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skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
4,230
1,380
Brazil
I would like to know if there is really any difference in font rendering in different Mac applications. Fonts look different in Apple Pages, Microsoft Word, Mellel, LibreOffice Writer... do these software, or some of them, use different font rendering engines? Or is it just my imagination?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,497
California
I would like to know if there is really any difference in font rendering in different Mac applications. Fonts look different in Apple Pages, Microsoft Word, Mellel, LibreOffice Writer... do these software, or some of them, use different font rendering engines? Or is it just my imagination?

I think what you are seeing is the result of the way fonts are displayed in the two main OS X development environments, Carbon and Cocoa. Carbon is older and still I think still used by apps like LibreOffice and many others. It is being replaced by newer Cocoa apps.
 

skaertus

macrumors 601
Original poster
Feb 23, 2009
4,230
1,380
Brazil
I think what you are seeing is the result of the way fonts are displayed in the two main OS X development environments, Carbon and Cocoa. Carbon is older and still I think still used by apps like LibreOffice and many others. It is being replaced by newer Cocoa apps.

That may explain some things. However, I read somewhere that Mellel had its own rendering engine. And, indeed, fonts look different in different software, even though they are both in Cocoa. How is that?
 

Weaselboy

Moderator
Staff member
Jan 23, 2005
34,073
15,497
California
That may explain some things. However, I read somewhere that Mellel had its own rendering engine. And, indeed, fonts look different in different software, even though they are both in Cocoa. How is that?

I see that too in searching... and I suppose that would explain the difference. Not really sure though.
 
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