
Ask HN: Subpixel font rendering disabled on macOS Catalina? - ryeights
Is anyone else experiencing this? Fonts look markedly worse on my external monitor after upgrading to Catalina. For example, here is a screenshot from Finder showing a clear lack of subpixel (RGB) anti-aliasing:<p>https:&#x2F;&#x2F;imgur.com&#x2F;Hq5Txm0.png<p>Subpixel rendering is still &#x27;enabled&#x27; in the defaults system:<p><pre><code>  ~ % defaults read -g CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled
  0</code></pre>
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natenate19
Same behavior here with CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled set to 0 as well.
Tried the old AppleFontSmoothing defaults hacks too, but those just make
things look worse.

Perhaps there is some new defaults string in Catalina that can be set? It
seems like CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled set to 0 still has some effect
on Catalina, but it's not subjectively the same result as was the case on
Mojave.

~~~
natenate19
Honestly things look subjectively better with
CGFontRenderingFontSmoothingDisabled set to the default value of 1 on
Catalina. Others seem to agree:

[https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-subpixel-aa-
debacle...](https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/the-subpixel-aa-debacle-and-
font-rendering.2184484/post-27859216)

