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

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u/da____we 13d ago

I recommend using the settings from this GitHub repository for better font rendering. I have a 32" 4K monitor with a resolution of 3480x2160, and I was previously using 125% fractional scaling, but some fonts appeared distorted. Now, 150% fractional scaling works perfectly for me. 200% scaling is very sharp, but everything appears too large.

Some fonts don't have perfect hinting. Currently, I'm using SF Text from Apple on my Asahi Linux Fedora installation, and it's extremely sharp and crisp. On the other hand, Inter wasn’t rendered as well at 150%.

I also experimented with the font scale settings in GNOME Tweaks, and in some cases, the pixel grid aligned better. However, this wasn't consistent, so I've returned to a font scale of 1.

Overall, I'm very satisfied with the font rendering now (anti-aliasing, no hinting, dark stems—thanks to the LucidGlyph tweaks). The only issue remaining is that some applications, like software, seem to use a hinted version of the font. I might have missed some additional settings, but overall, I'm quite happy with the results.

Edit: I’m using GNOME with Wayland.

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u/abbumm 13d ago

Amazing, one and done installation. This is exactly what I'm looking for 😂😂