Improve Font Smoothing in Mac OS X [QuickTip]

This may be old news for some, but those new to Mac OS X will find it extremely useful. In Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Apple removed the ability for the user to adjust font smoothing via System Preferences. For a flat panel monitor, some may prefer to view with the anti-aliasing turned up or down. This simple tweak can reduce eye strain, and improve the rendering of fonts on larger non-Apple branded monitors.

To adjust, open Applications/Utilities/Terminal and type the following:

defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 2

Then reboot to see the changes. You can use any number between 1 and 4, which is the default. The value 2 is apparently best for flat panel screens. If this works well for you, let us know! Further information with comparison screenshots at macworld.com.

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