Windows 11 new Notepad has weird rendering of Cascadia Code.

[frivard-coveo]

Cascadia family version

2111.001

Cascadia family variant(s)

Cascadia Code (the version with ligatures)

Font file format(s)

.ttf (variable)

Platform

Windows 11

Other Software

Notepad 11.2112.32.0

What happened?

Having recently upgraded to the new Windows 11, I noticed that the new Notepad allows me to select fonts and size, so I tried Cascadia Code PL (my favorite). I immediately noticed that some characters were... weird...
so I took a screenshot with the basic test string with size 20 (my default was size 11, which amplifies the problem, but isn't very large for sharing screenshots).
I have 2 screenshots: one with Cascadia Code PL,

the other with the default Lucida Console, both at size 20.

ok well... the compression applied by Github makes it less obvious. look at the lowercase 'a', 'o' and 'g'. They seem like too square-ish. Definitely not what I am used to (I use Cascadia Code PL everywhere: Visual Studio 2022, Notepad++, Windows Terminal)

[Oeaps]

This problem is caused by the new notepad, I think. Each font is rendered ugly.

[lxgw]

This problem is caused by the new notepad, I think. Each font is rendered ugly.

Exactly. DirectWrite seems not to work on the new Notepad app.

[o-l-a-v]

One more example of the strange rendering. Cascadia Mono, size 12, SemiLight. Some letters looks more bold/ thick than others.

Added a "bug report" to Windows Feedback Hub, will add the URL here when the item is accepted.

Edit - Here: https://aka.ms/AAior65

[funkkiy]

I've had this issue with Windows 11 since they released the new Notepad too, and it is definitely not restricted to Cascadia Code but to all fonts.

[Nagidrop]

Same issues with Source Code Pro. I can tell this could possibly affect other fonts as well.

[aaronbell]

Hi. This is, unfortunately, a Windows Notepad issue. It appears Notepad is turning on hinting, but isn't actually hinting the fonts. Has this issue been resolved as of yet?

[DumboJetEngine]

I might be missing something, but I think there is an extra problem :
Notepad does not render monospaced fonts as... monospaced.
I try with Consolas and Cascadia Mono and I get weird renders. See Notepad++ vs Notepad:

Probably a Notepad bug too, so there is no way for me to post a bug report anywhere about it (since that requires using the feedback hub, which in turn requires using a Microsoft account, which in turn requires me to stop being me). That is a quite ingenious way of stopping user bug reports and feedback from coming in, from the side of Microsoft, I have to admit !

[regs01]

Blurred and heavily distorted font rendering is a general problem for all "modern" Microsoft apps. Has been there for almost 10 years.

[aaronbell]

@DumboJetEngine can you give me a dump of the text string that you used for that? I wonder if there’s a glyph missing that is getting substituted in from a different font with a differing width.

[DumboJetEngine]

@aaronbell
Sure!

╔═══════╦═════════╦═════════════╦═════════════╗
║  Id   ║Criterion║Exists in new║Exists in old║
╠═══════╬═════════╬═════════════╬═════════════╣
║2196471│    F    │      V      │      V      ║
╟───────┼─────────┼─────────────┼─────────────╢
║2196471│    G    │      V      │      V      ║
╟───────┼─────────┼─────────────┼─────────────╢
║2196471│    U    │      V      │      V      ║
╟───────┼─────────┼─────────────┼─────────────╢
║2196471│    C    │      V      │      V      ║
╟───────┼─────────┼─────────────┼─────────────╢
║2196471│    A    │      X      │      V      ║
╚═══════╧═════════╧═════════════╧═════════════╝

[HO-COOH]

Actually, what font rendering backend does the "new" windows11 notepad uses? Not relevant to cascadia-code font, but I noticed it is far worse than the old notepad and I just happened to find this issue.

It could not be DirecrtWrite. I wrote a small DWrite demo, and it's completely different.

A comparison of some chinese rendering:

[yvvt0379]

I suppose it's ClearType

[HubbCat]

It doesn't support Y-axis anti-aliasing and the font size is also wrong. It's actually 16px if the setting is 12px.

[DHowett]

Notepad's font size setting is measured in points. The number of pixels occupied by a given glyph measured in points is computed by using your display scaling factor.