snowie2000/mactype

125% scaling blurry compared to 125% custom scaling

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#709 opened on Dec 16, 2020

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help wanted

Description

Hi,

I noticed that text, particularly in older apps, is more blurry when chosing the drop-down menu 125% scaling vs going to custom scaling page and typing 125%, followed by logging out and then back in.

Some of this may be compatibility issues, but is there an explanation for this? Perhaps it's to do with the order in which freetype renders text and when the scaling takes place, perhaps upsampling instead of downsampling?

I'm not really sure of what windows is doing differently in the two scaling methods either.

(this isn't really an issue, just a curiosity)

Contributor guide

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
desktop
Issue type
research
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
5
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-3 hours
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
Windows DPI scalingMacType internalsFreeType rendering
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
20
Research direction
Investigate the difference between Windows default 125% scaling and custom scaling by examining MacType's handling of DPI scaling. Review the comment thread for any existing explanations or experiments. Look at the MacType source code, particularly how it hooks font rendering and scaling. Compare with Windows native scaling behavior to identify the cause of blurriness.