OSX font scaling

[akadmon]

I'm considering switching to a Mac (been waiting for the MBP update, yada yada yada). I was at an Apple Store today and booted up Excel on several different machines (MBP, 24" iMac, Mac Pro). In all cases when I did the standard CTRL+mouse scroll to zoom in, the text became "washed out" looking at anything other than 100% size, essentially like what happens when you zoom in on a low res image. This does not happen on my PC laptop -- the text remains sharp all the way up to 400% (Excel limit). What's going on? Is it because in Windows fonts are scalable and in OSX they're not scalable?

I'm really bummed out about this, to the point I'm actually considering going with a Dell laptop.

 

[MisterMe]

Apple developed the TrueType fonts that are used in both Windows and the Mac. Fonts on the Mac are "infinitely" scalable. The fact that you prefer Windows font display is because this is what you are used to and not due to any inherent problem on the Mac.

 

[Brian G.]

I think that the zoom that you think you're using is different than what you expect. The zoom you are using is a OS level scaling that is a bitmap zoom.

I believe that in Excel on Windows, that same keyboard mouse combo is recognized as an application level zoom. In other words, it is hooked up to View->Zoom directly.

Brian G.

 

[jwkay]

That's right, the CTRL+scroll wheel zoom in OS X is not the same as in Windows. You're simply zooming in on the screen using magnification, not scaling. If you use the dedicated zoom function in Excel, you'll get the smooth scaling you're expecting.