Desktop pictures & fonts OS9.1

[Danamania]

No, it's 17" Samsung SyncMaster 172S. My PM has a Village Tronic graphics card (16MB I think), and OS 9.1 is configured normally. I have also 2 other disks with OS 9.0 and 8.6. Can't see any difference.

Any chance you could take a reasonably  close-up photo of what the various fonts look like on your display? Plenty of us have literal decades of experience with what classic OS displays should look like, and would be able to spot the issue visually more easily than via a description.

 

[CC_333]

Maybe it's just me, but I actually like the chunky, pixelated look.

Besides, my eyes sort of blend it all together naturally at normal reading distances, so I don't even notice the chunkiness half the time :lol: .

That being said, Mac OS 9 on a 1024x768 CRT doesn't look terrible. Not as excellent as modern, ultra hi-res LCD displays maybe, but certainly more than adequate for most purposes.

c

 

[Jaris]

Thanks, guys for all your help! Firstly, I have to explain my situation a little bit . 

I am writing at the moment from iMac 24” 2008. I have  some old machines on the attic (Performa 6400, Powermac 8600/200, PM 9600.350 and G4) and recently decided to revive at least some of them. At the moment I can’t connect them to the internet so sending screen shots would be rather difficult.  In general I have more questions concerning the hardware, but probably I shouldn’t throw everything into this thread. Anyway, I am quite used to this pixelated oldish look, but recently when working on my PM 9600/350 I just asked myself a question: does a text have to look so differently on my old Macs in comparison to iMac and Macbook Pro which I use at the moment most often, and what is the reason for this. I checked some information about anti-aliasing and ATM in particular, and found the following information:

“The original ATM was created for the Apple Macintosh computer platform to scale PostScript Type 1 fonts for the computer monitor, and for printing to non-PostScript printers. Mac Type 1 fonts come with screen fonts set to display at certain point sizes only. In Macintosh operating systems prior to Mac OS X, Type 1 fonts set at other sizes would appear jagged on the monitor. ATM allowed Type 1 fonts to appear smooth at any point size, and to print well to non-PostScript devices. Around 2001, with Apple's Mac OS X (and Microsoft's Windows 2000 and XP), support for Type 1 fonts was built into the operating system using ATM Light code contributed by Adobe. ATM for Mac was then no longer necessary for font imaging or printing.[SIZE=13.1px]”[/SIZE]

[SIZE=13.1px]This suggests 2 things: 1/ [/SIZE]ATM allowed Type 1 fonts to appear smooth at any point size in old systems 2/ The code used for smoothing fonts in modern operating systems is the same and was contributed by Adobe.

Then the question is why can’t I see it in reality? Maybe ATM needs some tweaking in OS9, and I don’t know how to do it…

Anyway, I’ll try to connect my 9600/350 to the net, and send you some screen shots later, but I’m not sure if this will work. Should I use Classilla? Will I be able to open 68kMLA forum site on my old Mac?

I also have some questions concerning display like: a/ can I use Radeon 9200 on my PM 9600 under OS 9.1, and will it work any better than my Village Tronic card (or should I look for another card)? b/ How big monitor can I hook to it? But, probably I should start another thread, no?

Anyway, sorry for so many questions in one place and thanks again for all your replies.

 

[Jaris]

Fair enough. The answer is simply that screen fonts on these old machines cannot match the clarity we have today.

The attachment is from advertising in the years your 9600 was on sale. The limitations of the screens and fonts as rendered on them were simply accepted at the time. Even the Apple looks like crap when magnified in this way.

Well, but this is how it looked without ATM, no?

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

IIRC, under ATM you'd still be using the bitmapped screen fonts included in the "Font" (that typographic term was mangled) at those smaller text sizes. Anything larger was rendered on the fly from the PostScript font's outline data. Screen fonts in their various point sizes were carefully tweaked to look their best at 72 DPI in representing what output would look like when printed at higher resolutions.

Word processing and even page layout at "text size" looked fair, but ATM and such interpreted larger size lettering as well as could be done at 72 DPI. You'd still have the "jaggies" inherent in a 72 DPI display, but nothing like the children's building block terracing the early Mac's original (bitmap only) fonts looked at larger point sizes.

 

[beachycove]

Well, but this is how it looked without ATM, no?

No, that is how they looked -- though in the case of the image posted, it's the the resolution that makes it look especially bad. At normal resolutions, you don't much notice the jaggies. As Trash says, however, the printed page looked far better.

Black and white screens were arguably clearer than colour screens, but that is another question.

 

[ktkm]

As a Type Designer, font rendering is something that concerns me every day. Here is a good explanation on the subject matter: http://www.rastertragedy.com

Through System 6–9, I personally I prefer bitmap fonts on a CRT-screens, and well hinted PostScript fonts for laser printers.

Bw,

Kristian

 

[Trash80toHP_Mini]

Wow! Thanks for that blast from the past! Seeing Jonathan Hoefler's name in that link takes me back to the days of MPC and helping a bit with a bright young teenager's learning the ins and outs of Fontographer. I'd been using it for years as an Illustration program, that was about the time the guys at Altsys had just finished morphing it into the just released Freehand. Those were heady days in Illustration software development and type design.

 

[ktkm]

Those were heady days in Illustration software development and type design.

Definitely!

My whole vintage Mac interest came back with Altsys’ Fontastic™ and Fontographer™. Right now I’m working on a new font project for old Mac’s. (My whife thinks I’m crazy!)