Messages text is blurry

[galad87]

The text of the messages isn't aligned properly, and it's often blurry. Even on a Retina display is noticeable.

[helje5]

I've specifically been told that this is the case on Retina displays (5k), but I'm not sure I can repro this (also I don't align anything, it is all drawn by macOS). Can you provide a sample screenshot, ideally with TextEdit side by side showing the same text in the same font? That would be splendid.

(I suspect it may be some text anti aliasing setting)

[galad87]

Slack: Textedit: Shrugs:

Unfortunately it's not the same font, but notice how the characters in Shrugs are never aligned to the pixels grid, while they are often aligned in TextEdit and Slack, and even not aligned lines are more blurry.

[galad87]

It doesn't always happens, so I guess sometimes the text views are not aligned properly,

[helje5]

Unfortunately the screenshots show 3 different fonts (and the textedit one even has a different background color). When I first heard about the issue, I did a side by side comparison w/ TextEdit and couldn't really reproduce the problem.

As mentioned my best guess right now is that this is caused by some anti-aliasing setting which results in different results on different monitors / setups. But I'll also play with offsetting the views a little and see whether this gives a difference (I think it shouldn't matter, I don't do any custom drawing and I don't think I do anything weird w/ positioning).

On what display(s) and macOS version are you seeing the issue? Does the font/drawing change if you select the text (this lets the field editor take over drawing, which often shows issues).

BTW: Slack has a completely different font anyways (and drawing engine as well). Eventually I should add a proper viewing font selection in the preferences, today you can only +/- the size.

[galad87]

I remember there was an Xcode option to color misaligned views on iOS, but can't remember if there is a macOS equivalent, I found only a way to color misaligned images in Xcode.

macOS 10.15.6 beta 2 on a 4k display.

[helje5]

That view debugging option is disabled for AppKit apps, and I think that this indeed works different to iOS. I'll research it a little more.

[helje5]

I'm wondering whether this is related in any way:

• The Subpixel AA Debacle and Font Rendering

Specifically:

Folks have been reporting this as an issue with HD (1080P) monitors, and thinking that having a, say, a 4K external monitor would resolve it. That's not been my experience. I've found you need a full-retina (~220 ppi) monitor for Mojave to look good

[galad87]

No it's not. The issue is clearly caused by something being misaligned somewhere in the drawing code. Antialiasing issues look different.

Check these two screenshots from two different channels in Shrugs, same text, one is properly aligned and the other is not.