[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":217},["ShallowReactive",2],{"blog:2007:font-rendering-philosophies-of-windows-and-mac-os-x":3,"comments-font-rendering-philosophies-of-windows-and-mac-os-x":203,"blogMore-Typography":204},{"id":4,"title":5,"body":6,"category":183,"commentCount":184,"date":185,"description":186,"excerpt":187,"extension":188,"filenames":189,"hidden":190,"image":191,"meta":192,"minutes":181,"navigation":193,"path":194,"seo":195,"showCategory":189,"stem":196,"tags":197,"updated":189,"url":200,"wordCount":201,"__hash__":202},"content\u002Fblog\u002F2007\u002Ffont-rendering-philosophies-of-windows-and-mac-os-x.md","Font rendering philosophies of Windows & Mac OS X",{"type":7,"value":8,"toc":173},"minimark",[9,21,33,47,50,53,60,63,73,76,79,82,87,96,100,103,121,130,137,140,145,150,154,159,168],[10,11,12,13,20],"p",{},"Jeff Atwood asked ",[14,15,19],"a",{"href":16,"rel":17},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.codinghorror.com\u002Fblog\u002Farchives\u002F000884.html",[18],"nofollow","What’s Wrong With Apple’s Font Rendering?"," and as I answered in the comments it comes down to philosophy:",[22,23,24,27,30],"blockquote",{},[10,25,26],{},"The primary difference is that Microsoft try to align everything to whole pixels vertically and sub-pixels horizontally.",[10,28,29],{},"Apple just scale the font naturally; sometimes it fits into whole pixels other times it doesn’t.",[10,31,32],{},"This means Windows looks sharper at the expense of not actually being a very accurate representation of the text. The Mac with it’s design\u002FDTP background is a much more accurate representation and scales more naturally than Windows which consequently jumps around a lot vertically.",[10,34,35,40,41,46],{},[14,36,39],{"href":37,"rel":38},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.codinghorror.com\u002Fblog\u002Farchives\u002F000885.html",[18],"Jeff"," and ",[14,42,45],{"href":43,"rel":44},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.joelonsoftware.com\u002Fitems\u002F2007\u002F06\u002F12.html",[18],"Joel"," both wrote follow up posts agreeing that it is one of philosophy but both are of the opinion that the Windows pixel-grid approach is the better while our displays are only capable of low dots-per-inch (DPI).",[10,48,49],{},"What they don’t seem to appreciate is the compromise this causes.",[10,51,52],{},"Here is an example of Times New Roman on Windows (left) and Mac OS (right) scaled over whole point sizes with sub-pixel precision:",[54,55],"img",{"className":56,"src":58,"alt":59},[57],"screenshot","https:\u002F\u002Fimg.damieng.com\u002Fblog\u002Ffont-scaling.png","Font scaling on Windows and Mac OS X",[10,61,62],{},"The two thing to note here arising from this “pixel-grid is king” approach are",[64,65,66,70],"ol",{},[67,68,69],"li",{},"Windows does not scale fonts linearly as the rough line points out",[67,71,72],{},"Windows scales the height and width but not the weight of the font",[10,74,75],{},"Neither of these may matter to a casual user but for professionals preparing material destined for high DPI (film or print) then it’s a world of difference. How can you layout a page on-screen and expect the same result on the page when the font isn’t the same width?",[10,77,78],{},"The issue is reminiscent of the “I hate black bars on wide-screen films” brigade who believe that the film should be chopped, panned, scaled and otherwise distorted from the artists original intention simply so that it fits better on their display.",[10,80,81],{},"Typography has a rich and interesting history developed and honed over centuries. It is a shame to misrepresent typefaces especially as the pixel-grid approach becomes less relevant as displays reach higher resolutions.",[83,84,86],"h2",{"id":85},"update","Update",[10,88,89,90,95],{},"Some ",[14,91,94],{"href":92,"rel":93},"https:\u002F\u002Ftypophile.com\u002Fnode\u002F34393?from=50&comments_per_page=50",[18],"additional comparisons"," and a note that the gamma differences between Windows and Mac will affect how you see the “other” systems