I just got VS 2010 beta 1, but the text in the text editor is thin, ie not anti aliased, smoothed or cleartyped. It's hard to read. Is there a setting to adjust it, similar to the one in the OS.
This is a known issue with the beta. See the readme. Section 2.4.2.2 "Text may appear slighly blurry".
They are working on a fix and recommend you stick with Consolas font for English, for now.
This will be fixed in Beta 2 once WPF integrates with the DirectWrite code in the latest versions of DirectX.
To workaround this, we decided to override the OS Setting and always for ClearType smoothing to be on when Consolas is the editor font. This way the user who isn't particular about fonts gets the best behaviour and if the user wants to have a non-clear type experience the will also need to switch their font which they would have to do anyways.
ClearType cannot be disabled in source code windows
Let me know if changing the font from Consolas works for you.
The Microsoft H4X0RS decided to force users to adopt ClearType when using Consolas font (scroll down until you see the heading Consolas always uses ClearType)
The way to fix this is to install the Text Sharp extension (yes, you read right, you need to install an extension to turn off BlurType -- ie to have your system-wide setting of no anti-aliasing applied)
How the people who did this got away with it I'll never know.
There is an extension that can help with this:
http://www.svprogramming.net/text-sharp/index.html
You have to both turn it off in the display options and the performance options:
Visual Studio 2010 Text Clarity: ClearType Options
Related
I'm trying to make VS Code editor to look exactly like Visual Studio. I made sure the font settings are exactly the same, however text still renders differently in VS Code (it seems "lighter").
Is there any way to fix this issue?
In the image below the top text is copied from Visual Studio while the bottom one is copied from VS code.
I know the difference is subtle but is still pretty noticeable.
Font rendering in VSCode has been a reoccurring issue throughout a good portion of the editors life time. Font rendering, especially in portable GUI's, is affected by several different layers, for example:
Your Graphics Card can affect the way font is rendered (you can try adjusting the graphic cards settings manually).
Your Monitor, obviously, affects rendering. In fact your monitor has a huge impact. (Try playing with your Monitor's Settings)
The color settings that are offered by your OS may have an impact (often times the color settings are the same as the graphic card settings though. Which means you can just use your OS's GUI to adjust your cards settings in some cases (Not on Ubuntu though))_
Somethings are out of your control, like:
VSCode, it is written using Electron v6. Not only does Electron impact font rendering, but when VSCode switched it Version 6 a lot of people reported a decrease in the editors font rendering quality.
VSCode also implements Anti-Aliasing tools, but as far as I can tell, they auto configure, so you have no control over this. These tools are likely to be one of the biggest causes to the difference in rendering you see, between VS IDE & VS CODE. There is a tool however that may give you some control over the Visual Studio side of rendering that I share a link to below. And just as an FYI, the Anti-Aliasing that VSCode uses is called Sub-pixel Rendering, which is something that Visual Studio doesn't implement as far as I can tell.
The Area You Have the Most Control in:
There is ONE tool/thing that you have 100% control over, that also greatly affects font-rendering, and that is the font that you decide to use. When choosing a font, you have the choice of equipping an OTF, or a TTF. In my personal experience, OTF's render better 90% of the time. The difference is in how they are created.
TTF fonts are made using quadratic Beziers.
OTF fonts are made using cubic Beziers.
Links above are the same
Fonts use something called font-hinting
Font hinting. Essentially font-hinting is a list of instructions that dynamically changes the way a font is rendered, by using the rasterized grid background as a parameter. adjust the display of an outline font so that it lines up with a rasterized grid. Choosing a quality font equipped with good hinting is critical for non-blurry readable text.
Many people choose font because like the way they look, or the italic version of the font they use is popular. When choosing a font, it is extremely important to choose, not the coolest one, but the one that renders with the highest quality, and is the easiest for you to read.
Well Rendering Fonts:
Not only are their fonts that render well, with ligature support, but the best rendering fonts are always free IMO. Bellow are Fonts that use font hinting and have top notch rendering abilities.
JetBrains Mono (JetBrain's Font & My Personal Favorite)
Cascadia Code (Microsoft's Programming Font from 2019)
Fira Code (Not that old, but not that new either. Is loved by many.)
Fira Mono (No Ligatures, Different Font than Fira Code)
Consolas (A classic)
Menlo (Another Classic)
The top 4 are at the top of the list because they receive updates ever few months. I don't think Menlo & Consolas receive regular updates, but they aren't left forgotten either, the are updated every year or two.
To finish with as solid of an answer as I can provide:
_"Getting VSCode to render like the Visual Studio IDE, is not something that you will probably get, with 100% satisfaction, getting an exact match with all of the different factors is just an extremely and possibly impossible thing to due. You can probably make the way the two pieces of software render, more a like, not in functionality, but in looks. It would probably help a great deal to make sure that everything that affects rendering is up to date, editor, IDE, fonts, tools, ect... From their you can try different versions, and see if maybe an older version of VSCode rendered in a way that is preferable to you. You should also play with your monitors settings. I have found that I can accomplish a great deal just through the buttons under the face of my monitor. Check Visual Studio for any rendering settings it might have, VSCode doesn't have much available, but maybe Visual Studio IDE does (I haven't used the IDE in 5 years so IDK if it does).
On a final note:
Their is one tool that could help you, I haven't used it, because it isn't for VSCode, it's for Visual Studio, but it might give you more control than you have now. The tool is called..."_
Text Sharp (Click Here to see it in the VS Market Place)
Just to be clear, I'm aware I can customise the font used in the editor window of VSCode to just about any monospaced font I like. I am not asking about what font is used in the editor. I am asking if anyone knows what font is being used by VSCode for the rest of its interface?
I appreciate this is an unusual design question. But it's to do with my IDE and I need to confirm for a theme project I'm maintaining.
Cheers,
Thanks to more docs, some trial and error, and even Wikipedia I can confirm that the font used in VSCode's own interface is SF Pro when running on Mac OS. I'm assuming that it is SF Pro Text and not SF Pro Display, given the use case. I've reversed engineered the interface during theme development in order to help determine.
In Windows XP and Vista it is possible to enable system wide ClearType font rendering.
My question is:
Is it possible to force ClearType rendering for my site in FireFox (maybe some META-TAG thing) even if system-wide ClearType is not set (like in IE7+)?
I do not believe FireFox can do that on its own without OS help even if you ask it.
I was poundering the same thing as you this evening. I discovered that the thing contributing more to the look of fonts is not the cleartype smoothing, but font smoothing in general. Clear type is just one way to do it. If XP is in its default state and nobody turned off the font smoothing option in advanced system settings, then you are OK. Most people do it when they choose performance there and that switches off all visual stuff, font smoothing included.
So in my opinion most XP users will see smooth fonts. Those that don't, choose so themselves. Maybe they don't know they did, but you cannot do nothing about it. Except maybe try to educate them ;)
I just got VS 2010 beta 1, but the text in the text editor is thin, ie not anti aliased, smoothed or cleartyped. It's hard to read. Is there a setting to adjust it, similar to the one in the OS.
This is a known issue with the beta. See the readme. Section 2.4.2.2 "Text may appear slighly blurry".
They are working on a fix and recommend you stick with Consolas font for English, for now.
This will be fixed in Beta 2 once WPF integrates with the DirectWrite code in the latest versions of DirectX.
To workaround this, we decided to override the OS Setting and always for ClearType smoothing to be on when Consolas is the editor font. This way the user who isn't particular about fonts gets the best behaviour and if the user wants to have a non-clear type experience the will also need to switch their font which they would have to do anyways.
ClearType cannot be disabled in source code windows
Let me know if changing the font from Consolas works for you.
The Microsoft H4X0RS decided to force users to adopt ClearType when using Consolas font (scroll down until you see the heading Consolas always uses ClearType)
The way to fix this is to install the Text Sharp extension (yes, you read right, you need to install an extension to turn off BlurType -- ie to have your system-wide setting of no anti-aliasing applied)
How the people who did this got away with it I'll never know.
There is an extension that can help with this:
http://www.svprogramming.net/text-sharp/index.html
You have to both turn it off in the display options and the performance options:
Visual Studio 2010 Text Clarity: ClearType Options
I really like how Consolas looks with ClearType enabled but unfortunately it makes everything else look terrible. Is there any way to enable this on a per app basis? I noticed that putty (the terminal emulator) has options for ClearType separate from the display setting.
It is possible to have an application that enables or disables ClearType independently of the system-wide setting... but it requires that the application be specifically written to do it, since it involves passing specific parameters to the Windows API when you're creating fonts. Unfortunately, to my knowledge, VS wasn't written to do this. (And, incidentally, I don't think .NET supports it either, without resorting to P/Invoke.)
Getting bad results with ClearType but good looking Consolas is pretty strange. Try out the ClearType tuner.