Fonts does not look sharp. How can I make them better? + normal look bold

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Fonts does not look sharp. How can I make them better? + normal look bold

Okay....

Fonts on Safari beta 3.0.2 and previous versions for windows
does not look like the fonts on IE, Firefox, Opera, Netscape.

A normal font in Safari looks allmost like a bold font in the other browsers.
A bold font in Safari looks like an overly bold font in the other browsers.

And then the fonts in Safari does not even look sharp.
What is the reason for that?
Is there something I can do to change the way Safari renders the fonts?

THE FONTS LOOK UGLY ON SARARI compared to what they look on the other browsers.

Why on earth did the Safari developers decide to render the fonts different than the other browsers?

Safari 3 beta 3.0.2, Windows XP Pro

Posted on Jun 23, 2007 8:33 AM

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Answer 1

Bobor

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Jun 23, 2007 8:43 AM in response to bongobongo

Well, I think the font look better in Safari...
If you want them sharper, go to Edit > Preferences > Apperance > Font Smoothing and set your desired level.

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Answer 2

bongobongo Author

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Jun 23, 2007 9:16 AM in response to Bobor

Are you using safari on windows or on os-x?

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Answer 3

etype2

Level 1

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Jun 23, 2007 9:51 AM in response to bongobongo

I think the fonts in Safari look better also. Firefox,not very good. 🙂

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Answer 4

Jun 23, 2007 10:33 AM in response to bongobongo

If I understand the other comments in this forum, certain screens do not render Safari's fonts very nicely. It may also be a matter of being used to one style or the other.

It would be interesting if you could publish a high-res screenshot taken with a digital camera.

I do not know which settings are possible for your particular screen, but someone here claimed that a setting for "sharpness" on his screen changed the appearance much for the better.

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Answer 5

Jun 23, 2007 2:31 PM in response to bongobongo

I'm also seeing excessively bold rendering, since I am using the Gadget font in OSX. This may make the one-pixel unaliased fonts look better in Windows, but on my Mac they are much too full-bodied.

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Answer 6

TildeBee

Level 7

31,923 points

Jun 23, 2007 2:51 PM in response to Gnarlodious

Gnarlodious --

You may have a font conflict . . .
If you're using Font Book as your font manager,
click on the application, and check your "All Fonts" pane.
Click the triangle down next to the name of the fonts with bullets.

You probably have an extra bold font in a usually used web font . . .
Like Times, Helvetica, or even Arial.

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Answer 7

Terrin

Level 1

120 points

Jun 23, 2007 11:31 PM in response to bongobongo

The problem you are experiencing is because Apple and Microsoft have two different philosophy's about rendering fonts. Microsoft believes in making the font crisp at the expense of preserving the original design of the font, whereas Apple believes in preserving the original design of the font sometimes at the expense of looking as sharp. For the Windows version of Safari Apple choose to use its method of font rendering over Microsoft's. To make a long story short, you can change around the default fonts that Apple uses in Safari (which may help you somewhat) , but not the way they are rendered. To change the fonts around go to Safari's preference menu and select appearance.

Here is an article on what you are experiencing.

http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html?hi=joel

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