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Mallrat · Oct 26, 2003, 02:29 PM

I noticed this on the 14inch book, but I also noticed on the 15imac and other macs that it appears the fonts on screen (espically in websites) were unsmooth.

so i find the setting called FONT SMOOTHING and play with the settings... you can set light, strong, medium and somethign about turn off font smoothing below a certain font...

I dont' know what it means, but is this what you use to make the font looks sharper?

It seems to be.

But I played with the settings and nothing seemed to change....

Do you have to change it, then restart?

Are there other settings that affect this?

Maybe it's just me, but OS 9 didn't seem to ahve this problem.

amazing · Oct 26, 2003, 02:39 PM

The iBook and 12" AlBook LCDs aren't as sharp as the 15" and 17" screens. It's particularly noticeable on the 14" iBook. On top of that, certain apps like Safari have an anti-aliasing scheme that gives fuzzy type even on good LCD screeens (the font smoothing options don't work/apply to Safari.) IE benefits from the font smoothing settings.

StiZeven · Oct 26, 2003, 07:41 PM

I never thought Apple's font smoothing was great to begin with, but it depends on the quality of the display too. For example, both me and my cousin had the 12" PowerBook models and we clearly had different LCDs. Not sure which manufacturer made which, but mine was brighter with better color saturation and sharper text where my cousin's LCD was a tad yellowed with so-so colors and text that looks a bit jagged (this is something she pointed out as I didn't want to make her feel bad about her display which was still fine, just not as nice).

That's why I always laugh when people comment on the 12" iBook and 12" PowerBooks LCDs in comparison to the larger models, as if all the 12" screens are the same or even made by the same manufacturer - they're not. Just like the HDs you get, it's a gamble and you never know which one you're gonna' end up with.

Mallrat · Oct 26, 2003, 07:47 PM

Originally posted by StiZeven:
I never thought Apple's font smoothing was great to begin with, but it depends on the quality of the display too. For example, both me and my cousin had the 12" PowerBook models and we clearly had different LCDs. Not sure which manufacturer made which, but mine was brighter with better color saturation and sharper text where my cousin's LCD was a tad yellowed with so-so colors and text that looks a bit jagged (this is something she pointed out as I didn't want to make her feel bad about her display which was still fine, just not as nice).

That's why I always laugh when people comment on the 12" iBook and 12" PowerBooks LCDs in comparison to the larger models, as if all the 12" screens are the same or even made by the same manufacturer - they're not. Just like the HDs you get, it's a gamble and you never know which one you're gonna' end up with.

I didn't know that. What a bitch. that is not cool at all.

Now I feel like getting a desktop even more.

Are the imacs screens the same?

amazing · Oct 26, 2003, 08:02 PM

The displays were probably the same, just some settings were different. For example, where you say that the colors were different, that has to do with calibration. You can download SuperCal and finetune your LCD, or you fool around with the Color tab in the display pref. Your cousin might have the LCD setting checked, whereas you might have the sRGB setting checked, which gives brighter colors and more contrast (would make the text appear darker.) If you're using carbon apps, and have specified font smoothing in the general prefs, then the text on your PB would be sharper.

You'd really have to double-check all your cousin's prefs before doing a comparison.

StiZeven · Oct 26, 2003, 10:29 PM

Both the computers were brand new and were using the same exact color profile. Nothing was installed or tweaked, the displays were clearly different. Also, the displays showed different levels of brightness, and they behaved differently when minimizing the level down to zero. Again, they were clearly different displays, it was extremely obvious.

Using more that one display manufacturer for the same model is quite the norm in the computer industry, why say it couldn't be so? The only thing they have to match for like-models are the part's specs, not the manufacturer. If it's a 12.1 XGA LCD, they can use whichever is most cost effective at that current time. Same thing for the hard drive, you'll get either a Fujitsu, a Toshiba, or an IBM/Hitachi as long as they all have the same capacity that you ordered.