I have been using windows for the last 10 year now and finally decided to switch to mac.. i am designer and do a lot of photoshop work and web design. I noticed on mac that some of the fonts on websites seems bold while others are normal link in the PC... i thought it is just a safari issue and so i downloaded firefox, but the problem was in both. I changed the setting in safari for font but that did not help. I tried system preferences and made the lcd font rendering thing to not less than font 12 that did help but only in safari and not in FF... i have searched various forums but nothing helped. i am very new to mac so please suggest something which i can do to get this working straight.. i design websites and if what is design on mac is going to look weird on PC's the the whole point of switching to make would be a waste..
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Not just another font bold problem
- Thread starter funguru
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Could you post a screenshot with comparisons of unusual versus expected behavior? That would help a lot.
Replies are a dime a dozen. You'll need 12 more after this one to get your dime's worth.
I don't know why it would be doing that. I've never designed a web site. My intuition tells me that it's not the difference between the Mac OS and Windows that causes it. Maybe a quirky font? Do you notice the same thing with multiple fonts, or only a few of them?
I don't know why it would be doing that. I've never designed a web site. My intuition tells me that it's not the difference between the Mac OS and Windows that causes it. Maybe a quirky font? Do you notice the same thing with multiple fonts, or only a few of them?
strange enough... the font is the same as in all over the website.. and pretty much everthing is a bold just the degree varies. Some are just a little bold which does not bother me but then some (in the example) are close to breaking the layout.
What you're talking about is the difference between Windows' ClearType and Mac OS X's Quartz font rendering. I read a fantastic article a while back comparing the two, but there are the best I could find on a moment's notice:
http://www.betalogue.com/2004/04/28...cleartype-vs-mac-os-xs-quartz-text-smoothing/
http://szafranek.net/works/articles/font-smoothing-explained/
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html
Bottom line: that's how it's supposed to behave. Windows prefers legibility over being faithful to the font; Mac OS X prefers to obey the typeface designer. As a result, small text on OS X can be blurrier, but is also much more true to the typeface than Windows.
http://www.betalogue.com/2004/04/28...cleartype-vs-mac-os-xs-quartz-text-smoothing/
http://szafranek.net/works/articles/font-smoothing-explained/
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html
Bottom line: that's how it's supposed to behave. Windows prefers legibility over being faithful to the font; Mac OS X prefers to obey the typeface designer. As a result, small text on OS X can be blurrier, but is also much more true to the typeface than Windows.
I just installed Safari for PC and saw my website on it, the font are perfect, just the way IE or FF displayes on PC so i guess this is a MAC issue and not a browser related but i still refuse to believe that this is how MAC works.. any designer would understand my plight. I can be desiging on MAC to see it looks totally rediculous on all PC's which is still what the majority of people are using as primary computers. I am sure there has to be a solution for it.
I went though the articles in the above post but they are mostly anti-aliasing and not the bold problem.. so i guess i have to keep looking.
I went though the articles in the above post but they are mostly anti-aliasing and not the bold problem.. so i guess i have to keep looking.
The "bold problem" is antialiasing. As a result of the softer, more accurate antialiasing used on Mac OS X, small text sometimes appears bolder than it does on Windows.
I turned off antialiasing for less than 12 font size in mac preference (not safari preferences) and it kinda worked in safari.. though the font became pixilated but in firefox there was absolutly no change... the font remained as is... if i made changes in mac preference then it should have applied to all browsers but some how it did not.
yes, FF does have its own font rendering thing, i played around with it but it did nothing.
By the way, Mac is short for Macintosh. PC is an acronym. MAC is also an acronym, for over 100 things actually, but not one of them is a computer made by Apple.
Also, less often:
Message Authentication Code
or Macro (but probably "mac")
or Media Access Controller
or Apple Macintosh Black & White MacPaint file Bitmap graphics (extension .mac)
or Machine Aided Cognition
or Multiple Architecture Computer
or Measured Attenuation Correction
or MAC Address Collector
or Metered Automatic Cartridge
or Mtime, Atime, Ctime (Unix)
and, last but not least:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/853892/
Message Authentication Code
or Macro (but probably "mac")
or Media Access Controller
or Apple Macintosh Black & White MacPaint file Bitmap graphics (extension .mac)
or Machine Aided Cognition
or Multiple Architecture Computer
or Measured Attenuation Correction
or MAC Address Collector
or Metered Automatic Cartridge
or Mtime, Atime, Ctime (Unix)
and, last but not least:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/853892/