Anti-aliasing aka font smoothing

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

The 167 PPI Kindle 2 from 2009, my first e-ink device used anti-aliasing and I think all subsequent e-inks from amazon do. I am not in a position to determine whether it gets ditched in rendering based on settings. Attached is a screen shot from a first generation Scribe, which I hope meets the definition of recent. For anyone that doesn't know, the grayscale Scribe screen is 300 PPI. Zooming clearly shows anti-aliasing in both the reading font ond the UI font. I have no idea what happens with custom fonts.

The whole point of anti-aliasing is to be invisible or at least less obnoxious than the pixelization when it is missing.

Thanks for this information. This leads me to wonder if my 2014 Kindle Basic 7th generation, which I can tolerate, uses anti-aliasing. There is a question about operating system/updates as well, since this Kindle has never been updated, whereas the same model which I previously had was updated in 2022 and was then rendered unusable to me.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Daniel, I read all your posts on MR and elsewhere, and you have written about being unable to use even very old Kindles like Kindle 3, Kindle 4 and DX, and old Sony readers, as well as modern devices. Basically the only eink reader you can use is the 2014 Basic Kindle with an old firmware. To me this suggests that the problem is not the screen, but some combination of font, font size, margins and line-spacing your eyes and brain have gotten used to, to the extent you're unable to read with any other combination. So the thing to try is take note of this combination and try to recreate it on other devices.

I may be wrong, of course, but given that you've been unable to use both ancient and modern screens, lighted or not, the screen itself as the cause seems very unlikely. The 2014 Basic didn't have an exceptional screen in any way (I had one).

Thank you for remembering and reading all my posts! Yes, back in 2022 when my Kindle Basic 7th generation was updated to a new firmware and I could no longer use it, I tried many newer e-readers, which were all unusable to me, and then set out to find the oldest e-readers I could get my hands on, such as those that you mentioned (I remember the DX in particular, for which I had high hopes as I liked the big screen). The problem is that all of these e-readers were used and had evidently been updated with a newer firmware. I believe I checked this at the time. It took finding an unopened, unused Kindle Basic 7th generation, that had never been updated, on ebay in order to be able to use an e-reader again without symptoms.

I am wondering if the older firmwares (such as that on my 2014 Kindle) don't have anti-aliasing, while the newer firmwares -- whether on the newer devices or on the updated older ones -- do.

Thanks for your suggestion about fonts. I do word processing on my laptop with different fonts and sizes, and view documents with all manner of fonts and sizes on the web, and haven't noticed any difference of symptoms according to the font or size.

I think the issue is not with the screen itself, or the fonts, but with the way in which the text is rendered on the screen, which I assume is controlled by the firmware. And I am wondering if anti-aliasing is the specific feature that causes the symptoms.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Thanks for this information. This leads me to wonder if my 2014 Kindle Basic 7th generation, which I can tolerate, uses anti-aliasing. There is a question about operating system/updates as well, since this Kindle has never been updated, whereas the same model which I previously had was updated in 2022 and was then rendered unusable to me.

Your 2014 Kindle Basic 7th generation almost certainly uses anti-aliasing no matter which firmware version it is running.

It is also very likely that anti-aliasing is not the cause of whatever problem you are experiencing with viewing.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by DrNefario

The early kindles used a standard font with even stroke width and clear characters. (Was it Rockwell? Caecilia? I forget.) More recent readers allow flexibility to use your own fonts, which means many books are free to use fonts that don't render very well at some sizes.

I don't know if that's the issue. My similar vintage Kobo already allowed bad font choices.

I never noticed any anti-aliasing on my old Kindle Keyboard, which either means there wasn't any or that it was done right.

Readers with lights also require the cloudy diffusion layer in front of the screen. And then there are touchscreens with grubby fingerprints.

