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Font scaling and smoothing support and multi monitor support?

M

macmus12

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 14, 2022
190
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Hello,

I'm using Samsung G9 with a MacBook Air M1 currently and other 3 external 1080p monitors via display link due lack external monitor support.

I'm having lot of issue with that setup in particular:
- M1 does not perform good with my intel base apps
- No font smooting on my 1440p monitor (i have to use betterdummy)
- displaylink + better dummy does not support HDCP

I'm thinking of just buying mac mini Intel 2018 to have those issue addressed ?
I want it to be quiet and have proper font smooting ( which is removed from M1 Macs?)
 
macmus12 said:
No font smooting on my 1440p monitor (i have to use betterdummy)
Click to expand...
Mac OS still has grayscale font anti-aliasing built in, you can enable it via Terminal command and see if it works for you. Subpixel antialiasing has been sadly removed several versions ago.

Switching to Intel Mac will do nothing to make your fonts look better. It might help with other issues you mentioned though.
 
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macmus12 said:
I want it to be quiet and have proper font smooting ( which is removed from M1 Macs?)
Click to expand...

Starting with Big Sur Font Smoothing was removed from System Preferences and the default is Font Smoothing On.
To turn Font Smoothing Off it will take the Terminal app or a "Font Smoothing Adjuster" app.

Here is the app and the web page also shows the Terminal commands:
www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com

Font Smoothing Adjuster | macOS App

Download the free and open source Font Smoothing Adjuster app to disable or customise font smoothing on macOS Big Sur.
www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com

You will need to log off or restart your Mac for any changes to take effect.
 
CoastalOR said:
Starting with Big Sur Font Smoothing was removed from System Preferences and the default is Font Smoothing On.
To turn Font Smoothing Off it will take the Terminal app or a "Font Smoothing Adjuster" app.

Here is the app and the web page also shows the Terminal commands:
www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com

Font Smoothing Adjuster | macOS App

Download the free and open source Font Smoothing Adjuster app to disable or customise font smoothing on macOS Big Sur.
www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com

You will need to log off or restart your Mac for any changes to take effect.
Click to expand...
When was subpixel rendering (aka windows clearfont) removed from macos (version?)?
Is this m1 specific again or also affecting Intel processors?
 
StellarVixen said:
Mac OS still has grayscale font anti-aliasing built in, you can enable it via Terminal command and see if it works for you. Subpixel antialiasing has been sadly removed several versions ago.

Switching to Intel Mac will do nothing to make your fonts look better. It might help with other issues you mentioned though.
Click to expand...
oh sorry I posted above. but i see you already answered.. Does antialiast give any good effect or I need to get a 5k2k display :D

I was able to achive HiDPI on mid 75% scaling (81/66) using Better display.
66% which is equivalent "more text" does give best result but it too big on 1440 screens.

any suggestion how to set the best space/font quality for 2560/5120x1440 ?
 
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macmus12 said:
oh sorry I posted above. but i see you already answered.. Does antialiast give any good effect or I need to get a 5k2k display :D
Click to expand...
It has nothing to do with the CPU, even ancient CPUs were able to handle the subpixel antialiasing just fine. There are few speculations as to why Apple did this, from not being needed since almost all of their products now have Retina displays to unification of Mac OS and iOS so if iOS doesn’t have it, Mac OS shouldn’t have it too (kinda similar to former).

Mac OS didn’t have subpixel antialiasing since Mojave. People said it was still there and you could turn it via command line in Mojave, but it never looked quite right as in High Sierra and earlier.

How good is the current grayscale font smoothing? Eh…it’s mediocre at best. Won’t do wonders for your non HiDPI display, maybe just a little bit. If you want really smooth text, 5K screen is your best bet. Or maybe 4K with not bigger panel than 27inch will yield the acceptable results with current implementation of the font antialiasing turned on.

However, even the current implementation of the font smoothing (greyscale) is on shaky legs. Removal of the option from the System Preferences is an ill omen, I think they are gonna remove that too totally in couple of versions.
 
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StellarVixen said:
It has nothing to do with the CPU, even ancient CPUs were able to handle the subpixel antialiasing just fine. There are few speculations as to why Apple did this, from not being needed since almost all of their products now have Retina displays to unification of Mac OS and iOS so if iOS doesn’t have it, Mac OS shouldn’t have it too (kinda similar to former).

Mac OS didn’t have subpixel antialiasing since Mojave. People said it was still there and you could turn it via command line in Mojave, but it never looked quite right as in High Sierra and earlier.

How good is the current grayscale font smoothing? Eh…it’s mediocre at best. Won’t do wonders for your non HiDPI display, maybe just a little bit. If you want really smooth text, 5K screen is your best bet. Or maybe 4K with not bigger panel than 27inch will yield the acceptable results with current implementation of the font antialiasing turned on.

However, even the current implementation of the font smoothing (greyscale) is on shaky legs. Removal of the option from the System Preferences is an ill omen, I think they are gonna remove that too totally in couple of versions.
Click to expand...
What about 5k2k display like the LG one from this year is that sufficient ?
 
ibb.co

image hosted at ImgBB

Image image hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co

but will it work like that ?

I though on entry level m1 max is 3072px, pro level m1 macs to about 3840px.

On an entry level M1 mac you get around 3072x1296 which would not give proper 0.66 scaling ?
To get 1440p hidpi, I need m1 pro ?

I want a proper native hidpi support on 5k2k monitor --> 1440hipi (0.66x 2160).
 
macmus12 said:
ibb.co

image hosted at ImgBB

Image image hosted in ImgBB
ibb.co ibb.co

but will it work like that ?

I though on entry level m1 max is 3072px, pro level m1 macs to about 3840px.

On an entry level M1 mac you get around 3072x1296 which would not give proper 0.66 scaling ?
To get 1440p hidpi, I need m1 pro ?

I want a proper native hidpi support on 5k2k monitor --> 1440hipi (0.66x 2160).
Click to expand...
That is 5k, it will work, I don't see why it shouldn't? (although not at 72Hz, 60 is the limit I think).

But only one monitor is my guess.
 
StellarVixen said:
That is 5k, it will work, I don't see why it shouldn't? (although not at 72Hz, 60 is the limit I think).

But only one monitor is my guess.
Click to expand...

M1/M2:
3072x1296 HiDPI

M1 Pro:
3840x1620 HiDPI

"more text" is 0.66 scale so technically it's ~1440p HiDPI, that is not going to work on M1 base, right ?
 
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