Add Smooth Type To Classic And OS 8/9

· by Kyle D\'Addario · News

Greg Landweber has updated SmoothType to version 2.3.3. SmoothType makes text on your screen look more "rounded" and less "jagged" via anti-aliasing. This method makes text look better, and can bring the visual display of text in OS Xis Classic environment up to par with the display in OS X. According to Mr. Landweber:

SmoothType is a shareware ($10) control panel that brings Mac OS X style font smoothing to Macs running System 7 through Mac OS 9.1. SmoothType also works in the Classic environment under Mac OS X, giving Classic applications text that looks just as good as in Carbon and Cocoa applications.

SmoothType effectively doubles the resolution of text on the screen by blurring the edges of bitmap fonts with shades of gray, a technique called "anti-aliasing". Although Apple introduced a limited form of font smoothing in Mac OS 8.5, SmoothType offers greater flexibility and uses a more aggressive algorithm--similar to how Adobe Acrobat views PDF files--that produces much better results. Apple is now using such smoothed text in Mac OS X, but only for applications that use the Quartz graphics engine.

Version 2.2.3 improves kerning, fixes problems with Internet Explorer, DreamWeaver, and BBEdit, and prevents its shareware reminder from appearing during the initial trial period. SmoothType 2.2.3 is a 106K download.

SmoothType is available for US$10. You can find more information at Mr. Landweberis Web site.

Kyle D\'Addario

TMO Staff

In 1998, Bryan Chaffin and Dave Hamilton bought Webintosh and re-launched the site as The Mac Observer. TMO has been covering the Mac and Apple industry and beyond ever since.

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