From what I have read, anti-aliasing isn't necessarily going to be visible to the naked eye, unless one has particularly good vision. But some people report getting symptoms such as headaches and eyestrain from anti-aliasing -- the fuzziness evidently forces the eyes/brain to focus more, or to try to focus on the blurry text, such that some kind of stress occurs in sensitive individuals that does not occur with non-anti-aliased text.

[rowe]

It probably varies by individual. I get far worse eye strain reading non-aliased text for long periods.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Thanks for your suggestion about fonts. I do word processing on my laptop with different fonts and sizes, and view documents with all manner of fonts and sizes on the web, and haven't noticed any difference of symptoms according to the font or size.

But have you at least tried to recreate your reading settings on other eink devices? I mean, if you haven't, it may well be the only option left for you to try, as it's not likely at this point that there are a lot of never-been-updated old ereaders lying around. If it doesn't work, you've lost nothing but a bit of time.

Fonts/margins/line spacing are among the first things I try out on any new ereader I get. And I too work with many different documents on my computers.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by j.p.s

Your 2014 Kindle Basic 7th generation almost certainly uses anti-aliasing no matter which firmware version it is running.

It is also very likely that anti-aliasing is not the cause of whatever problem you are experiencing with viewing.

Aha, so my current Kindle probably uses anti-aliasing.

Recently, my symptoms using my laptop have gotten worse, and I turned off anti-aliasing using a program called Iris. I did actually feel a relaxing of my eyes while looking at text upon doing this, but I still get the symptoms. So anti-aliasing might cause some kind of discomfort, but it does indeed seem likely that it is not the cause of the main symptoms.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by rowe

It probably varies by individual. I get far worse eye strain reading non-aliased text for long periods.

Thanks for sharing. Yes, I do think it varies by individual.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Aha, so my current Kindle probably uses anti-aliasing.

Recently, my symptoms using my laptop have gotten worse, and I turned off anti-aliasing using a program called Iris. I did actually feel a relaxing of my eyes while looking at text upon doing this, but I still get the symptoms. So anti-aliasing might cause some kind of discomfort, but it does indeed seem likely that it is not the cause of the main symptoms.

Thanks for the suggestion. That would be worth trying. I am actually OK with my e-reader now; I have been trying to figure out the cause of my symptoms from my laptop. If it was anti-aliasing that caused my problems with all the other e-readers, it could be anti-aliasing that is a problem on my laptop (or most/all laptops) too. But I installed a program called Iris that (supposedly) turned off anti-aliasing on my laptop (setting: "Simple fonts"); I did notice a relaxing of my eyes when looking at text, and switched back and forth between anti-aliasing (the "ClearText" setting on Iris) and "Simple fonts." The alternation between tension and relaxation was reproducible. But the switching to the "simple fonts" setting does not seem to have had an effect on my symptoms (which are brain fog and fatigue).

Thanks again to everyone for your thoughts and suggestions, this is really helpful to me.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

From what I have read, anti-aliasing isn't necessarily going to be visible to the naked eye, unless one has particularly good vision. But some people report getting symptoms such as headaches and eyestrain from anti-aliasing -- the fuzziness evidently forces the eyes/brain to focus more, or to try to focus on the blurry text, such that some kind of stress occurs in sensitive individuals that does not occur with non-anti-aliased text.

That is a good point. I hadn't considered the case of people with significantly above average acuity being bothered by the bluriness being perceived as out of focus. Computer monitors in the 90's had significantly lower resolution than is common today. Anti-aliased text and complex shapes looked fine to me, but long straight diagonal lines looked like out of focus ropes to me and it was definitely uncomfortable to view. With anti-aliasing off the jaggies looked even worse, so it was a frustrating time.

It's hard for me to imagine that on 300 dpi e-ink, but i guess it is possible. But I still think the differences you are seeing between kindles are due to something else, because I still think all kindles have always used anti-aliasing.

Originally Posted by DanielSt

Aha, so my current Kindle probably uses anti-aliasing.

