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iPad 2 text rendering not as sharp as the iPad 1

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

So I went to the Apple store a moment ago and brought my iPad 2 with. The two display models i looked at seem to be similar with the weak looking text. What I did notice is the ones in the store had a blue tint to the screen and mine had a slight yellow tint which was more natural looking.

Regrdless, I have to assume this is a software thing as the iPad 1 did not look as weak on the text.
 
Text on my iPad 1 with 4.3 looks exactly the same as that iPad 2 screenshot. This is why I use mine almost exclusively in landscape mode. Because Apple sizes the page to 1024 wide and then shrinks it to fit into the 768 width (in portrait mode), it really compromises the fonts. Landscape looks much better IMO.
 
212rikanmofo said:
Is it me or the iPad 2 text viewing under safari not as sharp as the iPad 1 screen. I am noticing horrible anti-aliasing around the letters that makes it look kind of grainy and not as crisp. Especially when viewing this website while holding the device in portrait mode.
Click to expand...

Yes, it's just you. I have them side by side and I can see no difference.
 
gigidey said:
It can't be just him seeing how theres a thread full of people saying that they have the same issue.
Click to expand...

I rarely use my iPad in portrait mode for browsing because the fonts don't look very crisp. This has always been the case since iOS 3.2.1 when I got it. The screenshot posted from the iPad2 looks identical to the rendering on my iPad1 running iOS 4.3 and it still looks as bad as I remember it. Not terrible, but most sites are optimised for 1024x768, not 768x1024 so the fonts need to be scaled down a little and this leads to text looking poor.
 
Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

So I went to the Apple store today and I brought my iPad 2 with to compare with the demo units. They all seem to do it. What I did notice is the demo units in the store have a blue tint to the screen and mine had a slight yellow tint which appears more natural.

Regradless, I have to assume this is a software thing as the iPad 1 did not look as weak on the text when I used it in 4.2.
 
Last edited:
I know for a fact when comparing the text in safari on an iPad 1 with ios 4.2.1 vs the iPad 2 with iOS 4.3 that the text looks crisper on the iPad 1 when viewing in portrait orientation.
 
Have 2 ipad 1's, both look the same, one is on 4.3, the other on 4.2.1.
So if 212rikanmofo is correct, it's an iPad2 problem?
 
I don't think it's the text per se, it's the screen tint. Remember when Apple decided to give the iPhone 3G screens a slightly more yellowish tint than the first-gens? They just fiddled with the screen colors again.
 
I just bought the iPad 2. Noticed the same thing. Text not only in Safari but in PDFs as well looks blurry compared to the original iPad. I've taken screenshots and compared them but the output jpg is the same. It really seems to be a screen issue more so than a software issue to me.

Also I have noticed the iPad 2 has a yellow tint where as my original does not. I've heard that the yellow tint goes away but anyone have confirmation of this? So far not digging the screen at all.
 
Some of you don't seem to understand difference between anti-aliasing vs blurry?

iLuis said:
Is only on safari? i think is the Safari Nitro JavaScript the webapps are more slow now.
Click to expand...

WRONG. Webapps are not "more slow."

In reality, webapps are same speed as 4.2, but Safari is faster.
 
Portait view text looks about the same to me as iPad 1. But I don't recall text under magnifying glass cursor looking so soft and mushy before.
 
gigidey said:
It can't be just him seeing how theres a thread full of people saying that they have the same issue.
Click to expand...

A "thread full"? LOL, what is there, like a dozen people posting here? Only a few of whom claim to notice this? Show me some side by side images of the supposed difference and I'll be a believer.
 
mcdj said:
Portait view text looks about the same to me as iPad 1. But I don't recall text under magnifying glass cursor looking so soft and mushy before.
Click to expand...

When I came accross this thread I immediately put my iPad in portrait and read the rest of the thread. The text looked just fine. However, when I went to use the magnifying cursor the text was pretty blurry there. Then I flipped it to landscape and the magnifying glass looked just as blurry.

