fonts look horrible on my "new" 17" iMAC

how do I get nice clear fonts to appear, pls go to dpreview.com and see what i see, the yellow text looks fat an blurry, what changes can i do?

Hi jimmy99james. First of all, Welcome to Mac Forums!

Secondly, you MAY not have a problem. Fonts on Macs are intentionally smoother and rounder than they are on PCs or on Linux. For a comparison, see my Linux to Mac Switcher's Guide at:

http://www.campbell-tx.net/MacOSX/Linux2Mac/linux2mac.html

and scroll about half way down to the section entitled "Font Rendering". Have a look at the three screen shots. Does this accurately represent your problem perhaps?

If you coming to Macs from Windows or Linux, you will notice that fonts just don't seem as crisp. Unfortunately, there isn't a lot you can do about it. My guide does mention a few things, but in the end, this is a style decision by the Mac team. Love it or hate it, that is how Macs are.

Now let me stretch my credibility a bit. As you can probably tell, I came to Mac from Linux and I was more than just a little distressed at the font rendering on Macs. That was the genesis of the section in my guide. The "stretch" part is this - after a while on Macs, you will start to *like* the smoother rounder fonts. These days, I really notice the jagged edgy fonts on Windows and don't like them nearly as much. This takes time though - at first I was honestly appalled. I decided that the tradeoff of "muddier" looking fonts was worth it to drive a Mac, but I was not happy about it. Over time though, this disappeared, and I really like it now.

If your font rendering look significantly worse than what you see in the screen shots in the guide, let us know. Else, follow the guide's (minimal) suggestions for tightening up the font rendering and grit your teeth and live with it for a bit. You may find you like it after a while...

I think that dpreview site has made an unfortunate choice of font or font size, it does look a bit scruffy. I think it's a funny size.

I much prefer the Macs font smoothing to anything else (Windows' one is particularly borked).

knightlie said:

I think that dpreview site has made an unfortunate choice of font or font size, it does look a bit scruffy. I think it's a funny size.

I much prefer the Macs font smoothing to anything else (Windows' one is particularly borked).

Click to expand...

Agreed and that Yellow font they choose is not the best for a website. My opinion anyway. I looked at DPReview on my Ubuntu Thinkpad and did not like that yellow font there either.

Agreed with Mac57 also, takes some getting used to. Now Windows systems make me cringe since I am so used to using Macs.

aaaaaaagh! That site hurts me. The high contrast. the yellow fonts (I'm using Windows + IE at the moment)

so is it "normal" to have fuzzy fonts on a MAC?

everything else is clear (well most!) except my fav website (DPREVIEW.COM)

on my old PC LCD monitor it only goes up to 1024 X 768 and it has been clear in the fonts area for the past 6 years, I get this 17"iMAC and I am really struggling with the fonts, are there any "tru Type fonts" on MAC?

will a 2nd ACD monitor fix this problem and give me clear fonts?

btw: what are the defualts ? times new roman 16?

thanks all for your help thus far.

That's something I never took into consideration in the consideration of my Mac. I sure hope it doesn't pose a problem for me.

I didn't like the fonts on my 15" MBP when I first got it. It took maybe two days of using the computer and well, I didn't notice them anymore. They look fine to me now.

Use it a few days, you may not notice them anymore either.

jimmy99james said:

everything else is clear (well most!) except my fav website (DPREVIEW.COM)

Click to expand...

It's that site - a bad choice of font size and colour.

thanks Guys, I'm gettig used to it now(i tink), slowly, I have also realized that I am using my iMAC on my coffee table with me sitting at the edge of my sofa, so i'm looking at the screen from a high angle. it's getting better!

Great! I was pretty sure it would. Enjoy your Mac!