Should I migrate to Mac OS ? Knowing the Renderers
The latest Mac OS X Leopard has been said to be milestone ahead of other operating systems, especially over those from the Redmond company, Windows’ franchise. There are a lot of great applications on Mac OS X and the synergy between the applications is unbeatable. Overall, Mac OS X is visually more appealing to users; however, some people are annoyed over Apple’s way of rendering technology.
So, let’s compare some of the differences in looks (rendering technology) between the operating systems. Let’s cover some of the things that you might actually do on your computer.
1. Web browsing
2. Watching movies / personal videos
3. Text editing / programming
Jeff Atwood discusses about Mac’s font renderer a while ago. It seems that Apple and Microsoft have different opinions on how they should display the font to the users.
Apple seems to think that it’s better to emulate how print media would look like even if it means sacrificing readability. Microsoft on the other hand disagrees (thank God for that).
1. Web browsing
Top Gear Blog
You can see that the image and text rendered are slightly different between Windows XP and Mac OS X Leopard. The text on Mac OS X is slightly blurry which makes is harder to read.
Tomshardware article
Another example of pure text, we can see that Mac OS X displays the text that looks slightly blurry while Windows has a sharp text.
2. Watching movies / personal videos
Mac World 2008 Stream Video
So, what about watching videos? Well, this is a perfect example of Apple vs Microsoft. In this example I am using Apple’s Quicktime software to display how the same MacWorld 2008 video is displayed on different operating systems. Even Apple has to surrender to Microsoft’s superior DirectX Video Acceleration technology.
3. Text editing / programming
My Hello World php code
Some people claimed that Mac OS X is an ultimate operating system for programmers; I say they are wrong. Forget about differences in development environments, the picture on the left is very straining to the eyes; And you want to stare at those blurry fonts for hours? I know I won’t.
Apple clearly has some edge over Windows. Bottom line is over 90% of consumers are using Windows. It is worth taking a few minutes to list down what you “actually do” on a computer (not what you think you would do) before selecting the right operating system for you.
Update 1: A reader (
Update 2: I was really intrique on why Quicktime on Windows renders better video compared to Quicktime on Mac. I checked and it turned out Quicktime on windows is by default is using both “DirectDraw acceleration” and “Direct3D video acceleration“. When these options are turned off, I get the similar pixelated video as rendered in Mac.
Quicktime on Windows w/o D3D and DShow acceleration
Quicktime DirectX settings
“slightly blurry which makes is harder to read”
Any reference for this or just your opinion? Most people read be recognizing the general “look” of a word and not by identifying individual characters. Windows’ kerning problems make this harder than necessary imho.
actually there is no reference to any studies on this. The article is based on my personal opinions and from most people that i’ve talked to (be it mac fans or windows fans). Admittedly, some Mac users are a bit more ignorant than Windows’ users. When i showed them the Windows “ClearType” font, they were amazed.
It totally depends on personal preferences, but the idea behind Windows’ font rendering is to make it easier for the eyes. I will try to find some articles on this as a reference. Thanks for the feedback.
Yes, we’re all ignorant fools. Thanks for pointing this out
I agree that Cleartype looks clearer at first, but once you actually move to a proper viewing distance and start reading, Quartz rendering gives the text a “calmer” look because characters keep the proper distance to each other. We won’t be able to settle this here so let’s instead move to the video part:
What the hell happened to the video on the Mac? On the PC you’re using Quicktime to watch a video encoded by Apple in (I guess) h.264. Does that even use DXVA?
The Mac video probably lost a couple of bits during transmission or whatever.
Also note that you’re comparing two different versions of the video.
On my machine the video looks perfect:
http://img90.imageshack.us/my.php?image=quicktimeshotvp9.png
Doesn’t look like “surrendering to Microsoft’s superior DXVA” to me
OMG, that image is soooo damn nice..
).
Btw, i didnt mean to offend anyone here.. I was just talking about one buddy of mine (who was sooo into Mac that he refuses to look the other side
Anyway, i believe you may be right. It could be because of connection.. man.. Thanks for the help, i will surely give it another try on the Mac.
ps: another thread discussing about the different philosophies Mac vs Windows is here http://damieng.com/blog/2007/06/13/font-rendering-philosophies-of-windows-and-mac-os-x
Just to make this clear: the video should look exactly the same on Mac and Windows. Different settings in Quicktime (streaming speed) will lead to different versions of the video, that’s all. Plus streaming videos drop bits and frames.
Good point. Thanks for the feedback, i will update the article soon. I think the image that i captured may have been stretched and/or streaming problems.
