🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <3300@internal.Apple.COM> casseres@apple.com (David Casseres) writes:
>Anti-aliased fonts MAY be more desirable in some applications.  We don't 
>know, because the research hasn't been done, whether they give less 
>eyestrain -- they may give MORE eyestrain.  Remember, the essence of 
>anti-aliasing is that it removes the "jaggies" by blurring them.  So 
>eyestrain is a question, and so is readability.

Readability is *NOT* a question.  Anyone who has spent more than 1 minute
looking at aliased and antialiased fonts at the same (small) size will
know this without having to be told, but the research supports it also.
Readability is measurably improved.

Some research *has* been done into the eyestrain issue.  The initial
indications are that antialiasing reduces eyestrain, but further work is
needed.

>It's not worth 
>doing unless you implement sub-pixel positioning, i.e. the ability to 
>place a character (logically) on a grid that is finer than the screen 
>resolution, using gray to "blur" it into the right place.

Yes.  That's why Sun's new GX graphics card implements quarter-pixel
positioning for text and graphics.  (Now if I could just afford a
SparcStation to stick it in ... :-)

	Howard A. Landman
	landman@sun.com