iMac Blurry Text, Fuzzy Text, Jagged Text

Welcome to the discussions!

What resolution is the display set at? Anything outside of the 1920 x 1200 will look fuzzy.

If it is set at the native resolution, then there may be an issue with the graphics chipset. A call to Apple would be in order.

For what it's worth -- I've been having the exact same problem. Images on the screen are gorgeous, but text is awful -- all of the fonts have jagged edges. Found a blog written by a Mac OS X developer (I think) who said that it's not a display problem, that it's really instead a software problem.

MacBook Mac OS X (10.4.6)

I am also finding these issues in my brand new 17 inch 1.83 model.

Over-contrasty screen, jagged lines and text...

What's interesting is when the iMac first boots up. As the desktop appears, the screen image looks great. Then just three seconds later it changes. The contrast seems to go to extreme settings (the whites look too white, and the darks too dark.) And the text and icons appear slightly more jagged than expected.

I know that unlike the Power PC processors, the Intel chips don't have their own VRAM and have to borrow from the regular RAM. So when your computer says you have 512RAM, you really have something like 480. 32 going to the video screen.

Could this be an issue?

Would installing more RAM improve the image quality?

Or is it all in the video card?

I've tried recalibrating the monitor and changing the resolution, both having little to no effect.

Any help would be most appreciated.

Thanks in advance!

Yes, I'm having the same problem with my new iMac 20" Intel Core 2 Duo. The resolution is set at 1680x1050. I've triied every font smoothing setting, leaving each on for a couuple of hours to see if it was my eyesight. But it never imprroved.

The effects I am seeing include:
- a reddish halo on the left edge of most text
- a blotchy, muddy appearance on selected text (such as highlighhted folder names)
- grainy appearance on small font sizes (under 9 points).

I also have a 20" iMac from 2003 (you know...the ones that overheat and can't play DVDs!) and thhere is a distinct difference when viewed side-by-side with this new machine. The fonts on the 2003 iMac are crisp, tight, and clean.

Is it worth calling Apple, or is this an unrrecognized defect that is found on all neew machines? Between thhe overheating iMac, a video iPod thhat won't stop rebooting, and now this..I'm really feeling screewed by Apple.

p.s. note thhe doubled characters...this is a feeature of my new keeyboard apparently. What a charm!

-bogboy

I created a new user in the Accounts preferences and booted from that account. Believe it or not, the problem was solved.

Give it a try!