Could we all be under a placebo effect?
 
laff2 said:
This was taken from my iPad 2 directly (holding down power and main button). It may be worse if viewed on a monitor, laptop, etc.
Click to expand...

That does look pretty bad. This issue combined with the ubiquitous backlight bleed definitely turn me off to the idea of buying an iPad 2.
 
Justin Luck said:
That does look pretty bad. This issue combined with the ubiquitous backlight bleed definitely turn me off to the idea of buying an iPad 2.
Click to expand...

You realize that these are basically non-issues right? A few people experience them and then come post on the internet when there are hundreds of thousands of people without any problems at all.

I myself can't notice a difference but has anyone went to http://www.apple.com/feedback and let Apple know?
 
Sorry to disagree...

But I noticed immediately that the iPad 2 display is actually superior to the iPad 1, and this is coming from a launch day and heavy user of both versions.

Same res, but everything looks sharper and more vibrant on the iPad 2. I even posted this in another thread early on and had some other posters agree with me, so I respectfully think you guys are nuts. :)
 
Hate this blurriness. Regretting selling my iPad 1 to upgrade to the 2. Guess it's good there aren't ally of people having this issue but I'm curious how difficult I have to fight to get a different one? This isn't pleasant viewing.
 
That screen cap looked awful. I hope it's a software issue that can be resolved asap. (4.3.1) *crosses finger*
 
There are 3 iPads in my household (two originals and one iPad 2). All on iOS 4.3 and all 3 look exactly the same in portrait and landscape. Personally I don't think it's that bad, but maybe I'm just more forgiving.
 
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xraydoc said:
There are 3 iPads in my household (two originals and one iPad 2). All on iOS 4.3 and all 3 look exactly the same in portrait and landscape. Personally I don't think it's that bad, but maybe I'm just more forgiving.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I have one of each gen, too, and there's no appreciable difference in text rendering. In fact, I'm not even fussed by the non-retina display. The ipad screen is a joy to use.
 
Sounds to me like a change in the anti-aliasing algorithm somewhere between iOS 4.2 and 4.3. If so, you wouldn't see a difference in text rendering between old and new iPads running iOS 4.3, because it's a software change. If you compared iPad 1 with iOS 4.2 and iPad 2 with iOS 4.3, you'd see it. Assuming of course people aren't simply seeing things.

The reason why it's more noticable in portrait mode is as someone suggested; if you double-tap a paragraph in both modes, it's going to be smaller in portrait mode. Smaller text equals less pixels per character, which makes bad anti-aliasing all the more evident. You'd get the same problem in landscape mode, too, if you managed to scale the text down to equal size. Conversely zooming in in portrait mode would make the text appear sharper as well.

That said, a Google image search of "iPad safari" - which at this point brings up predominantly pre-iOS 4.3 Safari screenshots - tells me that the AA was "pretty bad" in earlier iOSes, too, with small text. Comparing them to the portrait 4.3 screenshot posted earlier in this thread, I see the same fuzzy AA in both.

For your viewing pleasure:

iOS 4.2 Safari in portrait (large text):
http://www.tipb.com/images/stories/2010/09/ios_42_ipad_safari_find_results.png

iOS 4.2 Safari in landscape (large text):
http://www.tipb.com/images/stories/2010/09/ios_42_ipad_safari_print.png

Unknown iOS Safari (article is from July 2010, so not 4.3) in portrait (small text):
http://www.ipatrix.com/wp-content/uploads/16-Safari.png

I tried to find a good example of poor AA in landscape mode, but couldn't find any blatantly obvious shots of it - for exactly the reason that text is rarely so small in landscape mode that AA becomes a problem. Comparing that last linked image to the one posted in this thread (from iOS 4.3 on an iPad 2) however, I think they both look bad. No appreciable difference that I can see.

Out of curiosity, do you guys see any difference in how these forums look on your iPads when you use the "smaller font" skin, vs. "forum default"? The "smaller font" skin should look worse, if there's any visible difference.
 
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