iPad arrived but I'm a bit disappointed

[andothfc]

I highly doubt there's anything wrong with your iPad. fonts just aren't that smooth in, especially in comparison to the iPhone 4 (the difference is pretty embarrassing actually).

The iPad has an even lower pixel density than the 3GS so you're probably just noticing that.

The iPad just isn't a great screen. To hit the price point Apple wanted they just weren't able to get anything better. Just wait until next year's 'retina display' model.

 

[Piggie]

I highly doubt there's anything wrong with your iPad. fonts just aren't that smooth in, especially in comparison to the iPhone 4 (the difference is pretty embarrassing actually).

The iPad has an even lower pixel density than the 3GS so you're probably just noticing that.

The iPad just isn't a great screen. To hit the price point Apple wanted they just weren't able to get anything better. Just wait until next year's 'retina display' model.

Well, to be fair, I'd not really say it was not a great, screen it is a great screen it just could really benefit from being an even higher resolution great screen

 

[Consultant]

"Pc owners pay hundreds of dollars for video cards to get good anti-aliasing."

"sounds like you are not used to the high quality font rendering."

What on earth as you talking about?

Sounds like you are totally getting Anti-Aliasing as used in 3D games to smooth out Jaggies in games and typeface smoothing (which you can't do on the iPad) totally mixed up.

Pretty much the main time PC people are exposed to anti-alising is in games. While Apple product has it built in.

Guess you haven't use and Apple product if you don't think it has typeface anti-aliasing.

 

[HiRez]

No typeface smoothing on ipad? I doubt that- they all look smoothly aliased to me. Definitely no Anti-aliasing in games yet though- roll on iOS4 (iPad edition).

Fonts are definitely smoothed (antialiased) on the iPad...or something is corrupted in the OS if it's not. But, 1024 x 768 at this screen size is pretty low resolution, so it just doesn't have the pixels to do really good antialiasing. Antialiasing isn't good without pixels to work with, and it fact it can even make things worse in some cases (blurriness and noticeable "jaggies"). It's only 132 ppi, which is even lower than the original iPhone (164 ppi), and the antialiasing wasn't very good on that either.

Next iPad screen should be 1600 x 1200, which would give a nice 206 ppi, not as high as the iPhone 4, but should look really sharp.

 

[Piggie]

Fonts are definitely smoothed (antialiased) on the iPad...or something is corrupted in the OS if it's not. But, 1024 x 768 at this screen size is pretty low resolution, so it just doesn't have the pixels to do really good antialiasing. Antialiasing isn't good without pixels to work with, and it fact it can even make things worse in some cases (blurriness and noticeable "jaggies"). It's only 132 ppi, which is even lower than the original iPhone (164 ppi), and the antialiasing wasn't very good on that either.

Next iPad screen should be 1600 x 1200, which would give a nice 206 ppi, not as high as the iPhone 4, but should look really sharp.

Did you read this web page about how sub pixel anti aliasing works on monitors?

http://www.grc.com/ctwhat.htm
ONLY Landscape . . . not Portrait!

How can you implement "font smoothing" when you don't know if the sub pixels are going to be held (the Ipad held) vertically or horizontally?

 

[rdowns]

You've all got me worried now.

I have the iPad on my lap so I'm not too close to the screen.

I'll check out my workmates iPads tomorrow to see if it's faulty.

You're probably just holding it wrong.

 

[HiRez]

Did you read this web page about how sub pixel anti aliasing works on monitors?

http://www.grc.com/ctwhat.htm
ONLY Landscape . . . not Portrait!

How can you implement "font smoothing" when you don't know if the sub pixels are going to be held (the Ipad held) vertically or horizontally?

I guess it depends on how you define the term 'font smoothing'. This can imply either traditional pixel antialiasing or subpixel antialiasing. The iPad doesn't use subpixel AA in either orientation, but it can still do full pixel AA. Here's an example from two screen shots that I stuck together and scaled up in Photoshop (using Nearest Neighbor to not change pixels):



Clearly you can see it is antialiasing ('smoothing') text in both orientations (the size of the text changed with the orientation).

 

[blackNBUK]

Did you read this web page about how sub pixel anti aliasing works on monitors?

http://www.grc.com/ctwhat.htm
ONLY Landscape . . . not Portrait!

How can you implement "font smoothing" when you don't know if the sub pixels are going to be held (the Ipad held) vertically or horizontally?

