Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Flash does anti-aliasing

Author:jjracc@rit.edu
Posted:1/24/2000; 7:48:46 AM
Topic:Flash in Manilla?
Msg #:14784 (In response to 14760)
Prev/Next:14783 / 14785

As has already been said, major OSes already include system-level anti-aliasing:

For specific instructions on a Mac:

  1. Open the Appearance control panel.

  2. Go to the "Fonts" tab in the control panel.

  3. Turn on "Smooth all fonts on screen."

  4. Set a minimum size for font smoothing (anti-aliasing); it must be 12 points or greater. Be aware that the normal system font sizes (for menus and other interface elements, but not window contents) are 12 point.

The anti-aliasing feature, as far as I can tell, is turned on by default on all new Macs (and has been, since Mac OS 8.5 came out more than a year ago) and by system upgrades from older versions to Mac OS 8.5+. Turning it off, or setting the minimum to a slightly larger size, can still improve screen redraw performance noticeably, particularly on slower Macs.

Note: Because Macs assume a screen resolution of 72 dpi (vs. 96 dpi for Windows), Macs will use fewer pixels to render a 12 point font than a Windows computer will. That generally means that anti-aliasing is a little less effective, to my eye, on small fonts on a Mac screen. (It also means that Macs can display "more" at 1024x768 and other screen sizes than Windows computers can. Compare a Word document at the same zoom setting on a Mac vs. a Windows PC, for example.) But then again, I use Windows hardly ever.

There are also alternative system-level anti-aliasing schemes for the Mac, too.

One is Adobe Type Manager -- the ubiquitous ATM. ATM 4 (I think that's where they started it) and later can anti-alias type, but only do so with PostScript Type 1 fonts (not TrueType).

Greg Landwebber's shareware SmoothType extension also does system-level anti-aliasing; it works on both PostScript and TrueType fonts. It has been out for many years and should easily be found via Versiontracker.com. I tend to find that its anti-aliasing is a little too blurry for my degenerating eyes. :)



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