Recently, my symptoms using my laptop have gotten worse, and I turned off anti-aliasing using a program called Iris. I did actually feel a relaxing of my eyes while looking at text upon doing this, but I still get the symptoms. So anti-aliasing might cause some kind of discomfort, but it does indeed seem likely that it is not the cause of the main symptoms.

I've had problems with computer OSs / applications that use color sub-pixel rendering of black and white text as a form of anti-aliasing. I see color sparklies that drive me bonkers. It's even more horrible on monitors rotated 90 degrees to give portrait orientation, and especially horrible on monitors whith the color stripes in a different order than what is most common.

In any case, sub-pixel text rendering might be part of the problems you are having with your laptop that shouldn't happen on e-ink.

[DanielSt]

In any case, sub-pixel text rendering might be part of the problems you are having with your laptop that shouldn't happen on e-ink.[/QUOTE]

Thanks very much for all of these thoughts. Sub-pixel text rendering, interesting: do you know if this can be turned off on a laptop (in my case, on Windows 10)?

[j.p.s]

I don't use windows so I can't help with that.

Have you tried web searching?

[Aleron Ives]

You can disable ClearType in Windows, but be advised that most modern fonts are designed to be viewed with AA, and they look horrible without it. You will need to stick to old fonts like Arial, Tahoma, Times New Roman, and Georgia that were created before font AA if you want legible text without ClearType.

[LostHisMarbles]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

do you know if this can be turned off on a laptop (in my case, on Windows 10)?

I have had similar issues myself, mostly because, well, old dog and new tricks..
But before you dismiss it;

Sub-pixel antialising is amazing on any retina display. You should try whatever settings annoyed you on an Apple device, just for comparison's sake. An iPad say, with assorted software, might surprise you. Says the man that discovered "other" fonts existed only a couple of years ago
* Also, if you ever do buy an iPad/MacBook, try the San Fransisco fonts -you can download them for free- with sub-pixel antialising activated. I'd send you a pic, but you wouldn't be able to discern the result without a retina display (tested).
** If you already have an Apple device but lack the fonts, get them here: https://devimages-cdn.apple.com/desi...oad/SF-Pro.dmg


As to disabling it; lacking the multiple physical pixels per each singular logical (see: retinas), it will indeed be subpar, legibility-wise; as mentioned, something i've tested a lot. But even so, you should initially make some decent comparison.. say sub-pixel vs "plain" anti-aliasing. A minor adjustment in font weight can make a big difference when "smoothing" is employed.

Also, never post again before morning coffee has kicked in. My syntax is shit and i give up.

[Quoth]

Subpixel antialising is disabled by default on Apple retina (everyone else calls it HiDPI) and is only needed ever on lower resolution displays.

multiple physical pixels per each singular logical

That is NOT sub=pixel addressing. The Cleartype and similar on non=MS only works on a three colour stripe display. It only adds a pseudo increase in resolution across the stripes, but we benefit from increased horizontal resolution on fonts.

So displays with R G Y B or R G B G arrays can't use it. Nor does it work sensibly on CRTs. Only well on digitally connected external LCD/OLED, not VGA or Analog on DVI.

So-called "Retina" is simply Apple branding for higher DPI displays where at normal view distance you can't see the pixels.
By default on a smaller panel you use 2 x 2 for each logical pixel. With the same number of pixels on a twice as big panel the Retina mode (HiDPI for everyone else) needs turned off.
Cleartype and similar schemes are for RGB stripes where the R G & B pixels are 1/3rd width and DPI is less than about 133. At about 120 to 200 on a full colour display simply using regular anti-aliasing and no "sub-pixel" on the RGB is better. Higher display DPIs or longer viewing distance don't need any anti-aliasing or "sub-pixel" addressing.

All of this is easier to change on Windows and especially Linux than Apple MacOS which might insist on ignoring screen physical size and keeping "Retina mode" on.