[Mac Big Sur] 'use_thin_strokes: true' appears to no longer work

[bluz71]

Hello Alacritty team,

I was a very happy Alacritty on Catalina user, especially the use_thin_strokes feature.

I upgraded to Big Sur and Alacritty's use_thin_strokes feature no longer has an effect, setting it to true or false results in no difference (at least with my setup). Note, I did restart Alacritty when toggling that feature.

I have been using Alacritty 0.6.0.

Has Apple changed APIs or is there something else I need to do at my end?

I really like use_thin_strokes, so I am sad that it appears to be gone on Big Sur.

Best regards.

[chrisduerr]

Has Apple changed APIs or is there something else I need to do at my end?

They've probably changed their APIs again. There has been some effort from Apple to remove this setting, it might just be gone now.

Could you see if #1635 (comment) works for you?

[chrisduerr]

We should set this manually on a per-application level, but that might not be working anymore.

[chrisduerr]

As reference for myself, this was our Mojave fix: https://github.com/alacritty/crossfont/blob/master/src/darwin/mod.rs#L256-L278.

[bluz71]

Could you see if #1635 (comment) works for you?

No unfortunately.

They've probably changed their APIs again. There has been some effort from Apple to remove this setting, it might just be gone now.

iTerm2 thin-strokes still works on Big Sur if that is a useful data point.

I would be interested if other Big Sur users encounter this issue. It would be nice to know if this is a Big Sur issue, or an issue just for me. At the moment I suspect all Big Sur users will encounter this.

Note, Apple absolutely nags you to upgrade, so it proves hard to resist. I now wish I hadn't.

[bluz71]

They've probably changed their APIs again. There has been some effort from Apple to remove this setting, it might just be gone now.

Could you see if #1635 (comment) works for you?

My mind may be playing tricks on me, but this time I did the following:

defaults write -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled -bool NO

Followed by logging out then logging back into my account and I think my alacritty fonts now look like they did in Catalina. The log out then log back in part is different than what I did previously.

But to be honest, I am not 100% sure since I can't easily toggle capability on and off.

For now I am pleased again, I think my alacritty fonts look good again (less fat and chunky).

This Macrumours thread led me to do the log out log in thingy:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/any-way-to-disable-font-smoothing-in-big-sur.2267601/

Cheers.

[chrisduerr]

Sounds like that's the only way to fix it then.

[bluz71]

Note, the alacritty team may wish to re-evaluate use_thin_strokes since it doesn't work for macOS versions prior to High Sierra (10.13 / 2017) and versions later than Catalina (10.15 / 2019).

At the very minimum the documentation for use_thin_strokes should note that it only works for High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina.

[chrisduerr]

Yeah, removing it eventually definitely seems like a good idea. Though while many people still are on Catalina and Mojave, it should be fine to keep it for now.

[bluz71]

For Alacritty on Big Sur, this is probably a better way to go (documentation wise if you so wish):

defaults write io.alacritty CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled 0

That will only tweak the CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled setting for Alacritty, not globally for everything.

Obviously, log out then log in will be required. Once set it should stick, it appears so to me.

[chrisduerr]

I'm surprised that works, since it's basically exactly what Alacritty calls internally to try and disable it.

[bluz71]

I'm surprised that works, since it's basically exactly what Alacritty calls internally to try and disable it.

Interesting. Maybe that the internal Alacritty functionality only effects the current running process not the actual application itself?

The other possibility is that I may be an unreliable narrator, I am purely basing my thoughts on observation, and it may be that my eyes are deceiving me. With most Alacritty settings there is live update feedback whilst this one appears to require a log out then log back in. I could screenshot things to gain confidence. But I actually now have a setup I like, so I don't want to jinx anything by going back. I like where I am now, I ain't touching nothing font wise.

First world problems.

[chrisduerr]

Interesting. Maybe that the internal Alacritty functionality only effects the current running process not the actual application itself?

It changes the global setting, that's why you need to restart it to make it work.

The other possibility is that I may be an unreliable narrator, I am purely basing my thoughts on observation, and it may be that my eyes are deceiving me. With most Alacritty settings there is live update feedback whilst this one appears to require a log out then log back in. I could screenshot things to gain confidence. But I actually now have a setup I like, so I don't want to jinx anything by going back. I like where I am now, I ain't touching nothing font wise.

