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I must admit I never really noticed before. However my wife has just got a Sony vaio CS laptop and I was amazed at her screen. Its glossy, but doesnt seem to reflect that badly. Running Vista it is 10x better than my macbook pro (matte model) screen. The text is sharper, more defined and easier to read (clear type on). It has however convinced me that my next Mac laptop will have a glossy screen (not the macbook glossy though.. people keep telling me those screens are appalling compared to the air/pro models).

As for the screen shot in this thread... for me, the cleartype version rendered in XP looks better than OSX's natural 'blurry' look.
 
I thought some screenshots might make things easier to visualize. The first set of images is; top, XP with default rendering (what you would see on your 4 yr old Sony), middle XP with ClearType (also the default in Vista), bottom OS X.

I've zoomed in on the next set of images to show the anti-aliasing, or lack of it, and shows what tubbymac is talking about.

I guess ClearType vs OS X is a matter of opinion, but XP's default is hideous.

If I buy a new MacBook Pro and install Windows 7 via BootCamp (and then boot into Windows) will I see ClearType text like on my Dell PC ? or is this a hardware thing where the graphics card takes control of the fonts ?

I returned my new MacBook Air 11 as it was giving me eye strain trying to read text, but I never had this porblem with my old 2010 MacBook Pro (sold).

If I can use Windows 7 with the fonts as I see them now, using ClearType on my Dell, then I will get a new MacBook Pro. (I prefer apple hardware and sometimes need access to both platforms).

Thanks - Fi
 
Windows has much better text anti-aliasing than OS X does; I think Windows uses subpixels or something (so the outlines are composed of non-grayscale colors), whereas OS X does it all in grayscale..

A question here-how would the fonts look like under Windows on a Mac?

I guess they should look same as on any other Win PC but I have not and have no plans of installing Windows on my Macs...
 
I guess they should look same as on any other Win PC but I have not and have no plans of installing Windows on my Macs...

Thanks for your reply, but "I guess" isn't reassuring me, especially when I am about to spend $2,699.00 on a laptop, does anyone know for sure ?
 
For those that are switching from Windows to OS X, it takes some time to adjust if you predominately use one platform or the other you will initially feeling will be; one appears to be inferior to the other.

If you run windows 7 on a Mac, natively via Bootcamp the font redering will be the same as any other PC, give OS X some time and you may be surprised. There are no wrongs or rights here simply personal preference, the bigger question is why run windows 7 ?

Microsoft's Latest OS is without a doubt a well evolved and stable platform of which I have few complaints, however if you are going to move to Apple and OS X, "cut the cord" and "feel the difference"...
 
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I was not replying to you,I asked pretty much the same question as you did,just a bit later...:D:D

Okay, sorry, that's so wierd that we both replied to such an old thread :D

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If you run windows 7 on a Mac, natively via Bootcamp the font redering will be the same as any other PC

Thanks, does the same apply when using Parallels etc ?
 
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