MORE JOEL ON SOFTWARE: Further Thoughts on Diverse and Occasionally Related Matters That Will Prove of Interest to Software Developers, Designers, and Managers, and to Those Who, Whether by Good Fortune or Ill Luck, Work with Them in Some Capacity

part threeThe Impact of Design

elevenFONT SMOOTHING,ANTI-ALIASING, ANDSUBPIXEL RENDERING

TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2007

Apple and Microsoft have always disagreed in how to display fonts on computer displays. Today, both companies are using subpixel rendering to coax sharper-looking fonts out of typical low-resolution screens. Where they differ is in philosophy.

• Apple generally believes that the goal of the algorithm should be to preserve the design of the typeface as much as possible, even at the cost of a little bit of blurriness.
• Microsoft generally believes that the shape of each letter should be hammered into pixel boundaries to prevent blur and improve readability, even at the cost of not being true to the typeface.

Now that Safari for Windows ...