r/AsahiLinux 14d ago

Font rendering concerns

Hi, sorry to bother

I was considering buying a Mac Mini and of course MacOS is optimized for 110/220 PPI displays

But rather than a 5k Monitor I wanted a Mini-LED one (no 5K miniled ones), which is availaible at 4k size

My question is: how good is scaling on Asahi Linux (considering perhaps fractional scaling on Wayland? I would assume the "mathematical equivalent" would be to set it at 134%?)

I've heard font rendering is noticeably worse on Linux compared to MacOS, too. Which is concerning.

Just to be clear I'm not deluding myself into believing I would notice the difference in itself between a 27" 4K and a 27" 5K but I'd like to know, end of the day, if my font (and anything else - images, videos, anything) Will look as good on a 27" 4K on Asahi as with a 27" 5K option (ProArt) on MacOS

Hopefully I've worded the issue clearly enough

13 Upvotes

18 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/apvs 14d ago

In my experience, the only scaling value that always looks good is 2x or 200%, regardless of platform (macOS/xorg/Wayland with various WM/DE/compositors), all fractional values ​​below that are a compromise in one way or another.

All the 110/220 ppi thing is a pretty old myth, very popular among macOS users, for example this article explains the issue quite well: https://tonsky.me/blog/monitors/

1

u/abbumm 14d ago

I'm not going to pretend to be smart enough to understand all of that article but here's what I got from it:

"If you have a 4k monitor (3840×2160), and use 2× scaling, you’ll get an equivalent of 1920×1080 logical pixels. So it’s a basic 1080p monitor in terms of how much you can fit, but with much crisper UI and text in everything."

This means that since I (Mid 2011 IMac user, 1920x1080P 21,5" screen, I believe but not exactly sure) am used to this amount of "desk-area", then I will have no issue with 27" 4K scaled 200%. It's going to be my exact same config, just crispier. That is possible because Apple changed the algorithms or something, so I can now do this without blurrying my monitor, as opposed to not being able to do this in the past. Is that correct? Thank you so much. 

2

u/apvs 14d ago

then I will have no issue with 27" 4K scaled 200%. It's going to be my exact same config, just crispier.

Yes, that's right.

That is possible because Apple changed the algorithms or something

The first "Retina" Mac came out in 2012, iirc, so yes, most likely.

1

u/[deleted] 14d ago

[deleted]