The iPad does know which way round it is being held so theoretically it could use one sub-pixel scheme in portrait and another in landscape. You'd then have the problem of letters looking slightly different between the orientations but I think it could be done in theory.

 

[HiRez]

Meh. Subpixel AA is overrated because while it can help in some instances, it doesn't in others and can have undesirable effects depending on the content. Just pump up the resolution like in the 'Retina' display and you won't need to bother with subpixel AA at all, nor deal with the problems.

 

[bowlerman625]

We've got 2 here...screens are perfect! Look wonderful.

 

[brinatech.com]

I also had the same reaction when I first got the ipad. Web pages look
much smoother on my iPhone 3gs and MacBook compared to the ipad. After a while a I got use to it. The biggest thing was that after I used my ipad for a couple of weeks it was hard to go back to using a mouse. web surfing and email is so natural with touch. You don't realize how nice touch control is until you have to use a mouse and keyboard. The iPhone has touch but
the screen size is not big enough. I would give the ipad at least 3 or 4 weeks of use before you give up on it. Also take a look at some of the great ipad apps that you won't find on any other platform.

 

[DaBrain]

Just to add another thought to this topic:

I noticed the crappy fonts when using safari. However, when I switched to Atomic browser and I use all the times cause of my eyesight the feature of increase font size and the ability to save that size for each site I want to, that I no long had that issue!

I like bold dark fonts that makes it easy reading for me! Perhaps that's why it's not an issue for me.

Perhaps giving that a try will give you more enjoyable reading when surfing the web?

 

[GlynJones]

Well after comparing mine with a friends I can confirm that their is nothing wrong with my iPad .

A lot of it is to do with the fonts used by some website and i'll give atomic browser a go. I also thing a lot of it is to do with the DPI used by the iPad in comparison to the iPhone. Hopefully iPad V2 will have the retina display like the iPhone 4.

Thanks everyone for all their help.

 

[Liam8]

I think they're great!

 

[blackNBUK]

Well after comparing mine with a friends I can confirm that their is nothing wrong with my iPad .

A lot of it is to do with the fonts used by some website and i'll give atomic browser a go. I also thing a lot of it is to do with the DPI used by the iPad in comparison to the iPhone. Hopefully iPad V2 will have the retina display like the iPhone 4.

Thanks everyone for all their help.

I wouldn't get your hopes up too high for a retina display for iPad 2. A 300dpi+ screen with a 10" diagonal would be a phenomenal achievement both in terms of screen technology and having the sheer CPU/GPU horsepower to drive it.

The most I can see happening would be a smaller bump to 1280x1024. That would allow Safari to view full pages in portrait without downsizing anything. On the flip-side it would also mean that images in Safari in landscape mode would have to be upscaled slightly.

It will be interesting to see now Apple market the 'Retina' display on the iPad. As the iPad is normally used at a longer distance a lower dpi could give the same effect as the Retina display on the iPhone 4. Of course if they did this then they'd get flack from all sides about calling something 'Retina' when it isn't 300dpi+.

 

[chrono1081]

The pixels on the iPad are larger which is why things look pixellated. The larger pixels allow for a farther viewing distance.

Its the same way TVs work (and why its not the greatest idea to use an LCD TV as a computer monitor although some like it).

There are a lot of people saying this thing and that thing but what I said above i the REAL reason.

 

[tuamtuem]

After 10 days of excitement it has finally arrived

Synced it all up then decided to have a play. I am disappointed by the screen. Everything looks as if it is not a native resolution even the iPad specific apps.

Have I got a dud or are they all like this? The lettering just doesn't seem sharp at all

How many distance between iPad and your eye?

 

[WilliamG]

Well after comparing mine with a friends I can confirm that their is nothing wrong with my iPad .

A lot of it is to do with the fonts used by some website and i'll give atomic browser a go. I also thing a lot of it is to do with the DPI used by the iPad in comparison to the iPhone. Hopefully iPad V2 will have the retina display like the iPhone 4.

Thanks everyone for all their help.

I knew you'd find that there's nothing wrong with your iPad. The iPad screen just... well.... for text it simply sucks. It's that simple. There are those who will deny this (and they're not wrong - they just don't notice), and there are those who notice the dpi deficiency on the iPad from a mile away.

And then, as soon as you own an iPhone 4 you'll REALLY start to notice the iPad pixel structure... *sigh*

Oh well, - hopefully next year we'll get 4x the resolution.

 

[GlynJones]

How many distance between iPad and your eye?

On my lap but I also have very good eyesight