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Xowi

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 23, 2012
37
18
I've read a few complaint posts about how poorly text is displaying, is this a common issue or only when used with a HDTV?
 

paulrbeers

macrumors 68040
Dec 17, 2009
3,963
123
I've read a few complaint posts about how poorly text is displaying, is this a common issue or only when used with a HDTV?

It's hit or miss when using the HDMI port. Using a minidisplayport to HDMI adapter does not appear to have this issue. With that said I don't have this issue on my hdmi port on my 2012 mini.
 

Luis2004

macrumors 6502a
Dec 30, 2012
615
1
It's hit or miss when using the HDMI port. Using a minidisplayport to HDMI adapter does not appear to have this issue. With that said I don't have this issue on my hdmi port on my 2012 mini.

Agreed. I haven't tried the minidisplayport to HDMI adapter, but straight HDMI to HDMI port is garbage. I'm using the DVI port on my HP 2311xi and it looks great. Text is very crisp.
 

jacky28c

macrumors newbie
Jan 2, 2012
24
0
I used a 3-in-1 adapter from monoprice which takes MDP and output to either DP, HDMI, or DVI.

HDMI <-> HDMI (bad color)
MDP (HDMI) <-> HDMI (bad color)
MDP (DVI) <-> HDMI (good)

I have a Samsung bx2450.
 

Woyzeck

macrumors 6502
Nov 2, 2012
441
499
Text display on Macs generally is awful for anyone coming over from Windows. That's caused by the different way that Windows and OSX render fonts.

Windows is focused on good readability, so it nails the font to the pixel boundaries.
OSX focuses on preserving the font's overall looks and doesn't care about pixels. The result is blurry and pixelated rendering, especially of smaller font sizes.

Additionally there's the washed out colors of the Mini. Overall it's a disaster for any Windows user.
 

iPeed

macrumors newbie
Dec 1, 2012
2
0
Text display on Macs generally is awful for anyone coming over from Windows. That's caused by the different way that Windows and OSX render fonts.

Windows is focused on good readability, so it nails the font to the pixel boundaries.
OSX focuses on preserving the font's overall looks and doesn't care about pixels. The result is blurry and pixelated rendering, especially of smaller font sizes.

Additionally there's the washed out colors of the Mini. Overall it's a disaster for any Windows user.

True!

Installed Windows 7 (bootcamp) which appears crystal clear because OSX looks terrible.
 

benwiggy

macrumors 68020
Jun 15, 2012
2,382
196
Windows is focused on good readability, so it nails the font to the pixel boundaries.
OSX focuses on preserving the font's overall looks and doesn't care about pixels. The result is blurry and pixelated rendering, especially of smaller font sizes.
Windows alters the size of the text to fit pixels. OS X displays text at the correct size, regardless of pixels. That's one of the reasons that OS X does well in the graphic design industry.

Text may display poorly on HDMI, but that's probably because it's a TV. I've never had any problem reading text on a good monitor on OS X.
 

dmooreco

macrumors member
Apr 29, 2010
31
13
HDMI Port ---> HDMI Input on Samsung 24" Monitor = Terrible Font Display

HDMI Port --->DVI Converter (included with mini)---->Samsung Monitor = 1000x better.
 

jtara

macrumors 68020
Mar 23, 2009
2,008
536
If you're doing software devlelopment, or other work where you will use a fixed-width font highly recommend installing the Inconsolata font and using it in your text editors, console, etc. Looks great on my Mini on my 10+ year old Samsung IPS monitors.

Inconsolata is weird on sizing so you have to bump it up a couple of notches. I'm using 14-point.

(I think the CFLs are close to their last legs, though, so have to start thinking about new monitors. They're cranked-up to 10 at this point...)
 

Woyzeck

macrumors 6502
Nov 2, 2012
441
499
Windows alters the size of the text to fit pixels. OS X displays text at the correct size, regardless of pixels. That's one of the reasons that OS X does well in the graphic design industry.

That's just not true. Many graphical artists work on PCs because if they work with fonts these render as precise on their PC as on their Mac when using graphics tools.
The difference between Mac and PC is that OSX renders *all* fonts this way, even those where readability would be more important than font looks (i.e. on the desktop). I can't see any advantage on this. It just looks awful and is definitely less readable.

Text may display poorly on HDMI, but that's probably because it's a TV. I've never had any problem reading text on a good monitor on OS X.

Mini's HDMI output is broken. That's not a monitor problem.
 
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