Fully agree with John here. The only concern is the backward compatibility - any existing application that uses it will appear slightly different.
I would support changing the default (and mentioning it in the release notes). -andy From: John Hendrikx <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2026 at 03:13 To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [External] : Re: Enable grayscale antialiasing by default on Windows HiDPI displays? My 2 cents; LCD rendering (like cleartype) was never good and more a marketing gimmick than anything else. On high DPI displays you don't need it, and on low DPI displays it just result in ugly colored fringes on characters. This is so noticeable to me that even on very high DPI displays it is the first thing I turn off on any new install. No need for clown letters when grayscale smoothing is perfectly fine. In FX, it also the first thing I disable, no matter what the scaling or monitor DPI. Since the time of low DPI screens is rapidly becoming ancient history, I wouldn't be against changing the default to be grayscale. --John On 28/07/2026 23:54, Marius Hanl wrote: > From what I saw and understand, -fx-font-smoothing-type: gray; is > indeed a better default. > I think this is a topic worth to discuss. > > -- Marius > > Am 27.07.2026 um 20:23 schrieb Christopher Schnick: >> I think most devs do not see this as a large issue as you have the >> ability to fix it with the property (or also >> -fx-font-smoothing-type: >> gray in css) You are right, the default font rendering settings >> are not >> the best, but JavaFX is not really >> >> >> I think most devs do not see this as a large issue as you have the >> ability to fix it with the property (or also -fx-font-smoothing-type: >> gray in css) >> >> You are right, the default font rendering settings are not the best, but >> JavaFX is not really known for having optimal default settings out of >> the box in general. If you want to get something good out of it, you >> have to do some work. >> >> I can submit a PR to change the defaults, no idea whether that will be >> accepted though. >> >> On 21/07/2026 18:31, Glavo wrote: >>> Hey, does anyone care about this? >>> >>> On Wed, Jun 3, 2026 at 12:31 PM Glavo <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>>> Hi everyone, >>>> >>>> We have noticed that, for JavaFX applications on Windows HiDPI >>>> displays, >>>> subpixel antialiasing often produces very poor rendering results >>>> for many >>>> fonts. >>>> >>>> For example, when using the MiSans font on a display scaled to >>>> 150%, the >>>> edges of English letters rendered with subpixel antialiasing show very >>>> noticeable jagged artifacts: >>>> >>>> https://imgur.com/ZpzDWZ5 >>>> >>>> >>>> For Chinese text, the results of subpixel antialiasing are even more >>>> disastrous. Many strokes either blur together or show obvious >>>> inconsistencies in thickness, making the text look very poor. >>>> >>>> To address this issue, we tried forcing grayscale font antialiasing by >>>> adding -Dprism.lcdtext=false. After testing many fonts, we found >>>> that on >>>> HiDPI displays, grayscale antialiasing is never worse than subpixel >>>> antialiasing, and it fixes rendering issues for many fonts. On >>>> non-HiDPI >>>> displays, that is, at 100% scaling, grayscale antialiasing and >>>> subpixel >>>> antialiasing each have their own advantages and disadvantages. >>>> >>>> We then added a workaround in our application: on Windows, if the >>>> primary >>>> screen scale is greater than 100%, the application automatically >>>> adds the >>>> JVM option -Dprism.lcdtext=false to enable grayscale antialiasing. >>>> After a >>>> year of real-world use, we have not received any user complaints >>>> about this >>>> strategy. >>>> >>>> I hope JavaFX can provide a built-in mechanism for automatically >>>> selecting >>>> the appropriate antialiasing algorithm, so that users do not have >>>> to adjust >>>> these options manually. >>>> >>>> Glavo >>>> >> References >> >> Visible links: >> >> Hidden links: >> 2. >> https://us-phishalarm-ewt.proofpoint.com/EWT/v1/ACWV5N9M2RV99hQ!N_27VmluMChEtbPqF3n0OJaftfpglPBNZejHqzzeFb1qS8N4hxQV99OhWoOMiGeeVh8EC5YpXT4UkOvvvJnbNWukdBqco00DuJbtzA$
