effects everything, including system fonts and menus. I'd just like to effect Safari, Explorer, Firefox and whatever other browser I feel compelled to use.

― Triple Ho, Thursday, 30 December 2004 17:04 (twenty-one years ago)

http://designest.com/classicate/shell/shot_os_7_icons.jpg

― Ganbare Goemon (ex machina), Thursday, 30 December 2004 17:08 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, I like the OS X interface as it is, but websites look awful with font smoothing on. I wonder why Apple did that.

― Triple Ho, Thursday, 30 December 2004 17:15 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm not certain that you can selectively smooth for each program, since the setting is probably for a common OS X toolkit they're all using. (Disclaimer: This is a completely random stab in the dark.)

― Girolamo Savonarola, Thursday, 30 December 2004 17:42 (twenty-one years ago)

could it be this:

defaults write org.mozilla.firefox AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 128

― Triple Ho, Thursday, 30 December 2004 18:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Absolutely no idea.

― Girolamo Savonarola, Friday, 31 December 2004 03:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Do you have the right kind of font smoothing on? It really shouldn't be causing a headache (unless your fonts are too small?) but if you have the "sharpness" (?) not set to the right level based on the type of screen you're using, it can be ugly.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 31 December 2004 05:08 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not really causing a headache, I just don't like viewing websites with the text looking like it was done in Flash.

Some designer websites look great in all other browsers except the OS X browsers because the fonts are all weird. On the other hand, that's why some designers who design with only OS X browsers make websites that look like shit in other browsers. I'm trying avoid that problem. I don't want to get used to the "wrong" way of viewing the web. Plus, font smoothing at smaller sizes looks blurry compared to bitmap fonts.

― Triple Ho, Friday, 31 December 2004 18:30 (twenty-one years ago)

But clearly all the other browsers are wrong!

Anyway, as far as designing websites goes, you just need to look at it on a number of different browsers on both platforms anyway. And you'll look at the bitmappy Win IE rendition and think it looks really ugly but you'll surf around for a bit and remember that it's an ugly Interweb for our Win IE friends.

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 31 December 2004 19:06 (twenty-one years ago)

Bitmap type is easier to read, isn't it? It feels that way. The alternative is point sizes that are relatively the same as those used in children's books. Think about it! And big type is ugly, ugly, ugly.

― Triple Ho, Friday, 31 December 2004 19:09 (twenty-one years ago)

To clarify, the alternative to bitmap fonts is font-smoothed large type as big as the typesetting in children's books. This is a no-no. Big fonts be ugly.

― Triple Ho, Friday, 31 December 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I keep reading the title of this thread as 'fonts and font smooching.'

― cis (cis), Friday, 31 December 2004 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Bitmap type is easier to read than poorly aliased type, but properly aliased type is easier to read than bitmap type. I think. Anyway it still sounds like you've got the wrong kind of smoothing going on if it's that garish. (Or at least, that was the problem I had when I first got my iBook, which was factory preset to display as if it were a CRT screen.)

― Casuistry (Chris P), Friday, 31 December 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe I'm just used to smaller bitmapped type online and maybe that is why I need glasses now. The big type is easier to read but it just doesn't look right. Let me ask you: is your web type bigger than that of the average magazine or book?

― Triple Ho, Friday, 31 December 2004 20:29 (twenty-one years ago)

sixteen years pass...

any opinions on the best font managers now for os x? i used to use font explorer but it's become sort of unwieldy. typeface? fontbase?

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 14 November 2021 15:43 (four years ago)

@danselzer

― Tracer Hand, Sunday, 14 November 2021 20:47 (four years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.