I recently got a secondary monitor to use with Dorico, and because it has a smaller resolution, I noticed text to be a bit softer and bolder than I would like, making readability difficult. After doing some research, I learned that as of MacOS Big Sur (2020), they introduced a system-wide “font smoothing” which is turned on by default as a hidden feature for all users. In short the idea is to make fonts look slightly softer and bolder in a way that is, well, smoother and perhaps more “flattering” (or so the designers Apple might think).
With my new display I learned that you can turn it off with a terminal command, and the difference in Dorico (and elsewhere) is night and day. Fonts are a lot more crisp.
But most interesting of all, I discovered this font smoothing feature actually impacts the SMuFL music fonts rendering in Dorico. Take a look at this screengrab of a project I’m working on, before and after restarting my computer, from the same new screen (24", set at 2K resolution):
(Secondary Display, Smoothing ON)
(Secondary Display, Smoothing OFF)
If you click to zoom in you can see the music font rendering of the actual score is noticeably bolder with Font Smoothing turned on, in a way that gets kind of blurry and smudgy for my tastes. I personally find all the notes and the player labels easier to read quickly at a glance with Font Smoothing turned off. (Of course, even when writing in Galley View, I’m usually zoomed in closer, but this is just an illustration to compare). You can even see all the glyphs and fonts in the panels differ slightly.
Even on my main display (27" Apple Studio Display 4K) the difference is pretty noticeable on the music fonts:
(Main Display, Smoothing On)
(Main Display, Smoothing Off)
I am also finding websites and emails to be easier to read even further away.
I thought I would share this information with anyone interested in at least trying it. Of course if you prefer the way it was before, you can always reset. Also the default is set to ‘2’ (medium), where ‘0’ is off how I have it now set; meaning that you could pick something in between that, too.
