Comments on: Snow Leopard Font Smoothing

By: Andras

Andras — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 22:33:31 +0000

Abeer, I have the same issue with Mac mini late 2009 miniDVI to VGA cable and LG L1718S monitor.

By: Mac Bear

Mac Bear — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 22:31:55 +0000

Hi, I also still have the same problem as well even tho I typed that recommended command line to terminal….?

By: Abeer

Abeer — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 15:52:31 +0000

hi, I have mac os x 10.6.4 on MacPro5,1 and 6-Core Intel Xeon. attached to Samsung AyncMaster 2443 wide LCD. The font smoothing is checked, and I typed in the command line you give at the start of this thread. I still have crappy fonts. What’s the solution? should I give the monitor back and get a mac one? would this solve the problem you think?

By: Kris

Kris — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:50:12 +0000

All four levels are available AFAIK, it’s just that off is a default and 2 (med.) is a default. You can engage any level by substituting “1″, “3″, or “0″ in place of the “2″. It’s not a total screw up but it’s not that easy either.

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:34:51 +0000

Thank you so much. Now my screen is really working nicely. I even color calibrated it and wow. What a magnificent difference. Its night and day. Amazing.

By: Chris Robison

Chris Robison — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 04:39:10 +0000

Thanks for this! Just picked up a Dell monitor and you hooked me up!

By: john sully

john sully — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 19:48:08 +0000

So Apple actually offers 4 levels of font smoothing (i always used the light one, looks best on my lcd) but chose to only make 2 available with snow leo? Seriously, what a screwup.

By: Joe Mullins

Joe Mullins — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 15:26:47 +0000

Jaws,

As far as I know, the snow leopard default is "automatic". That means it will choose 0 if it doesn't detect an LCD and 2 if it does.

If you select 1, it should stay 1 for all monitors. To remove it, all you have to do is check or uncheck the font smoothing box in the appearance preferences, which will toggle it to automatic or off (0).

By: Jaws

Jaws — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 08:25:01 +0000

Joe, thanks for the reply. I’m trying to understand a little more about what this does. It seems as if the command adds a global AppleFontSmoothing key (where there wasn’t one by default). Does this then override 10.6′s default font smoothing handling for both monitors reporting themselves (such as a built-in MacBook or Apple display) as well as those that do not? So, if I set font smoothing at 1, it will stay at one for all displays, including those reporting correctly? To remove and completely revert back to 10.6′s default handling, would it be necessary to remove the key (and if so, how)? Thanks!

By: Joe Mullins

Joe Mullins — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 05:37:49 +0000

Jaws, default if your LCD isn't reporting itself is 0. 1 is light, 2 is medium, 3 is strong.

2 is the default if you LCD is reporting itself.