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0 pointscosmic_cheese1y ago0 comments

macOS dropped it a few years ago, primarily because there are no Macs with non-HiDPI displays any more (reducing benefit of subpixel AA) and to improve uniformity with iOS apps running on macOS via Catalyst (iOS has never supported subpixel AA, since it doesn’t play nice with frequently adjusted orientations).

Windows I believe still uses RGB subpixel AA, because OLED monitor users still need to tweak ClearType settings to make text not look bad.

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grishka1y ago

> because there are no Macs with non-HiDPI displays any more

That is not true. Apple still sells Macs that don't come with a screen, namely Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. People use these with non-HiDPI monitors they already own all the time.

da_chicken1y ago

That's not really the most charitable reading of GP's comment. I think they very clearly mean that Apple does not sell Macs with non-HiDPI displays anymore. It's not a configuration they sell, so they don't need to support those features anymore in their current offerings.

You're right that there's nothing stopping someone from hooking up an HDMI-to-VGA adapter for their 22" Trinitron from 2001, but that doesn't mean boat anchors are a meaningful market segment. It's not a consideration for why they should retain a font rendering feature for a modern OS. You're just going to have to suffer with fuzzy fonts for your retrogaming hobby.

kevin_thibedeau1y ago

The Trinitron will blur itself at 1600x1200. The problem is the legions of low PPI 1080p LCDs in business settings.

grishka1y ago

> It's not a configuration they sell

So what is the "configuration they sell" for the desktop Macs? The Studio Display that costs way too much for what it is, so to no one's surprise, they're not selling all that many of those? Or the Pro Display XDR for which the stand alone costs more than an entry-level Mac Mini? Sure no one will buy a $1600 monitor to use with their $600 Mac Mini. They'll get a much cheaper third-party 2K one.

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cosmic_cheeseOP1y ago

Sure, but they’re not going to optimize for that case because the bulk of their Mac sales are tied up in their laptops and a significant chunk (I’d hazard a guess over 50%) of people buying Studios/Pros especially but also Minis are pairing them with Studio Displays, Pro Display XDRs, or more recently the various third-party 2x HiDPI display offerings from the likes of Asus, BenQ, Dell, and Samsung.

thyristan1y ago

Subpixel AA for Macs is useless anyways, the fonts will look blurry no matter what you do on a Mac.

cosmic_cheeseOP1y ago

They’re fine to my eye, at least as good as well tuned freetype (as found on Ubuntu) as long as you’re either using a 2x HiDPI display or are using a “normal” DPI monitor with above average density (e.g. 2560x1440 27”) and have subpixel AA forced on.

Where it falls apart is at densities any lower, for example it struggles on those awful 1366x768 15.6” panels that it seemed like every other laptop was built with for a while. Similarly 24” 1080p and 32” 2560x1440 are pretty bad.

hnuser1234561y ago

I didn't have to do any cleartype tuning on my LG C2. But maybe since it's a TV they have room for conventional subpixel layouts.

wkat42421y ago

ohh maybe it was macOS I am confused with here. Sorry. I use every OS under the sun together.

Or it could have been the DirectWrite thing. I just don't remember where I read it.

I always thought cleartype was ugly by the way.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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grishka1y ago

> because there are no Macs with non-HiDPI displays any more

That is not true. Apple still sells Macs that don't come with a screen, namely Mac Mini, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro. People use these with non-HiDPI monitors they already own all the time.

da_chicken1y ago

kevin_thibedeau1y ago

The Trinitron will blur itself at 1600x1200. The problem is the legions of low PPI 1080p LCDs in business settings.

grishka1y ago

> It's not a configuration they sell

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cosmic_cheeseOP1y ago

thyristan1y ago

Subpixel AA for Macs is useless anyways, the fonts will look blurry no matter what you do on a Mac.

cosmic_cheeseOP1y ago

hnuser1234561y ago

I didn't have to do any cleartype tuning on my LG C2. But maybe since it's a TV they have room for conventional subpixel layouts.

wkat42421y ago

ohh maybe it was macOS I am confused with here. Sorry. I use every OS under the sun together.

Or it could have been the DirectWrite thing. I just don't remember where I read it.

I always thought cleartype was ugly by the way.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse