Where is the SubPixel AntiAliasing support?

Hello Richard,

Did you enable Settings | Appearance | UI Options | Use antialiased font
in editor?

I'm also running JDK update N EA, and I have very nice ClearType fonts (nearly)
everywhere in my IDEA. :)

Just tried IntelliJ IDEA 7.0.3 under the update N JDK (build
1.6.0_10-beta-b13) which appears to recognize my active LCD cleartype
setting under Windows XP and enables the Java 6.0 subpixel
antialiasing by default. It works pretty well for the menus and and
stuff except I've noticed a number of controls and dialogs under IDEA
don't antialias (run config chooser on menu bar) which leads to a
somewhat scruffy inconsistent appearance.

The worst offender however is the actual editor. If I change to what
should be a nice cleartype programming font like Consolas it looks
really poor as it doesn't seem to share the same JVM subpixel aliasing
setting. Under Apperances I can turn on antialiasing - but this
appears to be the old style Graphics2D aatext antialiasing - not the
'improved' subpixel one? If I change the font in say Netbeans 6.0 to
match the same Consolas font and size in IDEA, Netbeans looks much
better for some reason?

This Appearances antialiasing setting also makes IDEA chug a bit.

In any case setting antialiasing in the editor doesn't appear to be
shared by the editors completion popups, tool tips, intentions and the
like - which use the editor font but without antialiasing - which in
the case of most cleartype/truetype fonts reverts to unreadable spider
scrawl?

Is improved font rendering (and consistency) on the roadmap somewhere?

--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"

Works fine here, see the attached screenshot. Note that you should use Windows Look&Feel in Settings | Appearance.

Yes thats teh setting I'm using. However I was concerned that

a) Unlike the rest of the components it isn't selected via the JDK default setting. i.e. isn't on by default under update N.

b) Theres a number of places in IDEA where the un-aliased fonts peek through leaving it inconsistent. The un-aliased editor font can be particularly ugly in code-completion like prompts if you pick another programming/truetype font. Some of the tool bar controls and widgets lose anti-aliasing too but thats a different font to the editor. The IDE UI widgets lacked consistency with the system setting.

c) Is it using the subpixel aliasing or the old component/graphics 2d antialiasing. It seems rather slow and simply doesn't look as good as the same text in Netbeans using the same combination of JDK, font and size? Suspected it might be using the old (Java 1.4?) antialiasing as it's been hidden away under appearances for so long in IDEA. i.e. I was after the (now default) LCD subpixel aliasing not the old aatext hack: http://today.java.net/pub/a/today/2005/07/26/lcdtext.html

NB The speed might also have something to do with my customized Monokai theme, lots of bells & whistles, fonts and antialising it appears to stress the IDE more than usual. Have to wait a second or two for thing to paint (colorize) whenever I switch tabs.

Ah is that critical? Using the default IDEA/Alloy.. you mean it's Alloy L&F not IDEA at fault?

AA depends on the L&F. Using Windows L&F solves most of the issues.

Just enjoying it now thanks. Some of the menus (refactoring) can be a little sluggish to appear but its workable. 7.0.3 seems better than the last time I tried playing with the antialias settings.. just really tired of monospace/courier.

Hello Richard,

b) Theres a number of places in IDEA where the un-aliased fonts peek
through leaving it inconsistent. The un-aliased editor font can be
particularly ugly in code-completion like prompts if you pick another
programming/truetype font. Some of the tool bar controls and widgets
lose anti-aliasing too but thats a different font to the editor. The
IDE UI widgets lacked consistency with the system setting.

Please post JIRA issues for places where you encounter non-antialiased fonts.

c) Is it using the subpixel aliasing or the old component/graphics 2d
antialiasing.

It uses subpixel antialiasing (ClearType under JDK 6 update N) if your Windows
desktop settings are configured to use ClearType.

--
Dmitry Jemerov
Development Lead
JetBrains, Inc.
http://www.jetbrains.com/
"Develop with Pleasure!"

Yes!! Nice looking ClearType Fonts in IntelliJ at last. I'm so happy.