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Ammar666

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 19, 2015
91
91
Recently got an iPad Pro M4 and immediately noticed that fonts looked fuzzier than my M4 MacBook Pro. Took macro shots on both and the difference is immediately noticeable. Does anyone else notice the same?


IMG_4308.jpg

IMG_4309.jpg
 
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The Mac has font smoothing that iPadOS lacks, notice the extra puffiness on ‘sign in’

maybe you like the extra boldness on the Mac

I think the m4 iPad looks sharper and is definitely more true to the font, even with the OLED subpixel layout. You can disable macOS font smoothing, but I’m use to it and it makes really small print look better.
 
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I bought an M4 13" with nano-texture display last week. Was really enjoying it with the keyboard case and wanted it to replace my computer needs so badly. Unfortunately I had to exchange it for a new MacBook Air this weekend because the text was so grainy and non-smooth and swore it was giving me headaches. My guess is some are worse than others.
 
Are you using the 'More Space' setting on your iPad? Or just the default? I ask because if you use 'More Space' it uses the same scaling method as the Mac whereby fonts etc. look softer upon close inspection.
 
Are you using the 'More Space' setting on your iPad? Or just the default? I ask because if you use 'More Space' it uses the same scaling method as the Mac whereby fonts etc. look softer upon close inspection.
I tried both, didn't seem to make a difference in what I was seeing.
 
The letters themselves look the same sharpness to me, but the letters in the iPad image seem to have more of a “glow” outside of the letters which is probably causing you to see the fuzziness. Strange since it’s OLED and the MBP is mini-LED. It also looks more glossy. I wonder if that is related somehow.

I’m curious, how does black text on white background compare between two?
 
It's probably the OLED grain as mentioned above. It's very noticeable on mine—not sure if I got a dud or if I'm just sensitive to it, but the grain is obvious even on lighter/non-grey backgrounds. For text/fine-detail, it shows as slight color fringing on borders which makes it look soft/fuzzy. It normally doesn't bother me but there are certain situations where it's obvious and off-putting.

Assuming your pictures are accurate, just look at the solid lines above and below the "Sign In" text. On Mac, it's a uniform color. On iPad, it's noticeably nonuniform and you can pick out different colors.
 
It’s the result of a different sub-pixel layout on the OLED, I don’t think iPadOS has the font smoothing Mac does either. The result is is the sharper more jagged per pixel font rendering due to no smoothing combined with a tiny bit of color fringing (ex. Around the white text on the OLED)
 
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