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microsoft / cascadia-code

This is a fun, new monospaced font that includes programming ligatures and is designed to enhance the modern look and feel of the Windows Terminal.
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Artifact on some letterforms with variable WOFF2s #493

Closed idan closed 3 years ago

idan commented 3 years ago

Cascadia family version

2105.24

Cascadia family variant(s)

Cascadia Code (the version with ligatures)

Font file format(s)

.woff2 (variable)

Platform

MacOS 10.15.7

Other Software

Firefox 89.0b15 Chrome 91.0.4472.77

What happened?

Some characters, notably lowercase t exhibit an artifact on the edges of the stems that looks like a "dot" at smaller sizes, but is actually some kind of discontinuity in the edge of the glyph:

image

At smaller sizes, it's perceptible as well:

image image image

The effect is most pronounced on non-retina displays. It's not limited to the t, but now that I'm looking for other examples, I'm not seeing them.

I see similar artifacts in both Firefox and Chrome, at the same location on the stems.

Thanks!

/cc @wattenberger

aaronbell commented 3 years ago

Thanks for the feedback! Unfortunately, that is due to an issue with MacOS and how it renders variable fonts built like Cascadia Code is built. Ultimately it isn’t a bug with the font that I plan to resolve.

However, the static instances should work fine. If the rendering irritates you, I suggest using the statics.

idan commented 3 years ago

@aaronbell Oh interesting! Do you know what others are calling this problem with the MacOS rasterizer, so that I can google and hopefully track it?

It's sad to not be able to use the variable builds, font-weight: 350 was my Goldilocks for a thing 😢

aaronbell commented 3 years ago

Check out #350 for some related info on the problem.

With MacOS, the issue is caused by co-linear paths that cause overlapping semitransparent pixels, which become darker.