Please help me DISABLE font smoothing in OOo under Tiger

[mnd]

I have OOo running on Tiger (10.4., and it seems to be working great, but it's ignoring my global font smoothing settings (I want NO font smoothing). From what I've read, X11 is using its own font-rendering settings.

Surprisingly, I haven't found the solution by searching here or in the app's "Help" file.

Please tell me there's a way to entirely disable font smoothing, because if I can't disable it in in OOo I definitely won't be able to use OOo. Thanks for any ideas!

[mnd]

Yeah, that's some useful smiley replacement...

Tiger 10 dot 4 dot 8

[9point9]

Doesn't Apple provide any documentation at all for it's version of X11? I tried a Google search and there's nothing of any real use about it. One thing I did find suggested reducing the interface fonts in OOo and below a point they won't be covered by X11's antialiasing.

Unfortunately OS X is nothing like the Unix system it's supposed to be as they broke POSIX so I've no idea where it would be but there will definitely be some config files for X11 somewhere. I'd ask an Apple Mac forum.

Edit:
Which OOo version are you using? I here that 2.0.4 does improve font integration.
_________________
Arch Linux
OOo 3.2.0

OOoSVN, change control for OOo documents:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/ooosvn/

[mnd]

Thanks, I will ask in a mac-dedicated forum (so far the searching in sch forums has turned up nothing), and if anybody else here has any ideas, I would still be reallygrateful to hear them!

X11 is clearly not following any font rendering settings from elsewhere in the OS (it anti-aliases every character, both in the interface and in the app wndows, no matter how tiny the font)... and it has a grand total of 6 user-configurable settings in its "Preferences" GUI.

Everything I find by Googling is either app-specific (how to disable anti-aliasing in Gimp, etc.) or assumes more UNIX background than I have or can figure out...


EDIT:
To answer your question about the version #, I was trying 2.0 -- I just dl'd and tried 2.0.4 and it appears to have exactly the same issue. (The difference is that this version does ask at first use whether I want to use "Apple system fonts" -- I said yes, but it's still anti-aliasing everything at every font size.)

(But hey, I see there's an Aqua version coming sometime soon!!! On a page "Last Updated 2006/09/05" it says "1-3 months" til the public Alpha...)

[jakeosx]

for mac and oo.o and forums, this is really it. you may be able to find some x11 info, maybe on the gimp or inkscape sites.

i'll look into it too and see if i can find anything.

[mnd]

Thanks, jakeosx!

I think it it's only a few months' wait til the Aqua version, I can handle that wait... the Aqua version will follow my existing rules for font rendering (I've eliminated antialiasing as much as I possibly can in OS X -- there is no true system-wide elimination of it in Tiger, as far as I or anyone I've found on the web can figure out...).

[PictureThis]

Thanks for the postings people. It seems I'm not the only one desperate to get rid of antialiasing (who invented that monster anyway..)

I can confirm OOo ignores the global font smoothing settings and unchecking "Screen font antialiasing" in OOo's Tools-->Options-->View menu doesn't do anything either. Ironically the only thing not antialiased is the OpenOffice title bar (e.g. "Untitled1 - OpenOffice.org Writer" looks exactly how I want it )

Turning off antialiasing is a bitch in Tiger anyway. I managed to limit the use of antialiasing to the menus and title bars with a command I found floating on the net (edit.. might as well put it here: setting this default in the terminal: "defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 128" will turn off font smoothing for fonts up to size 128 (does not work in OOo ) ) Apple should implement a global turn off antialiasing switch. It is really mind boggling that such an important visual item in the user interface can not be changed easily in 2007. I thought we had left the Computer Stone Age behind us but alas..

Too bad, I can/will not use OOo like this. Sadly the aqua version hasn't arrived yet. Apparently at least 1-2 months before a pre-release alpha

[jakeosx]

one to two months? i'd not hold your breath.

try neooffice (neooffice.org) not sure if it will help with your anti-aliasing, but it has a better chance.
_________________
User Help for OpenOffice.org on the Mac

[PictureThis]