On Thu, 10 Sep 2026 17:47:40 GMT, Martin Fox <[email protected]> wrote:

>> This PR attempts to improve LCD text rendering on Windows and Linux. Changes 
>> include:
>> 
>> - (Windows only) When setting up DirectWrite the code now uses the 
>> NATURAL_SYMMETRIC rendering mode except for very small glyphs where it uses 
>> NATURAL. Using NATURAL_SYMMETRIC avoids distorted glyphs at specific pixel 
>> sizes (see [JDK-8389632](https://bugs.openjdk.org/browse/JDK-8389632)) and 
>> retains the curves along the top and bottom of the glyphs. Using NATURAL at 
>> small sizes avoids glyphs turning very fuzzy and light.
>> 
>> - The code is now consistently converts the colors from sRGB to a linear 
>> space (more or less), composites them, and then converts the result back to 
>> sRGB.
>> 
>> - The shader applies a contrast equation to the LCD glyph mask which helps 
>> emphasize the stems. The same equation is used by Skia and probably added by 
>> Microsoft when they cleaned up text rendering for Chromium. BTW it’s just 
>> the equation for a parabola that goes through points (0, 0) and (1, 1).
>> 
>> My testing was mostly done on a 27 inch display with a resolution of 
>> 2560x1440 and a screen scale of 150%. This was low enough to notice a 
>> difference. Resolutions higher than that (like full-on Retina) tend to hide 
>> a lot of sins.
>> 
>> I recommend reading “The Raster Tragedy in Skia” which is concise but covers 
>> a lot of ground. It contains a section on the challenges of compositing text 
>> in sRGB space and also the issues getting LCD text to look dark enough 
>> without inflating the stems. I wish I had found this earlier in the process.
>> 
>> ---------
>> - [x] I confirm that I make this contribution in accordance with the 
>> [OpenJDK Interim AI Policy](https://openjdk.org/legal/ai).
>
> Martin Fox has updated the pull request incrementally with one additional 
> commit since the last revision:
> 
>   Added Swing version of the cascade

We had a bit of internal discussion on the topic.  Basically, it is likely a 
bad idea to change the default behavior, even if the new behavior looks better 
in some cases.  The main reasoning is that it is likely to cause issues 
downstream - for example, the labels that showed full text suddenly don't fit 
or the layout changes cause scroll bars to appear and so on. 

We could, on the other hand, enable this functionality via a system property.  
Applications that want to use the new behavior can do so, and all the other 
remain unchanged.

Basically, this PR is unlikely to go in without the system property.

-------------

PR Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/jfx/pull/2284#issuecomment-5623160337

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