This argument has been going on for a while. Check this out:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html
All I know is that the other day I got a Dell from work. When I tried to disable “tap to click” for the trackpad, the Mouse controls didn’t have it. In fact, it was nowhere. XP drivers apparently didn’t natively support it. So while I appreciate the flexibility of Windows (for example, you can enable sub-pixel type rendering IF you want it), for those of us who want a simple, logical, functional machine to get work done, Macs do rather well.
The fact that I had to go to the Mouse controls to try to find the Trackpad controls is pretty amusing, IMHO. You’d think for all that OS flexibility things would be *easier* to find, not harder (or impossible without installing drivers myself).
I’m afraid you’ve trained yourself to like badly rendered text. I look at your examples and cringed at the awful kerning even before I looked to see what was labeled what. To be fair, in the programming example the XP text as good as the Mac side, arguably better. Parity is to be expected anyway because monospaced fonts are not kerned, and so XP has an edge due to its crisper, grid aligned pixels.
I’m not surprised that you don’t like the Mac fonts though, I was the same at first. After awhile, I began to notice how badly rendered XP fonts were in comparision. You will too–it will take a month or two to adjust.
No, I did not use the HD version which obviously would have a much higher resolution.
No matter what I try, I cannot get the Mac version to look as bad as your screenshot.
Apart from when I set Streaming Speed to 28.8 Kbps and blow up the picture to 200 % of course, which gives you this:
http://www.imagebam.com/image/11aeab24906746
As a heavy user of both systems I’ve now come to the conclusion that each supports a different style of reading.
For reclining back on the sofa style casual reading of web pages I just love the Mac OS X feel. But sitting at a desk staring at code or complex documentation/emails I find the sharper Windows text better.
Given the audience for both platforms that probably goes some way to explaining why users of each prefer their own.
[)amien
i think you should migrate.
font renderer doesn’t matter at all.
it’s the Mac look and the price of it.
you should be special.
that is all there is to say.
well said.. maybe i should consider MacBook Pro for my next laptop (i had just bought a Dell).
…
Last night I ran Ubuntu 8.10 and found out that i could set the font smoothing right in between Windows and Mac. Not too sharp, not too “blurry.” I kinda like it actually.. but, that’s another article
Oh, deary me… In Mac OSX System Preferences you can change the Font Anti-Aliasing (or smoothing) so it renders differently according to your taste. However, having done years of DTP on Macs and PC’s I can assure you that the accuracy of on-screen font kerning of Mac v Windows is by far and away superior. Not only that, hours sat in front of a PC reading text leaves me quite fatigued. It’s the same with audio… Listen to music on a true High Fidelity system compared with a cheapo NIKANEAR music system: One you can sit and listen to for hours the other will take on an edginess reminiscent of blackboards and fingernails.
@Ace McLoud
Hmm.. okay, i went to Mac and change the Quicktime connection speed setting from “Automatic” to LAN/T1 and set “use high quality video if available.” The video is much better than the cropped image above, but when enlarged to match Windows’ window size, the image smudged a little bit. Enlarging the windows on Windows is not that bad since DirectX will automatically smooth out the video.
Dont get me wrong, i’ve been praying that i will get over this small things and migrate to Mac already, for years now. I also hate Vista and Windows 7 is better, but the annoying DNA of Vista is still there in Windows 7. Bah, maybe Vista/Win 7 would push me over the edge? (crossing my fingers, haha).
I also switched to Mac like 4 weeks ago and I’m still struggleing with its font rendering. My personal opinion after years in front of a PC is that Microsofts philosophy about font rendering on screens is more logical. I love OS X though and hope to adjust to their way of thinking.
But in the end I believe that most screens are pixel based hardware wise which somehow excludes font smoothing or makes it unpleasant for reading. If the screen would >not< be pixel based (liquid screens) than font smoothing would be a nice option. For now TrueType and Quartz rendering just causes eye cancer to me…
No flaming intended
I stumbled across this post on the very matter of trying to find a way to fix or adjust the font rendering on my mac. Fonts look great for bigger sizes from around 20pt upwards but strains my eyes at sizes around 16pt downwards.
I see no noticeable differences in quicktime video.
Yes it may be down to preference but at least with windows/linux there is the option to change fonts, sizes and rendering from the defaults.
Yeah, im sorry to say that there isnt much that you can do on Mac to make the font looks better. I also found that Safari has better (slightly sharper) font than Firefox. Which is sad, coz i use tons of Firefox extensions on my Windows.