Any way to disable font smoothing in Big Sur?

[Ron21]

Seems the option is gone from System Preferences.

*Edit* possible with this command:

This works for me:

defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to the settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from the settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

Thanks to @KALLT !

 

[cmhsam]

?...Prefer the font in BS vs Catalina...when connected to non retina display seems to be much sharper vs Catalina (YMMV)

 

[Ron21]

I prefer the look of fonts in Catalina, they looked less 'bold', at least to my eye. In terms of overall sharpness, i'd say it's about the same on my 27" 4K monitor.

This was easily set in all previous versions of MacOS with the font smoothing option, not sure why they removed it.

 

[Ron21]

I think it's still possible via terminal using this command:

defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO

Requires a restart.

Edit - NVM, I don't think this command changes anything in Big Sur.

 

[brewno]

Well, fonts look terrible in my 4k monitor.

 

[Ron21]

Well, fonts look terrible in my 4k monitor.

I agree.

 

[nmeed]

This sucks.

Edit:

Have you guys looked at Google? It looks so bad. I hate font smoothing, man. I swear it's killing my eyes too.

 

[Ron21]

This sucks.

Edit:

Have you guys looked at Google? It looks so bad. I hate font smoothing, man. I swear it's killing my eyes too.

I haven't found any solution so far, guess just have to get use to it...

 

[danius]

If there's a way to disable it, I'd like to know too. Thanks

 

[nmeed]

I haven't found any solution so far, guess just have to get use to it...

Sure seems like it. I think it's a lot more complicated then them just enabling font smoothing. For instance, the text on this website seems to be fine as far as I can tell, almost as if it's disabled. Whereas when you visit Google, it's an absolute train wreck. From what I can gather, they absolutely gutted the code behind whatever used to do the font smoothing. They're doing something new now. Oh well.

 

[Ron21]

Sure seems like it. I think it's a lot more complicated then them just enabling font smoothing. For instance, the text on this website seems to be fine as far as I can tell, almost as if it's disabled. Whereas when you visit Google, it's an absolute train wreck. From what I can gather, they absolutely gutted the code behind whatever used to do the font smoothing. They're doing something new now. Oh well.

Yep, I noticed that as well, it's not all fonts across the system.

Just certain areas and certain sites that stand out to my eyes, as far as I can tell.

 

[bryan85]

I've always disabled font smoothing. It makes fonts on my 38" monitor look like complete trash. I tried enabling HiDPI, which does seem to help however, this totally f*cks my windows VM(scaling up and down).

I'm pretty upset I don't have a way to disable this.

 

[Ron21]

I've always disabled font smoothing. It makes fonts on my 38" monitor look like complete trash. I tried enabling HiDPI, which does seem to help however, this totally f*cks my windows VM(scaling up and down).

I'm pretty upset I don't have a way to disable this.

Yeah, I also did so as well, fonts just don't look great on external non-retina monitors with font smoothing. Even though I have a 27" 4k 163DPI monitor..

 

[KALLT]

This works for me:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to the settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from the settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

 

[Mythos99]

This works for me:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to my settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from your settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

Thank you for this! On my MBP 15 2015 everything looked a bit blurry, but after using this command, it's much better, everything is sharp again.

 

[burgman]

Well, fonts look terrible in my 4k monitor.

Well it is an IOS system

 

[Ron21]

This works for me:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to the settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from the settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

I think that did it, fonts looks better, thank you!

 

[danius]

This works for me:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to the settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from the settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

that worked for me too!
cheers

 

[bryan85]

This works for me:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to the settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from the settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

AH! Perfect!! Thank you! I searched for hours last night trying to find this. Fonts are back to normal now.

 

[nmeed]

This works for me:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to the settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from the settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

IT WORKS! OMG. Wow. How in the heck anyone could prefer font smoothing is beyond me. I'm very curious, how did you figure that out??? Thank you!

 

[Mythos99]

Hmm, even tho the text is better now, it's not as crisp as it used to be.

 

[cmhsam]

so does this make fonts better for non retina displays? For example if I am using my Dell u3419w which is 3440x1440?

 

[Ron21]

so does this make fonts better for non retina displays? For example if I am using my Dell u3419w which is 3440x1440?

Yes, but it depends on what you prefer. I don't like how font smoothing looks on non-retina displays and have always disabled that option.

 

[k4assasinbro]

This works for me:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

You have to log out (perhaps even reboot) to see the changes across the entire desktop.

I used to disable font smoothing in System Preferences → General prior to Big Sur, which is not possible anymore. Disabling it would add this defaults key to the settings. Upgrading to Big Sur removes that defaults key from the settings and thereby re-enables font smoothing, but you can still disable it.

Thank you so much!

 

[KTamas]

oh thank you so much for this