Font anti-aliasing (smoothing)

Which is wrong ?

The program or your screen ?

Here is what I get on mine:



Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE mercredi 7 janvier 2009 14:01:58)

They have darkened the fonts in Pages '09. I compared it to Pages '08, which you're are right had fuzzy fonts because of the Safari-based text engine. It's still not as dark as Word (which, I think is too dark), but it's improved.

Scott

I agree that the text rendering in previous versions of Pages was a sticking point. It appears to be much improved now.

Pages clearly states that it uses the settings defined in the System Preferences.

It's page 84 of the English PDF User Guide '08



It's page 83 in the English PDF User Guide '09.

Yvan KOENIG (from FRANCE jeudi 8 janvier 2009 14:26:29)

I'm afraid the previous user guide was wrong. They changed the behaviour with '09. You can open the same document in the two versions side by side, and you will see a difference. At least if you get real close.

If your eyes are getting as weak as mine, you may need to take a screen shot and zoom in on the screen shot:

http://pagesfaq.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-do-pages-characters-look-blurry.html

This was the main reason I stayed away from Pages in the past. I really wanted to use, but got headaches from the blurry fonts. As soon as I saw this was fixed, I threw Office in the trash.

BTW, posting that huge screenshot was very obnoxious.

I can't figure out if the've completely solved it, but they definitely have changed the smoothing technology. My eyes are ok with the new version.
Hurrah!

Thank you to everyone who posted to this thread.

I have not tried Pages '09 yet as I want to "save" my 30 day trial when I actually have time to try it.

The main reason I currently use Nisus Writer Pro, Bean, and DevonThink (and even, Word, ugh) instead of Pages '08 was due to the way it did NOT adhere to the setting in System Preferences. I originally fell in love with Macs once I used Safari for Windows because I loved the font rendering of it. Sadly Pages '08 was horrible.

I did a Google search to verify my findings, and Magnus Lewan's Pages FAQ Blog was extremely helpful and informative. Magnus' blog also linked to the blog below which was also very helpful:

http://www.betalogue.com/2006/02/09/font-smoothing-in-pages-more-discussion/

When I have time I'll give Pages '09 a try again, although I do love Nisus Writer Pro, Bean, and DevonThink. Each program is a bit different, and each can have their place in my personal workflow. I hope Apple did make a change to this "deal breaker" for me. To me, it was the worst thing about Pages.

Thanks again to everyone. I felt so strongly about this that I had to finally create an Apple Forum Alias, and this is my first post ever.

Forums rock!

Another "font snob" here 😉 and I too can confirm that font display on my MBP is superior with iWork 09 in comparison to 08 and 06. And I too think the MS Word display is too dark, and that iWorks 09 is the best looking font display thus far. I like to use Garamond 3, Electra, Garamond Premier Pro and Bembo...all look great in iWork 09!

I'm glad to see these responses to this nagging question. I've always wanted to prefer Pages and have even switched over. But, when I was forced to use Word, I saw that the very same documents looked sharper. Now I understand why.

Hooray for these "little" fixes that affect every word we see in Pages. I guess I'll bite the bullet and get iWork '09.