MacBook Air - fonts not sharp

surf808 said:

Hi!
I am new to Mac and want to purchase a MBA 11 or 13 -- I checked them out at Apple and Best Buy but I cant get past the fonts being blurry/not sharp on websites. I asked the Genius rep at Apple and he said there is no fix and I should get a rMBP.

Any suggestions? I really want a MBA! Thank you!

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At the end of the day it's a matter of opinion. I just received the MBA 11 today, and am completely satisfied with what I got. However, I never had expectations for a retina-like resolution. My primary use for the MBA is student (read pdfs, pots, type word docs, browse websites, and stream movies). If my primary use was video editing, photography, sound production, or gaming I would have gone for the MBP-Retina. My only recommendation for the MBA is to buy 8gb of ram. Hope this opinion helps.

Sputnek said:

At the end of the day it's a matter of opinion. I just received the MBA 11 today, and am completely satisfied with what I got. However, I never had expectations for a retina-like resolution. My primary use for the MBA is student (read pdfs, pots, type word docs, browse websites, and stream movies). If my primary use was video editing, photography, sound production, or gaming I would have gone for the MBP-Retina. My only recommendation for the MBA is to buy 8gb of ram. Hope this opinion helps.

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I totally agree. If text is really bothering you and your budget allows for it, I'd opt to pick up the 13" rMPB. Though it's slightly heavier than the 13" MBA, it surprisingly has a smaller footprint in comparison to its lighter, thinner sibling. Also, if time isn't an issue, I'd wait to see what the specs are once the rMBPs receive Haswell chips.

Weaselboy said:

Since you just came from Windows, what you are noticing is the different way OS X renders fonts. You can read a bit about it here. The way OS X renders fonts on the screen they do appear less "crisp" then Windows.

You might give it a couple weeks and see if you get used to it. Most people do.

I don't think switching to a Retina machine is going to fix this for you as the Retina still uses OS X font rendering, and that is the underlying issue here.

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This.
I was the same when I got my first Mac, a MacBook Pro. I thought there was something wrong with it! Now, I switch between Windows at work and OS X at home, and don't even notice the difference in the way fonts are rendered.

Windows uses a font smoothing algorithm that prioritizes “pixel metrics” — meaning that it optimizes the type to fit geometrically to the grid of pixels on the screen.

Mac OS X does this to a degree but favours an algorithm that makes the type on your screen look more similar to the way it would look if it were printed, which I actually find easier to read.

You might want to try pasting this into the Terminal:

The 2 is just the example here.

1 = Light smoothing
2 = Medium smoothing (referred to as "Best for flat panel displays")
3 = Heavy smoothing

Create a simple document in TextEdit with 2 or 3 different fonts at various commonly used point sizes. Take a screenshot of it, and then after switching the font smoothing settings in Terminal, quit and relaunch TextEdit to see results. Compare screenshots.

Hopefully that helps.

If you are coming from Windows the fonts will look strange

The truth is Windows fonts are rendered less smoothly and look worse imo

coldjeanzzz said:

If you are coming from Windows the fonts will look strange

The truth is Windows fonts are rendered less smoothly and look worse imo

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Any such wordings initially ("The truth is...") says more or all about the person who writes or says it than about truth level of the subject matter it is supposed or even alleged to be an utterance about.

At best, it is a subjective statement, one that can be discussed, and one that two or more persons may never reach an agreement over.

As a Windows user I agree. The fonts look pixelated and blurry

However I suspect its just a matter of getting used to it.

As a long time Mac user and graphic designer whenever I see my website that I've poured over for ages trying to look perfect I can't help but be disappointed at how it looks on a windows box with the different font rendering. It's not that it 'breaks' my website or that I've not coded it right its just in my opinion the font rendering in Windows is poor.

Weaselboy said:

Since you just came from Windows, what you are noticing is the different way OS X renders fonts. You can read a bit about it here. The way OS X renders fonts on the screen they do appear less "crisp" then Windows.

You might give it a couple weeks and see if you get used to it. Most people do.

I don't think switching to a Retina machine is going to fix this for you as the Retina still uses OS X font rendering, and that is the underlying issue here.

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that was a fascinating read! i never knew any of that - thanks for posting.

mortenandersen said:

Any such wordings initially ("The truth is...") says more or all about the person who writes or says it than about truth level of the subject matter it is supposed or even alleged to be an utterance about.

At best, it is a subjective statement, one that can be discussed, and one that two or more persons may never reach an agreement over.

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uh, no.
"The truth is Windows fonts are rendered less smoothly and look worse imo"

Clearly he is stating that the fonts are rendered less smoothly, a statement that he is claiming is a fact and has supplied a link as a source for that claim, and that this is, in his opinion, a worse way of doing it than what Apple does.

The truth is that most baseball teams have adopted the designated hitter in some capacity but it is ruining baseball imo.

See that? Objective statement of fact followed by subjective opinion.

Is there any way to make Function + C and V do the copy and paste work on OSX? I'm an ex windows user and I know how to do it on Mac but its just not as comfortable, i'm used to left hand little finger + C and V

I may have to learn right thumb

We've got both sn air and a rmbp here, no question text on the rmbp is sharper. We won't buy another air until Apple produces a retina screen for it.

thomas99 said:

Is there any way to make Function + C and V do the copy and paste work on OSX? I'm an ex windows user and I know how to do it on Mac but its just not as comfortable, i'm used to left hand little finger + C and V

I may have to learn right thumb

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you could make your own shortcuts but i would HIGHLY recommend trying to get used to command c/v. it didn't take me long to make the switch and now it's second nature.

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merkinmuffley said:

We've got both sn air and a rmbp here, no question text on the rmbp is sharper. We won't buy another air until Apple produces a retina screen for it.

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i wouldn't hold my breath. certainly on the 11 anyway. the 13" rMBP confuses everything anyway. I know buying first gen tech is scary - but if you really want a high-res air, get the retina 13. it's basically the same computer and it's only half a pound heavier.

Yes, I did. Sorry!

Weaselboy said:

I guess you missed the IMO (in my opinion) part.

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I missed that. You're right. Sorry.