Can't Disable “Antialias text” Option Using Me

问题:

Quite simply, when I'm using the Menlo font in OS X's Terminal.app, the ability to uncheck "Antialias text" is not allowed. The checkbox is disabled, and this only occurs when I'm using the Menlo Regular font face (chosen by default in the Pro theme). See the following screenshot: Terminal.app Preferences http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/6167/screenshot20110118at702.png Has anyone experienced this as well? It's really bugging me because I like Menlo as my fixed width font, but I also want it to be aliased for use in Terminal.app. What gives?

回答1:

The antialias checkbox is disabled (and selected) for fonts that do not have bitmaps and therefore must be rendered with (antialiased) outlines. Menlo is one such font.

回答2:

Apparently this is a known issue with Menlo: http://damieng.com/blog/2009/08/29/first-impressions-of-snow-leopard (search for Menlo)

As long as it's not an issue with my OS or configuration somehow, then I feel a little better about this. Guess I'll stick to Monaco for now...

回答3:

Having recently installed Lion in a VirtualBox, I'm seeing the same problem. I like nice bitmapped fonts for text editing and terminals.

My take on what's going on is that the Antialias text button is actually overloaded with two meanings.

For some bitmapped fonts, it really seems to really turn anti-aliasing on and off. Looking closely at the characters while switching back and forth, you can see that the anti-aliased font is pretty much pixel-for-pixel identical to the bitmapped one, only blurry.

But for some other fonts, it looks as if it selects between an anti-aliased vector font and a hand-made, bitmapped font. E.g. check out Microsoft Sans Serif.

I suspect that the button is disabled in situations when a only a vector font exists.

The ideal situation is when there are separate fonts.

If only a bitmapped font exists, it's okay if the anti-aliasing button works because anti-aliasing a bitmapped font can look passable.

If only a vector font exists, turning off anti-aliasing (especially at those sizes) would look like garbage, so it makes sense to disable the feature.

Sounds like a reasonable hypothesis, anyway.

I'm puzzled, though, why the application does not come configured with a sane default: a good-looking, crisp bitmapped font.