Fonts on Macs

bsolah · Nov 12, 2009

I thought I started this thread before but can't find it...

Anyone bought a new Mac a few weeks ago and am loving, loving every bit of it and will never go back to Windows again, but the only change that is bugging me is that the fonts look so much smaller.

What have Mac users done to adapt to this? Do you just get used to smaller fonts or are there specific fonts that are better to use other than Times New Roman?

Deleted member 42 · Nov 12, 2009

Some questions:

1. where do they look smaller--on the screen or in hard copy

2. If on the screen, where on the screen -- i.e. in a document or in the Finder and OS controls?

3. Make sure you have the default screen size set correctly for your screen; Go to About This Mac, under the Apple menu, and click More Info to find out what the monitor resolution is then make sure you've set it to that in System Preferences/Displays.

bsolah · Nov 12, 2009

1. It's on the screen.

2. In documents, mainly on Pages and Scrivener. (Incidentally, OpenOffice does not have this problem)

3. Checked this. Both are 1280x800

Deleted member 42 · Nov 12, 2009

You've got me.

You might check Font Book, in applications, to make sure that you don't have multiple copies of the same font installed anywhere.

Also, check to see if Scrivener and Pages have a Zoom option.

I'm curious, frankly. It's a new one to me. I suspect there's a strikingly simple and obvious answer, which is so obvious its eluding us.

Matera the Mad · Nov 12, 2009

Mac default screen resolution is 96 dpi. PC is 72. Just zoom the friggin' window, cantcha? It's what I have to do all the time because my lousy eyes can't see what yours can on a PC. And Times New Eyestrain is a crappy font to work in. You should use something that doesn't stress your vision while writing.

Deleted member 42 · Nov 12, 2009

Matera the Mad said:
Mac default screen resolution is 96 dpi. PC is 72. Just zoom the friggin' window, cantcha? It's what I have to do all the time because my lousy eyes can't see what yours can on a PC. And Times New Eyestrain is a crappy font to work in. You should use something that doesn't stress your vision while writing.

Yeah, but . . .

It's application specific. That's a little odd.

bsolah · Nov 12, 2009

I read the stuff about the dpi difference so have been zooming in but it's a little odd. I think the application specific thing is more to do with OpenOffice than with Pages or Scrivener...

Any suggestions for fonts that won't strain my eyes?

Matera the Mad · Nov 13, 2009

Any sans-serif you like; Arial or something on that order. I don't have a lot of names in my head for Mac. Studies have shown -- and my peepers confirm -- that serifed fonts are harder to read on screen. It has much ado with the differences between light-emitting and light-reflecting surfaces. Times N R is particularly bad because it's condensed. It's designed to save paper, not eyes. I fsking hate it all over the Web.

IMO poor font choice (i.e. mostly using defaults, not choosing) causes a lot of overlooked errors. Double-spacing is a tad pernicious too. It's fine for between-the-lines marking on paper, but it limits how much you can see.

One more tip -- a window that is too wide can make lines of text too long. The human eye has a preference for short lines, a quick trip from the end of one to the beginning of the next. Ever have double words because during a bit of editing you left a "the" at one end and typed in a new one in the next line? The longer the lines, the harder it is to see those. Changing window size will shake up the lines and you might see things you might have missed.

maestrowork · Nov 13, 2009

I do find the texts smaller on the Mac than on PC because of the dpi difference. I just zoom in. My default zoom-level for documents are about 120% or "fit to width." As for browser, I set the default display fonts to bigger and also in Safari you can "zoom in."

Deleted member 42 · Nov 13, 2009

I favor Georgia as a body type for text read on the screen.

PVish · Nov 13, 2009

When I bought a new MacBook (Snow Leopard) a few weeks ago and transferred everything from my iMac (Leopard) via migrations assistant—and I'd earlier transferred a lot of stuff to the iMac from an elderly eMac via target disk mode, I had some major font issues on the MacBook with Pages and MS Word . Some fonts wouldn't print or would look really weird.

I spent time on the phone with tech support. After one of the support guys saw a scan of the bad TNR in Pages on my blog, he bumped me to a higher level of tech support and the font problem was resolved.

Basically, it was a font problem—multiple copies of some fonts and a few corrupted fonts.

You can access your font book and click "validate fonts" from a pull-down menu. That'll give you an idea if something is amiss before you call tech support.

First, though, have you checked how your problem fonts look in a print-out?

maestrowork · Nov 14, 2009

The new update of Snow Leopard 10.6.2 is supposed to have fixed some of the font issues (including duplicate fonts). I had problems with Pages as well (some of the previous files would crash Pages until I changed all the fonts to Georgia).

bsolah · Nov 16, 2009

Ah, I have the Snow Leopard disk. I should really upgrade.

Deleted member 42 · Nov 16, 2009

bsolah said:
Ah, I have the Snow Leopard disk. I should really upgrade.

Check your apps that you need first to make sure that they're compatible, and check any printers you use to make sure the drivers work.

Deleted member 42 · Nov 16, 2009

maestrowork said:
The new update of Snow Leopard 10.6.2 is supposed to have fixed some of the font issues (including duplicate fonts). I had problems with Pages as well (some of the previous files would crash Pages until I changed all the fonts to Georgia).

It doesn't actually fix them so much as attempt to move them, warn the user, and it uses an improved copy of Font book.

But if the font is corrupted (or made wrong) the little invisible font prefs file/micro database entry won't let the font be moved, so absolutely do check them in Font Book.

bsolah · Nov 16, 2009

I don't think the fonts are corrupted or anything like that. I'm pretty sure it's just due to the different in DPI between Mac and Windows.

Deleted member 42 · Nov 16, 2009

bsolah said:
I don't think the fonts are corrupted or anything like that. I'm pretty sure it's just due to the different in DPI between Mac and Windows.

Except it's not in all applications; and some applications look only at the ~system/library vs looking at there and ~user/library for fonts.

So; if you have two copies of a single font, or if you have a corrupted font, that could explain the difference.

It's worth checking FontBook before you got to Snow Leopard, in any case, to avoid problems.

bsolah · Nov 16, 2009

Ah ok, will have to check this. Is there an easy way of seeing if the different apps like at different FontBooks?

Fonts on Macs

bsolah

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Matera the Mad

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Bartender, gimme a Linux Mint

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