Code Editor font not clear on Linux

[CommanderAlchemy]

Not sure what it is but the font just feels weird in the code editor. Not beeing 100% clear/sharp.

Seems other people are also complaining about it on : http://www.webupd8.org/2013/11/install-brackets-in-ubuntu-via-ppa-open.html

[jasonsanjose]

Thanks for the heads up @CommanderAlchemy. Sometimes we never see these articles let alone the comment threads.

@larz0 @njx @peterflynn you guys have a better handle on font rendering. Is this similar to issues we've had with CEF before?

[jasonsanjose]

One more question. @CommanderAlchemy, are you running with a high-DPI setting?

[larz0]

@CommanderAlchemy could you give an example of what type of rendering you prefer and we'll see if we can tweak the CSS for linux since font rendering is generally different for different OS's.

[CommanderAlchemy]

@jasonsanjose Im running KDE with default DPI settings so I would say no.
@larz0 you talking about the css propery text-rendering?

It's hard to really say it looks like its washed up a bit. Will try to experiment a bit. Maybe another font?

[larz0]

@CommanderAlchemy text tend to be bolder on Linux compared Mac and Windows so maybe we can use the default font-smoothing for Linux if that's what Linux users want. That'll make the text bolder.

[peterflynn]

This is similar to #5801. The screenshot attached here -- and the first screenshot in #5801 -- doesn't look that bad to me. For comparison:

Sprint 34 on Win

Sprint 34 on Mac

The Linux screenshots look a tad fuzzier than Win but less fuzzy than Mac.

[peterflynn]

Workaround: follow these steps to customize the code editor font.

I'll leave this open with Low priority rather than closing as dupe of #5801 since that bug seems more focused on how the font looks when it's made bigger than the default font size (which might actually be an issue on all platforms).

[peterflynn]

Another thing you can try, as @LarZ alluded to, is changing the antialiasing setting>

1. Inside the Brackets install folder, open www/styles/brackets.less (replace "www" with "src" if you're cloning from Git rather than installing the distro).
2. Comment out the line that says -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;
3. Save, and restart Brackets

If you find that improves the appearance a lot, would you mind uploading another screenshot? (Ideally of the same text so we can compare -- so we can consider making that setting the default on Linux)

[CommanderAlchemy]

Thanks again for these fast responses really!

Here is a screenshot with, smoothing on left and without on the right. For me personal thought is that the clarity feels a bit better but the look is worse. Most noticeable on "index.html" text.

After playing around a bit, I tried to use my coding front that I use for other applications Droid Sans Mono Slashed
Left is stock font and settings, right is new font but stock settings. (Though looks like the font is bigger) But it feels more clear to me. not sure if its placebo by now since I have been staring at it for too long and getting bit tired.

[carchrae]

using ubuntu 12.04 and MVA monitors the font is indeed hard to read or 'blurry'

also, i can't easily do the workaround since it seems there is no less file distributed with the linux build. so i attempted to edit the minified css instead.

i wonder if you'll be able to see any difference? (or if these screenshots look good on mac/windows?)

default:

with antialias commented out:

[carchrae]

To follow up, increasing the font size, choosing a different font (Oxygen Mono), and color theme (Obsidian) made a big difference. The sidebar is still hard to read, but I don't have to look at that as much.

[carchrae]

I tried brackets on a different monitor (smaller w/ higher DPI) and the default fonts were readable (although that was also on ubuntu 10.04). Even all of the screenshots above look fine.

I suspect this is a DPI issue and made worse on large monitors with lower DPI (my monitors are 27" but the resolution is only 1920x1080, so they have a lower DPI).

That said, I wonder if it would be possible to get things like the default font size/scaling (and perhaps even font, colours, etc) from the OS. It is certainly nice to be able to over-ride those per application, but it is somewhat expected that an application tries to match your local defaults (which have generally been chosen to work well on your setup).

That request is certainly in the nice-to-have category, although if you care about first impressions, then at least putting a first-run popup saying "here is how to adjust the fonts so they look good on your display" might be an easy improvement.

[bassu]

Bracket's font rendering is still pretty much screwed in Linux and sadly that makes it unusable there.
#4640 (comment)

--> Going back to Emacs ;)

[larz0]

Here's nice extension for you to play with, maybe you can get better font rendering from one of the fonts: https://github.com/tirithen/brackets-fonts

[bassu]

@larz0 Tried that already. Font rendering in the shell itself is the primary problem.

[carchrae]

yeah @bassu - by applying the fonts extension, the high DPI extension and bumping the font size up it is very usable. i also like the dark obsidian theme from the theme extension. the default font is terrible though - although only on my workstation with large MVA screens (but which has lower DPI)

brackets gurus - i dug into the code a bit and saw that both windows and mac have a less override for codemirror - but linux does not. i wanted to understand why that was the case - in particular the history of the mac font issues (why it uses the Pro version of the font).

[sarim]

Noticing the same issue in mac too. You can see same file opened in brackets and textmate. Both using Font "Menlo" with size 12. Both using twilight theme.

[carchrae]

You might want to try https://github.com/stowball/brackets-legibility - this cranks up the font sizes. My screens have a very low-DPI (27" @ 1920x1080) so despite the description, that extension helped a lot.

[awebdeveloper]

The default font(family) is not good. Change to one used by gedit or geany or sublime text

[rodnandes]

#8630 this should solve the problem by setting to the font smoothing to none... I think that its also a matter of taste...

[Tynach]

I think the bigger problem here is that subpixel rendering is not enabled, and I don't understand why nobody has brought this up in this thread. Here's a comparison:

With subpixel rendering:

Without subpixel rendering:

[smth]

I'm trying Brackets on Mac (with a Retina display), and I have a similar problem. The text in Brackets has a look of faux bolding about it. Here is a comparison with Dreamweaver (left).

[imrek]

The problem persists, Brackets 1.6.0-16680 on Ubuntu 16.04, the font rendering is poor.

[azispratama92]

how to solve this issue ?