Panther: Narrower Fonts?

dhagan4755dhagan4755
Posted:
in macOS edited January 2014
I have noticed that on certain applications, at certain times, the font displayed seems narrower than it should be. I think we all know how Arial and Helvetica and Lucida Grande look. But on my system, they seem like they are narrower; squished a little bit. Anyone else experiencing this?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    hobbeshobbes Posts: 1,252member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by DHagan4755

    I have noticed that on certain applications, at certain times, the font displayed seems narrower than it should be. I think we all know how Arial and Helvetica and Lucida Grande look. But on my system, they seem like they are narrower; squished a little bit. Anyone else experiencing this?



    Yes. I've noticed in the Finder and Safari. I think it's intentional, but I can't say I particularly like it.



    It looks too squeezed in.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    dfilerdfiler Posts: 3,420member
    Is this from panther's "micro pixel positioning" of glyphs? I've been trying to decide if fonts in 10.3 are any different or improved.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    kim kap solkim kap sol Posts: 2,987member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Hobbes

    Yes. I've noticed in the Finder and Safari. I think it's intentional, but I can't say I particularly like it.



    It looks too squeezed in.



    I had the same feeling when I was playing with late builds of Panther. But you get used to it really quickly. In fact, I've forgotten that the font had changed.
  • Reply 4 of 6
    programmerprogrammer Posts: 3,458member
    Can't say that I've noticed. Personally I think the text looks terrific although I'm at a loss to say if it actually changed...
  • Reply 5 of 6
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    IMO there might be slightly tighter kerning but I can't tell if the characters themselves are narrower. Here's a comparison of Panther's menubar vs. Jaguar's menubar at least.

    That's Panther on top, Jag on the bottom. Panther seems to have less of a drop shadow and therefore looks a bit less bold, but the kerning and characters in that shot anyway look the same. The Jag menubar is from a previous jpeg so it's poorer quality; sorry for that. I hope it doesn't interfere with the comparison too much.



    I tend to think narrower kerning within limits improves legibility of words (as opposed to letters) in body text anyway.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    dviantdviant Posts: 483member
    yeah i think the fonts for files and folders were condensed slightly. Or perhaps just kerned tighter. Seems odd at first but its probably a good thing, as names will take up less space.
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