Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MobyDills

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Sep 19, 2015
18
12
CA
Fonts look great on my Macbook Pro M1, but hooked up a new work-issued monitor to it and the fonts look very jagged. Is there any way to enable font smoothing in Monterey?

Thanks in advance for any help.
 

Tozovac

macrumors 68040
Jun 12, 2014
3,034
3,233
It's amazing how good my 30" Cinema Display (from 2005) looks when hooked up to my work laptop (surface pro with windows 11) vs. how awful it looks when hooked up to either my M1 MBA or M1 Mac mini. With any choice of font smoothing (0, 1, 2, 3), it looks washed out and fuzzy with the M1's.

Anyone know why this is?

Come on Apple, what gives?
 
  • Like
Reactions: sopack

marinersaptcomplex

macrumors 6502
Sep 20, 2021
423
553
Unfortunately MacOS has been built for the Retina Display. Even on the Apple-designed-and-sold LG 4K 24" Monitor texts appears jagged.

To get the ultracrisp text you are used to on your built-in display, you need a PPI of 218. There are 2 monitors on the market currently that have this: the Pro Display XDR and the LG UltraFine 5k. (There was also an LG UltraFine 21.5" 4K which had a 218 PPI, but was replaced with the aforementioned 24" lower PPI model in 2019).
 

MacGizmo

macrumors 68040
Apr 27, 2003
3,200
2,503
Arizona
I've seen the same results with every display I've hooked up to the Mac since the first 5k Retina iMac was introduced. There just is no other substitute (other than Apple's out-of-reach-for-most-people XDR display) on the Mac.

I got spoiled with the first 5k iMac years ago, so when I replaced it with a 16" MBP, I got the LG Ultrafine 5k display to go with it. Now that I want to add another display, I'm stuck because I would really like a 4K display with a larger screen, but there simply are no options.

Putting any display next to the LG Ultrafine 5K is like looking through a dirty window. The brightness, color and crispness of the text all absolutely suck in comparison. I had a $2,000+ 4k display that I immediately returned because it was just so bad that I couldn't stand even using it as a secondary screen for reading email, Twitter, calendar, etc. I couldn't use it for keeping color panels on while using Photoshop, InDesign, etc. because the colors were just so inaccurate.

I don't understand why a 3rd-party manufacturer hasn't filled this gap in display quality (other than LG with one single display). Even more dumbfounding is why Apple refuses to offer a large sized consumer level retina display. I get that the need for this type of display is not as large as that of low-priced/low-quality displays, but it's certainly big enough that they could not only own this specific market, but grow it.
 

MrGunny94

macrumors 65816
Dec 3, 2016
1,147
674
Malaga, Spain
I've seen the same results with every display I've hooked up to the Mac since the first 5k Retina iMac was introduced. There just is no other substitute (other than Apple's out-of-reach-for-most-people XDR display) on the Mac.

I got spoiled with the first 5k iMac years ago, so when I replaced it with a 16" MBP, I got the LG Ultrafine 5k display to go with it. Now that I want to add another display, I'm stuck because I would really like a 4K display with a larger screen, but there simply are no options.

Putting any display next to the LG Ultrafine 5K is like looking through a dirty window. The brightness, color and crispness of the text all absolutely suck in comparison. I had a $2,000+ 4k display that I immediately returned because it was just so bad that I couldn't stand even using it as a secondary screen for reading email, Twitter, calendar, etc. I couldn't use it for keeping color panels on while using Photoshop, InDesign, etc. because the colors were just so inaccurate.

I don't understand why a 3rd-party manufacturer hasn't filled this gap in display quality (other than LG with one single display). Even more dumbfounding is why Apple refuses to offer a large sized consumer level retina display. I get that the need for this type of display is not as large as that of low-priced/low-quality displays, but it's certainly big enough that they could not only own this specific market, but grow it.
It's a very niche use case of people like us who worry about PPIs. Gamers care about refresh rate and fake "1ms" rather than resolution.

I do understand yours and everyone's frustration here I got dual Huawei Mateview and at the time last year it was the only monitors I could buy with some proper resolution and PPI, I still suffer from this issue as I'm using 1707p scaling.

Honestly I have been looking into the Studio Display but I got my dual mate views for 623€.
 

RedTheReader

macrumors 6502a
Nov 18, 2019
531
1,311
Anyone know why this is?
They removed sub-pixel antialiasing in Mojave to make text rendering slightly easier/faster/more efficient.

Gamers care about refresh rate and fake "1ms" rather than resolution.
Response time isn't "fake;" it matters. If you have a slow screen, it ruins the smoothness of 120+ Hz. This is partly why I often find my 60Hz iPhone 11 Pro Max to feel smoother than my 120Hz 14" MacBook Pro.
 

MrGunny94

macrumors 65816
Dec 3, 2016
1,147
674
Malaga, Spain
They removed sub-pixel antialiasing in Mojave to make text rendering slightly easier/faster/more efficient.


Response time isn't "fake;" it matters. If you have a slow screen, it ruins the smoothness of 120+ Hz. This is partly why I often find my 60Hz iPhone 11 Pro Max to feel smoother than my 120Hz 14" MacBook Pro.
Yes, however I was talking about the fake 1ms panels that are sold that people do believe are 1ms despite the Fast Response Time mode not being increased (and overall losing quality)
 
  • Like
Reactions: RedTheReader

Fred Zed

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2019
5,792
6,485
Upstate NY . Was FL.
that's my question too. Did you find an answer?

It does. I can clearly see the difference in the fonts when comparing two identical MacBook 14 next to each other. When one has the values changed. It’s very noticeable primarily in the Apple menu settings etc. the lighter sub fonts look much lighter when value is zero.
 
  • Like
Reactions: sopack

sopack

macrumors newbie
May 6, 2022
2
0
It does. I can clearly see the difference in the fonts when comparing two identical MacBook 14 next to each other. When one has the values changed. It’s very noticeable primarily in the Apple menu settings etc. the lighter sub fonts look much lighter when value is zero.
I wish there was a way to enable font smoothing only on external displays. I didn't want to mess with the internal display so I set the fontsmoothing back to 0, but external display is somehow less crisp now, especially when reading PDFs or writing text.
 

QuietOC

macrumors member
Mar 29, 2022
45
12
Does changing the values from 0,1,2 etc via the terminal window yield any changes when using the MBP display? Or is it just in my mind? :rolleyes:
In Monterey any positive number gets the same results. It is evidently just a boolean true or false now. Both settings use greyscale antialiasing. They are equally blurry. True just makes text slightly bolder.
 

Fred Zed

macrumors 603
Aug 15, 2019
5,792
6,485
Upstate NY . Was FL.
In Monterey any positive number gets the same results. It is evidently just a boolean true or false now. Both settings use greyscale antialiasing. They are equally blurry. True just makes text slightly bolder.

I was comparing my estranged wife’s MBP 14 to my MBP 14. Hers being default value mine changed. I could clearly notice it on the laptops display when in the system preferences menu . Otherwise without comparing I wouldn’t have noticed it probably.
 
Last edited:
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.