Anti-aliasing aka font smoothing

[DanielSt]

I have a 2014 Kindle Basic 7th generation that has never been updated and I am able to use it without any problems.

I had the same model some years ago and when it was updated in 2022, I could no longer use it (brain fog and fatigue).

All other newer e-readers of any brand that I have tried, as well as older e-readers that have been updated, I am unable to use.

Do all current e-readers use anti-aliasing (font smoothing), and does my never-updated Kindle Basic 7th generation not use it?

If current e-readers use it, is there a way of turning it off on all or some of them?

Would be grateful for your help!

[rowe]

I only really know pocket readers. The xteink x4 doesn't have text aliasing on the standard firmware.

The Viwoods Reader is a more polished device. It doesn't have text aliasing in some of its refresh modes.

[DNSB]

Some of the earlier eInk devices with lower resolution may have used anti-aliasing though it slowed down the display and would require a display capable of greyscaling. For later eInk screen, the 300 DPI screen keeps the jaggies small enough that anti-aliasing would not be useful.

Takes me back a lot of years. The first discussion on anti-aliasing and eInk I remember on MobileRead was from before I joined and was just browsing the site.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Some of the earlier eInk devices with lower resolution may have used anti-aliasing though it slowed down the display and would require a display capable of greyscaling. For later eInk screen, the 300 DPI screen keeps the jaggies small enough that anti-aliasing would not be useful.

Takes be back a lot of years. The first discussion on anti-aliasing and eInk I remember on MobileRead was from before I joined and was just browsing the site.

Aha! So the earlier devices would be more likely to have anti-aliasing, and the newer ones generally don't use it?

[nana77]

I wasn't to know that older devices used anti-aliasing, @DanielSt consider that the best crispness is done by the resolution (anti-aliasing, other than not being that clean, has processes demanding), and the older Kindle Basic had 800 x 600 at 167 ppi, the 2022 one has 300 ppi; just as a comparison, there are 4K TV that has 160 ppi (3840 × 2160 on a 29").
Pardon but do you have to watch videos or other kind of sources on it?

[DNSB]

He is not watching videos on it. One thing to remember is that most people will hold an ereader a lot closer to their eyes than their normal TV watching distance.

I am only aware of one ereader that used anti-aliasing and that was a 212 DPI screen. If you looked at the screen with a magnifier when using a serif font, you could see the gray capsules around some edges of the glyph. It was also slower than most 6" ereaders at that time when turning pages. Sheesh... it's only been 14 years and I'm blanking out of the manufacturer.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by DNSB

He is not watching videos on it. One thing to remember is that most people will hold an ereader a lot closer to their eyes than their normal TV watching distance.

I am only aware of one ereader that used anti-aliasing and that was a 212 DPI screen. If you looked at the screen with a magnifier when using a serif font, you could see the gray capsules around some edges of the glyph. It was also slower than most 6" ereaders at that time when turning pages. Sheesh... it's only been 14 years and I'm blanking out of the manufacturer.

Thanks! I was trying to figure out why I can use the old, non-updated Kindle but can't use newer e-readers or older ones that have been updated. I thought that it could have been connected to anti-aliasing, as some people get symptoms from looking at anti-aliased text. But if I've understood correctly, most e-readers (including the most recent ones) don't use anti-aliasing at all? Then my symptoms must be due to some other factor.

[rowe]

While 300 ppi is sharp, most modern e-readers use some form of font smoothing by default (typically via grayscale anti-aliasing) to ensure characters appear consistent and "natural" rather than digitally harsh. However, the effect is much more subtle than on the old low ppi screens. On modern hardware this processing overhead is negligible.

Fast/speed refresh modes often forgo font smoothing.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I am only aware of one ereader that used anti-aliasing and that was a 212 DPI screen.

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.

Originally Posted by rowe

While 300 ppi is sharp, most modern e-readers use some form of font smoothing by default (typically via grayscale anti-aliasing) to ensure characters appear consistent and "natural" rather than digitally harsh. However, the effect is much more subtle than on the old low ppi screens. On modern hardware this processing overhead is negligible.

Fast/speed refresh modes often forgo font smoothing.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by DanielSt

I have a 2014 Kindle Basic 7th generation that has never been updated and I am able to use it without any problems.

I had the same model some years ago and when it was updated in 2022, I could no longer use it (brain fog and fatigue).

All other newer e-readers of any brand that I have tried, as well as older e-readers that have been updated, I am unable to use.

Do all current e-readers use anti-aliasing (font smoothing), and does my never-updated Kindle Basic 7th generation not use it?

If current e-readers use it, is there a way of turning it off on all or some of them?

Would be grateful for your help!

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).

[JSWolf]

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.

I took a look at the screen grab and found a typo. oftiheir is missing a space.

[JSWolf]

Even if my Kobo Libra 2 is not using anti-aliasing, I don't see a problem with the font I'm using. I'm using ChareInk7SP which is based on Charis SIL 7. It has a smaller default line height and a smaller space/non-breaking space.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I took a look at the screen grab and found a typo. oftiheir is missing a space.

I'm not seeing it, but in any case, what's your point?

BTW, I've looked at thousands of your posts and very few of them have any merit or redeeming value.

[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.

[DanielSt]

Originally Posted by rowe

While 300 ppi is sharp, most modern e-readers use some form of font smoothing by default (typically via grayscale anti-aliasing) to ensure characters appear consistent and "natural" rather than digitally harsh. However, the effect is much more subtle than on the old low ppi screens. On modern hardware this processing overhead is negligible.

Fast/speed refresh modes often forgo font smoothing.

Thank you, so most modern e-readers use some form of font smoothing/anti-aliasing. This is precisely what I was wondering about and is very helpful to know.