Expose -webkit-text-stroke (Fonts are too thin on Ubuntu 16.10)

[sryze]

• VSCode Version: 1.8.1
• OS Version: Ubuntu 16.10 amd64

I use VS Code on Windows, Mac and since recently Linux, and for some reason text looks much thinner on Linux than on other systems, which makes it a little bit harder to read. Here is a screenshot:

Font settings:

    "editor.fontSize": 14,
    "editor.fontFamily": "Source Code Pro",
    "window.zoomLevel": 0

System font settings:

• Antialiasing: RGBA
• Hinting: Slight
• Text scaling factor: 1.00

I've tried various combinations of antialiasing and hinting settings but they all look as bad or worse.

[sryze]

For what it's worth, Atom has the same problem but I was able to overcome it by adding the following to my stylesheet (found somewhere on the internet):

body, .editor {
  -webkit-text-stroke: .03em;
}

This made text a little bit thicker. Can I do something like this with Visual Studio Code?

[FabianLauer]

Agreed, specifically in dark color themes fonts can be hard to read on Ubuntu. I'm using this as a remedy:

body {
    -webkit-text-stroke: 0.2px;
    text-shadow: 0 0 0.05px;
}

How about a new user setting to make text appear "bolder"?

[m-thorsen]

This is still an issue with later Electron versions, and especially so on Arch Linux (possibly others) where Electron subpixel rendering isn't working at all (just grayscale). Ref: electron/electron#12541

Since light themes don't respond as well to these fixes as dark themes, I'd like to propose something a bit more granular - like workbench.fontEmboldening with a few options:

• "none" // default
• "smooth" // just the text-stroke
• "sharp" // just the text-shadow
• "full" // both shadow and stroke

The alternative would of course be to allow user styles (like Atom), but I seem to recall there were performance concerns?

[albertorestifo]

Any progress on this front?

[pavangayakwad]

Any updates on this?

[Serra53]

Any updates on this?

[rhighs]

Any update on this?