Yeah, fair enough. That's why I'm not particularly concerned right now. As long as it works for you right now that should be good. If more users arrive with the same problem it might be worth revisiting this.

[bluz71]

It changes the global setting, that's why you need to restart it to make it work.

Quite likely, I think I created this request just after upgrading, probably no reboots or log outs involved.

That's why I'm not particularly concerned right now.

Yes, closing this is correct. Also this back and forth has likely provided some knowledge if other users hit the issue.

Best regards and many thanks.

[pronvis]

For me 'thin_strokes' still don't work :(

> defaults find CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled
Found 1 keys in domain 'io.alacritty': {
    CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled = 0;
}

Even after Mac reboot.

Any ideas how to fix?

[pronvis]

@bluz71 on forum by you url they say that Apple moved from CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled to AppleFontSmoothing with 4 values (from 0 to 3).
I tried

> defaults find AppleFontSmoothing
Found 1 keys in domain 'io.alacritty': {
    AppleFontSmoothing = 0;
}
Found 1 keys in domain 'alacritty': {
    AppleFontSmoothing = 0;
}

and 3 too, but with no success :(
(I reboot after changes)

[chrisduerr]

Since it's CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled, I'd assume that you might have to set AppleFontSmoothing to a non-zero value.

[pronvis]

yep, but as I mention - can't find any difference when value is set to 3 or to 0
upd: with 1 and 2 too

[bluz71]

After much experimentation I conclude that thin strokes does not work on Big Sur no matter what I do. I was mistaken a few posts up that I got it too work. My eyes tricked me. I am very sorry, I was an unreliable narrator.

My best workaround was to build a custom version of my preferred Iosevka font with 350 weight vs the default of 400 weight (aka regular). That gives me the thinness I want without fighting the OS. Looks excellent to me.

Use a thinner font, that's the solution I now believe.

I think Alacrity should get rid of use thin fonts since it only works for a small band of macOS versions. And it is not applicable to Linux and Windows.

[pronvis]

In iTerm use this strokes for anti-aliased text is still present, so it is possible to do the same in Alacritty.

[pronvis]

Related code in iTerm2 - if someone knows how to do something similar...

Also I found some thin related code in Alacritty, but from 2016: here

[chrisduerr]

Alacritty's current thin strokes code can be found here: https://github.com/alacritty/crossfont/blob/536d5c6685902209b29d86f1de329ccc8ad99f51/src/darwin/mod.rs#L227-L242

[pronvis]

I think this issue should be reopened

[bluz71]

Apple keeps changing it's font subsystem from release to release, that much is obvious.

The iTerm2 solution contains this comment:

// This seems to be available at least on 10.8 and later. The only reference to it is in
// WebKit. This causes text to render just a little lighter, which looks nicer.

Not exactly an official API. The iTerm2 author stumbled on something, tried it and liked the look (which is fine). But it is not how Apple wants folks to do things (me thinks).

After battling this issue for two weeks, which involved me going bonkers thinking something was working when it actually wasn't, I firmly believe the best solution is to use a thinner font. Fonts like Iosevka provide build script, hence font weight is adjustable for this particular font. So I built myself a thinner font which totally solved this issue.

Alacritty does not provide box drawing because simplicity and maintainability are desired goals.

use_thin_fonts seems to be a headache, firstly it is macOS only so probably should be named mac_use_thin_fonts, but it only works for High Sierra, Mojave and Catalina (nothing prior and currently nothing latter). Seems a platform specific burden.

I know some folks will want this, but I feel like we are battling against Apple itself.

My 2 cents.

[chrisnc]

For anyone following this issue, you can get thin strokes on latest Alacritty and macOS now, you just need to use:

$ defaults write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

The use_thin_strokes config field has been removed as discussed above.

If you still want smoothing (read: slightly bolder fonts) for the rest of the system, but not in Alacritty, you can do org.alacritty instead of -g in the above command. Personally I think it's much nicer on everything and would suggest people give it a try if they haven't before. (It requires a restart to take effect for the whole system, but Alacritty just needs to be relaunched for it to take effect, as it reads the default when loading fonts.)

The patches earlier in the thread are no longer necessary.