DEV Community

Samuel Tassell
Samuel Tassell

Posted on

Fix blurry or bold fonts on a Mac

Holy moly, an often forgotten, simple, yet effective tip worth sharing:

I forgot how turning off font smoothing makes the world of difference on retina/high PPI screens. If using a non-apple external monitor, especially those with the less adopted formats, on a mac, font smoothing will make your fonts more bold or blurry, disabling is a must for programmers as it's probably making your code fonts less readable.

Since Big Sur, font smoothing can be adjusted in two ways.

Via the terminal

defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0

  • "0" disables font smoothing
  • "1" enables light font smoothing
  • "2" enables default medium smoothing
  • "3" enables strong smoothing
  • Thus, If you wish to revert to the default setting simply replace the "0" at the end of the command with a "2".

Via a helper app

Luckily, if you're not comfortable changing setting via the command line, someones kindly made a helper app (a little overkill but makes it super easy).

https://www.fontsmoothingadjuster.com

Learn more

Nikita Prokopov (the chap behind Fira Code) wrote a super in-depth post regarding font smoothing, displays, pixels and resolutions. Check it out for more context.


Have a good'un.

Sam.

Image of AssemblyAI tool

Transforming Interviews into Publishable Stories with AssemblyAI

Insightview is a modern web application that streamlines the interview workflow for journalists. By leveraging AssemblyAI's LeMUR and Universal-2 technology, it transforms raw interview recordings into structured, actionable content, dramatically reducing the time from recording to publication.

Key Features:
🎥 Audio/video file upload with real-time preview
🗣️ Advanced transcription with speaker identification
⭐ Automatic highlight extraction of key moments
✍️ AI-powered article draft generation
📤 Export interview's subtitles in VTT format

Read full post

Top comments (0)

A Workflow Copilot. Tailored to You.

Pieces.app image

Our desktop app, with its intelligent copilot, streamlines coding by generating snippets, extracting code from screenshots, and accelerating problem-solving.

Read the docs

👋 Kindness is contagious

Dive into an ocean of knowledge with this thought-provoking post, revered deeply within the supportive DEV Community. Developers of all levels are welcome to join and enhance our collective intelligence.

Saying a simple "thank you" can brighten someone's day. Share your gratitude in the comments below!

On DEV, sharing ideas eases our path and fortifies our community connections. Found this helpful? Sending a quick thanks to the author can be profoundly valued.

Okay