Majove font smoothing

I have just upgraded to Majove and was caught up by the font smoothing issue. In app the fonts started to look thicker. I did not like it and found out that one can play around with the font smoothing using the command "defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 3" and playing with the number at the end. I did this, and indeed it changes the smoothing. However, I now regret that I changed the setting and have it to "defaults -currentHost write -globalDomain AppleFontSmoothing -int 0" which I understand that it turns off smoothing. But I am not sure about this now because fonts now look dimmed and grated out. I want to change everything back to what is default in Majove. How can I reset the setting about font smoothing? I have tried to uncheck and check the font smoothing check box in the appearances in the settings. But I am not sure if doing this returns everything back to the default smoothing setting because the fonts still look dimmed. Is there a command I can run in the terminal that will ensure that I am back to the default font smoothing setting?

MacBook Pro with Retina display, macOS Mojave (10.14)

Posted on Sep 26, 2018 12:55 PM

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4 replies

Sep 26, 2018 10:06 PM in response to Pitiger

Applications/Font Book.app>File>Restore Standard Fonts.

To reset this setting to the default value, copy and paste the following command:

defaults delete NSGlobalDomain AppleFontSmoothing



You can clear font cache for your Mac; try removing all font cache files including system and logged in user account.


Close all running applications.


From the terminal.app copy and paste:

sudo atsutil databases -remove


(Please note your psswd will not echo on screen)

After entering the command, quite Terminal and restart your Mac


Fonts included with macOS Mojave - Apple Support

Sep 27, 2018 2:51 AM in response to leroydouglas

Thanks. Is there a way to revert back to how things were in Sierra? The fonts in some apps do not look like how they look like in Sierra. I use the app TexPad which is a widely used Latex editor. The editor shows, within the app, a preview of the PDF file the app generates, and the fonts look very thick within this preview, while they look just normal in the PDF file. I checked it with the TexPad developers, and they asked me to consult with Apple because they cannot do anything about this. I tried turning off an on font smoothing and it does not help this preview. Is there a way to revert back to the exact setting of Sierra?

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Majove font smoothing

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