rendering on your machine.",[83,97,99],{"id":98},"further-update-21-august-2007","Further update (21 August 2007)",[10,101,102],{},"Thanks to Daring Fireball and ZDNet we’ve had a few more great comments which I’ve summarized here:",[10,104,105,110,111,115,116,120],{},[14,106,109],{"href":107,"rel":108},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.zdnet.com\u002Farticle\u002Fvista-puts-mac-os-x-font-rendering-to-shame\u002F",[18],"George"," thinks the philosophy idea is wrong because ",[112,113,114],"em",{},"“What percentage of Mac users sit around all day doing nothing but pre-press work?”"," but as ",[14,117,119],{"href":118},"#comment-1883","Fred points out"," Microsoft’s desktop-user optimized rendering ends up on images and videos all over the web, thus escaping the environment for which it was crippled.",[10,122,123,124,129],{},"George also claims that Vista’s rendering is improved, I can’t vouch for that one way or another but from looking at his screen shots the difference there could simply be the contrast level as adjusted by the ",[14,125,128],{"href":126,"rel":127},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.microsoft.com\u002Ftypography\u002Fcleartype\u002Ftuner\u002FStep1.aspx",[18],"ClearType tuner",".",[10,131,132,136],{},[14,133,135],{"href":134},"#comment-1887","Nathaniel"," believes that it’s not Microsoft’s job to manipulate a typeface and that if you want on-screen readability then choose a font designed for that such as Microsoft’s own Tahoma or Apple’s Lucida Grande.",[10,138,139],{},"I’d go further and say that Microsoft’s own aggression in sticking to the grid kills font choice at the regular reading size of 10\u002F11 point by optimizing everything to a generic sans or serif look:",[141,142,144],"h3",{"id":143},"windows-xp","Windows XP",[54,146],{"className":147,"src":148,"alt":149},[57],"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.damieng.com\u002Fblog\u002FWindowsAt11.png","Windows fonts around 11pt in ClearType",[141,151,153],{"id":152},"mac-os-x","Mac OS X",[54,155],{"className":156,"src":157,"alt":158},[57],"https:\u002F\u002Fimg.damieng.com\u002Fblog\u002FMacAt13.png","Mac OS X fonts around 13pt in Medium (Best for LCD)",[10,160,161,162,167],{},"James points to an article called ",[14,163,166],{"href":164,"rel":165},"https:\u002F\u002Fantigrain.com\u002Fresearch\u002Ffont_rasterization\u002F",[18],"Texts Rasterization Exposures"," that proposes a combination of using vertical hinting only and calculating horizontally to 256 levels and has some convincing screen-shots showing the benefits. Probably too late for Leopard or Vista SP1 though.",[10,169,170],{},[112,171,172],{},"[)amien",{"title":174,"searchDepth":175,"depth":175,"links":176},"",2,[177,178],{"id":85,"depth":175,"text":86},{"id":98,"depth":175,"text":99,"children":179},[180,182],{"id":143,"depth":181,"text":144},3,{"id":152,"depth":181,"text":153},"Typography",54,"2007-06-13T21:52:10+00:00","Jeff Atwood asked \"What’s Wrong With Apple’s Font Rendering?\". Well, MacOS and Windows take opposite approaches to rendering text so let's take a look at what that means.","[object Object]","md",null,false,{"src":58,"alt":59},{},true,"\u002Fblog\u002F2007\u002Ffont-rendering-philosophies-of-windows-and-mac-os-x",{"title":5,"description":186},"blog\u002F2007\u002Ffont-rendering-philosophies-of-windows-and-mac-os-x",[198,199],"macOS","Windows","\u002Fblog\u002F2007\u002Ffont-rendering-philosophies-of-windows-and-mac-os-x\u002F",587,"3HL-yPQiujcKiDAOqBnQs-qffkvePzcjKUu5O6A353Q",[],[205,209,213],{"title":206,"date":207,"url":208},"Using variable web fonts for perf","2021-12-03","\u002Fblog\u002F2021\u002Fusing-variable-webfonts-for-speed\u002F",{"title":210,"date":211,"url":212},"ZX Origins - free 8-bit fonts for games","2019-06-03T08:00:00-08:00","\u002Fblog\u002F2019\u002Fzxorigins-free-8-bit-fonts-for-games\u002F",{"title":214,"date":215,"url":216},"Typography in bits: For a few pixels more","2016-08-09T20:43:53+00:00","\u002Fblog\u002F2016\u002Ftypography-in-bits-for-a-few-pixels-more\u002F",1780900537790]