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Force Safari 1.0 anti-aliasing for small fonts
Authored by: Brian Kendig on Jun 27, '03 11:59:25AM
Editing a .plist file directly isn't recommended. You should use 'defaults write' at a command line for this. Also, the solution you came up with will prevent Safari from using fonts that are smaller than a certain size; this could prevent some web pages from rendering properly.

A better solution would be to tell Safari to antialias smaller fonts. Enter this at a Terminal command line:

defaults write com.apple.Safari AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 5

Then restart Safari, and tiny fonts (5 point and above) will be smoothed.



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Thanks Brain...
Authored by: jiclark on Jun 27, '03 03:10:13PM
That got Safari back to normal, but for some reason, I've noticed that the problem for me is system-wide. I tried your "defaults write..." trick with another app, and it didn't work. Specifically, I use an app called Password wallet, that has stopped having it's text be anti-aliased; I think since installing the new Safari. Anyone else experience similar results? And as a matter of fact, I just checked, and Illustrator is displaying the same problem in its pallettes. I'm beginning to think it's a font problem. In fact, it might not be that the apps in question are not being smoothed, it's that the font is different... I'll go back to my corner now. ;-} If anyone has any ideas though, please respond. I'm getting pretty confused by this! Sorry for the tangential diversion. John-o

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Ooops! [I meant Brian, but 'Brain' works.]
Authored by: jiclark on Jun 27, '03 03:23:49PM

Quick update. I have a theory that Safari installed a new version of Helvetica on my system. I say this because I realized that what I hated about the way the text looks in these other apps is the same way Helvetica bugs me in AppleWorks!

I have no idea about how to confirm this, does anyone else?

Thanks again,
John-o

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Force Safari 1.0 anti-aliasing for small fonts
Authored by: Vitalstatistix on Jun 27, '03 11:10:37PM

I have found that in the past setting AppleAntiAliasingThreshold did not force all fonts to render antialiased. I did not check it with Safari 1.



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Force Safari 1.0 anti-aliasing for small fonts
Authored by: MacHog on Jun 28, '03 07:28:35AM

Thank you, Brian. That was indeed the fix I needed. Excellent tip!



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