Is it time for subpixel antialiasing (aka “cleartype”) to die?
RGB pixel subhinting is a hack that was invented for 72dpi LCD displays. But we are increasingly seeing high-DPI displays in use, where simple antialiasing is superior. In fact, modern phones rarely use this technology any more.
Some also argue that text with greyscale antialiasing is more readable on modern displays than text with subpixel rendering.
What do you think?
@TerrorBite @tech Sure, it’s a hack, but why can’t systems be smart about subpixel rendering?
In theory, an EDID can describe its subpixel layout to a system, and text renderers can use that information to decide whether subpixel rendering makes sense.
I guess there’s a lot of information passing that would need to take place that can’t/doesn’t happen.
That seems pretty plausible to me. If you can have two way communication with a TV/monitor over say HDMI, why not implement that?
Though I suspect the answer may be that it’s no longer really worth trying to implement it at this point.
@tech