Fonts don't look as good on macOS

[srid]

[j-steinbach]

Can you add a "good" image for comparison? On the first glance this doesn't look "bad".

[srid]

Here's how it looks on Linux. Notice the lack of clear contrast between bold and regular text.

[j-steinbach]

Ah, I see it. The Linux font looks crisper, the Mac one is way thicker.

For anyone having trouble seeing it: compare the Emanote is currently in beta phase lines.

One good technique for comparison is to download the pictures, and then switching between them quickly.

[Ideally I knew how to create a GIF with the comparison.. 😸 ]

[srid]

We could switch to a different font that looks good on all OS.

Doing this is in Emanate should be trivial. We just replace the font files here, and change their reference here and here.

[j-steinbach]

I don't have a Mac, so I can't test this, but are you sure that it is simply "Nunito doesn't look good on MacOS"? There are a few things that come to my mind:

• Does this happen only on your single machine? Or does it happen across all Apple devices?
• It might be an issue with Retina displays -> Fix blurry fonts (Note: This is literally a random link I just came across)
  • Does this happen on each screen resolution?
• Does this also happen with the default font-fallback and/or Mac-only fonts?
• Does this happen on different browsers?

I am no expert on fonts/typography, but I do enjoy wasting my time and playing with it. Fonts are a rabbit-hole, and I heavily recommend against diving down the burrows and searching the perfect font when we are not sure yet that this doesn't happen with all/most fonts on MacOS.

[srid]

are you sure that it is simply "Nunito doesn't look good on MacOS"?

I don't know really, I haven't investigated the problem. Maybe it is something to do with our use of font weights.

The screenshot I posted above is from M1 MacBook Air, running macOS Monterey and Safari browser in default configuration (nothing customized).

I heavily recommend against diving down the burrows and searching the perfect font when we are not sure yet that this doesn't happen with all/most fonts on MacOS.

Agreed.

[j-steinbach]

Re: GIF

Actually quite simple: convert -delay 100 -loop 0 *.jpeg animatedGIF.gif.

Ideally the images have an identical size & viewport, but I think this demonstrates the issue quite well: