From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Path: news.gmane.org!not-for-mail From: Miles Bader Newsgroups: gmane.emacs.devel Subject: Re: unicode font-backend + tiling Date: Tue, 05 Dec 2006 15:37:52 +0900 Message-ID: References: <87ejrffa4k.fsf@catnip.gol.com> <45750F8B.7040206@swipnet.se> Reply-To: Miles Bader NNTP-Posting-Host: dough.gmane.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Trace: sea.gmane.org 1165300692 3437 80.91.229.10 (5 Dec 2006 06:38:12 GMT) X-Complaints-To: usenet@sea.gmane.org NNTP-Posting-Date: Tue, 5 Dec 2006 06:38:12 +0000 (UTC) Cc: emacs-devel@gnu.org, sdl.web@gmail.com, Kenichi Handa Original-X-From: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Tue Dec 05 07:38:11 2006 Return-path: Envelope-to: ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org Original-Received: from lists.gnu.org ([199.232.76.165]) by dough.gmane.org with esmtp (Exim 4.50) id 1GrTwQ-00007I-DO for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 07:38:10 +0100 Original-Received: from localhost ([127.0.0.1] helo=lists.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GrTwP-0005aI-RJ for ged-emacs-devel@m.gmane.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:38:09 -0500 Original-Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GrTwF-0005Yv-2X for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:37:59 -0500 Original-Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43) id 1GrTwE-0005YZ-Ie for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:37:58 -0500 Original-Received: from [199.232.76.173] (helo=monty-python.gnu.org) by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1GrTwE-0005YT-EU for emacs-devel@gnu.org; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:37:58 -0500 Original-Received: from [202.32.8.193] (helo=tyo201.gate.nec.co.jp) by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.52) id 1GrTwD-00082q-C0; Tue, 05 Dec 2006 01:37:57 -0500 Original-Received: from relay11.aps.necel.com ([10.29.19.46]) by tyo201.gate.nec.co.jp (8.13.8/8.13.4) with ESMTP id kB56bgrW006011; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:37:53 +0900 (JST) Original-Received: from relay31.aps.necel.com ([10.29.19.20] [10.29.19.20]) by relay11.aps.necel.com with ESMTP; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:37:53 +0900 Original-Received: from dhapc248.dev.necel.com ([10.114.97.235] [10.114.97.235]) by relay31.aps.necel.com with ESMTP; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:37:53 +0900 Original-Received: by dhapc248.dev.necel.com (Postfix, from userid 31295) id BAC67425; Tue, 5 Dec 2006 15:37:52 +0900 (JST) Original-To: Jan =?iso-8859-1?Q?Dj=E4rv?= System-Type: i686-pc-linux-gnu Blat: Foop In-Reply-To: <45750F8B.7040206@swipnet.se> (Jan =?iso-8859-1?Q?Dj=E4rv's?= message of "Tue\, 05 Dec 2006 07\:19\:55 +0100") Original-Lines: 36 X-BeenThere: emacs-devel@gnu.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: "Emacs development discussions." List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , Original-Sender: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Errors-To: emacs-devel-bounces+ged-emacs-devel=m.gmane.org@gnu.org Xref: news.gmane.org gmane.emacs.devel:63301 Archived-At: Jan Dj=E4rv writes: >> I've thought that aa is useful for small sizes. > > Usually not. The smaller size the worse it looks. OSX has a system sett= ing=20 > where you can set the smallest size when AA is used. The common wisdom, as I understand it, is that AA is "bad" for normal sizes, but good at big sizes, and good at very small sizes. Try it with firefox or something -- without AA very small characters simply become unrecognizable blobs at some point, but with AA, they are surprisingly readable, if unpleasantly fuzzy (and better fuzzy than unreadable :-). Where exactly the dividing lines are I guess depends on many factors, how good the rendering technology is, the font hinting, the general font design, etc. I think freetype displaying latin characters with bitstream vera fonts is good enough at AA that it's better to always leave it on, even at normal body text sizes (it's amazingly good -- for instance it keeps horizontal and vertical strokes as single-pixel high contrast lines where possible, only using other colors to subtly fill in various round bits; vera's design seems to mesh well with this to yield a very readable result). Some other platform/font combinations aren't as good, so you might want to disable AA at normal body text sizes for readability. E.g., the current discussion is about CJK fonts, which often have many more fiddly bits than latin fonts, and those CJK fonts I have access to don't look great when AA'd at normal sizes (it's a shame because in the past I have seen extremely good anti-aliased CJK fonts on Debian, and I have no idea what exact combination of factors was responsible!). -Miles --=20 Saa, shall we dance? (from a dance-class advertisement)