For the sake of completeness , how long ago were those decisions made
and the objections raised? On 29/07/2026 18: 30, Philip Race wrote: >
> LCD is only the default on controls. Grayscale is the default >
everywhere else. > >
For the sake of completeness , how long ago were those decisions made
and the objections raised?
On 29/07/2026 18:30, Philip Race wrote:
>
> LCD is only the default on controls. Grayscale is the default
> everywhere else.
>
> Unhinted greyscale was a requirement to be able to do smooth animations.
> But there were lots of objections to the poor quality that resulted on
> controls,
> particularly on windows where users expect it as that is the windows
> norm.
> So LCD was required to be the default on controls.
>
> On mac where Apple did away with LCD, if you have a non-retina
> display, text is not good (IMO).
>
> For every person who thinks it is better, there'll be someone else who
> passionately disagrees.
> So unless there's a 100% sure-fire way to enable this only on "hidpi"
> displays, I'd vote against it being the *default*.
>
> -phil.
>
> On 7/29/26 7:42 AM, Andy Goryachev wrote:
>> Fully agree with John here. The only concern is the backward
>> compatibility - any existing application that uses it will appear
>> slightly different.
>>
>> I would support changing the default (and mentioning it in the
>> release notes).
>>
>> -andy
>>
>>
>> From: John Hendrikx <[email protected]>
>> Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 03:13
>> To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
>> Subject: Re: [External] : Re: Enable grayscale antialiasing by
>> default on Windows HiDPI displays?
>>
>> My 2 cents; LCD rendering (like cleartype) was never good and more a
>> marketing gimmick than anything else. On high DPI displays you don't
>> need it, and on low DPI displays it just result in ugly colored fringes
>> on characters. This is so noticeable to me that even on very high DPI
>> displays it is the first thing I turn off on any new install. No need
>> for clown letters when grayscale smoothing is perfectly fine.
>>
>> In FX, it also the first thing I disable, no matter what the scaling or
>> monitor DPI.
>>
>> Since the time of low DPI screens is rapidly becoming ancient history, I
>> wouldn't be against changing the default to be grayscale.
>>
>> --John
>>
>> On 28/07/2026 23:54, Marius Hanl wrote:
>>> From what I saw and understand, -fx-font-smoothing-type: gray; is
>>> indeed a better default.
>>> I think this is a topic worth to discuss.
>>>
>>> -- Marius
>>>
>>> Am 27.07.2026 um 20:23 schrieb Christopher Schnick:
>>>> I think most devs do not see this as a large issue as you have
>>>> the
>>>> ability to fix it with the property (or also
>>>> -fx-font-smoothing-type:
>>>> gray in css) You are right, the default font rendering settings
>>>> are not
>>>> the best, but JavaFX is not really
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> I think most devs do not see this as a large issue as you have the
>>>> ability to fix it with the property (or also -fx-font-smoothing-type:
>>>> gray in css)
>>>>
>>>> You are right, the default font rendering settings are not the
>>>> best, but
>>>> JavaFX is not really known for having optimal default settings out of
>>>> the box in general. If you want to get something good out of it, you
>>>> have to do some work.
>>>>
>>>> I can submit a PR to change the defaults, no idea whether that will be
>>>> accepted though.
>>>>
>>>> On 21/07/2026 18:31, Glavo wrote:
>>>>> Hey, does anyone care about this?
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jun 3, 2026 at 12:31 PM Glavo <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>> Hi everyone,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We have noticed that, for JavaFX applications on Windows HiDPI
>>>>>> displays,
>>>>>> subpixel antialiasing often produces very poor rendering results
>>>>>> for many
>>>>>> fonts.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> For example, when using the MiSans font on a display scaled to
>>>>>> 150%, the
>>>>>> edges of English letters rendered with subpixel antialiasing show
>>>>>> very
>>>>>> noticeable jagged artifacts:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> https://imgur.com/ZpzDWZ5
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> For Chinese text, the results of subpixel antialiasing are even more
>>>>>> disastrous. Many strokes either blur together or show obvious
>>>>>> inconsistencies in thickness, making the text look very poor.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> To address this issue, we tried forcing grayscale font
>>>>>> antialiasing by
>>>>>> adding -Dprism.lcdtext=false. After testing many fonts, we found
>>>>>> that on
>>>>>> HiDPI displays, grayscale antialiasing is never worse than subpixel
>>>>>> antialiasing, and it fixes rendering issues for many fonts. On
>>>>>> non-HiDPI
>>>>>> displays, that is, at 100% scaling, grayscale antialiasing and
>>>>>> subpixel
>>>>>> antialiasing each have their own advantages and disadvantages.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> We then added a workaround in our application: on Windows, if the
>>>>>> primary
>>>>>> screen scale is greater than 100%, the application automatically
>>>>>> adds the
>>>>>> JVM option -Dprism.lcdtext=false to enable grayscale antialiasing.
>>>>>> After a
>>>>>> year of real-world use, we have not received any user complaints
>>>>>> about this
>>>>>> strategy.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> I hope JavaFX can provide a built-in mechanism for automatically
>>>>>> selecting
>>>>>> the appropriate antialiasing algorithm, so that users do not have
>>>>>> to adjust
>>>>>> these options manually.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Glavo
>>>>>>
>>>> References
>>>>
>>>> Visible links:
>>>>
>>>> Hidden links:
>>>> 2.
>>>> https://us-phishalarm-ewt.proofpoint.com/EWT/v1/ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!N_27VmluMChEtbPqF3n0OJaftfpglPBNZejHqzzeFb1qS8N4hxQV99OhWoOMiGeeVh8EC5YpXT4UkOvvvJnbNWukdBqco00DuJbtzA$
>>>>
>
