MacType INI Development

[sammilucia]

Hi everybody! I hope everyone is staying safe and staying well during the age of COVID−19 that we're all in. With all of us having more time on our hands, I thought I'd post my latest .ini file settings, my customized "Microsoft Sans Serif" font which I've used to replace both Tahoma & micross (Microsoft Sans Serif). My customized font is a duplicate of my glyph-customized SegoeUI font with widths and heights of U&lc being tweaked to provide a more eye-pleasing display on surfaces in the UI that default to Tahoma or micross. The result is a more unified experience across the UI.

My latest tweaks to the .ini file have proven so pleasing across so many different parts of the UI, that I haven't made any changes to it since February 21, 2020 (which is a long time relative to prior attempts). I have a series of steps I go through after each install of the Windows Insiders Fast Ring updates, and so far MacType continues to provide fantastic results (current Windows Insider Build is 19603.1000 released 2020.04.08). These steps are:

(1) Install my customized fonts for SegoeUI and Microsoft Sans Serif in particular.

Thorn Custom Fonts.zip

(2) Run MacWiz to reset the Mode used to "Registry" (I still find this mode to be the best overall way to load and use MacType in my experience, and since it continues to work, I will continue to use it). I also reload/reselect my desired .ini profile (although this appears to be unnecessary since it seems to persist build to build).

ChicoThorn-v1.5.1.0.8.zip

(3) Load my customized font substitutions into the Registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

I exported a registry file with my custom settings a while back, so now after each build I just run that registry file to update Font Substituions more quickly.

Thorn Custom Registry Font Subs.zip

(4) I double-check my scaling options in Windows Settings —
Settings > Display > Scaling and layout = 100% (this setting persists build to build)
Settings > Ease of Access > Make text bigger = 113% (this setting also persists build to build).
I've found that these scaling settings work really well for a number of reasons. First off the 100% scaling makes older .exe apps continue to function properly (case in point is Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator, which I use to change my keyboard layout to accomodate my customized glyphs. If the scaling is set to anything other than 100% this app no longer displays properly and becomes unusable). The 113% "Make text bigger" setting enlarge most of the Directwrite renderings in the UI (at least I think it's Directwrite, that all gets so confusing to me), including the Taskbar Jumplists, Action Center flyout, the Start Menu, UWP apps, Chromium Edge Canary and others).

(5) I use WinAero Tweaker to change the default font size of Icons from 9pt to 10pt (which also changes the sizes of all filename text displays in File Explorer). 10pt scaling of the Icons and filenames nearly matches perfectly the 113% scaling produced by the Ease of Access setting, thus providing a very uniform overall look and feel within the UI. Here's a link to WinAero for the download (scroll down past the adds for the download link) — Note: When you install WinAero Tweaker Windows will pop up a security warning that it's 'dangerous.' It is not. I have been using Tweaker for over five years with no problems. Sergey Tkachenko is the sole programmer with a small operation. The software is safe and reliable. https://winaero.com/download.php?view.1796
Here is the install files for WinAero Tweaker:

winaerotweaker.zip

(6) I make sure my monitor is adjusted and calibrated properly. — This one is important. It makes a HUGE difference in overall font display quality if monitor gamma, brightness, and contrast are improperly set. This took a little trial and error; but using calibration software (and my own eye) to adjust the overall look I was able to come up with very pleasing results. I imagine these settings would differ from monitor to monitor and brand to brand. For me these monitor settings are (input through the onboard settings of the monitor itself): Brightness=85; Contrast=75; Gamma=Medium. I also adjust the Nvidia Control Panel settings to a vibrancy level of 60%. All of these display/monitor settings have a big impact on display ultimately.

Finally, here are a few screenshots of my current setup at this time:

Screenshot Samples.zip

Edge Canary, Taskbar Jumplist, Action Center sample:

Custom MS Sans Serif Font UI samples:

File Explorer, Taskbar Jumplist, Settings samples:

Light Mode samples:

---

Thanks for all your hard work on MacType @snowie2000 and @sammilucia ! MacType continues to be the most important add-on to my PC and makes my everyday work so much more pleasurable and tolerable. I'm looking forward to helping out in the future as you develop new versions! Stay well everyone! 😊

Originally posted by @ChicoThorn in #553 (comment)

[sammilucia]

@ChicoThorn I've moved this into a new thread because I think it's going to be better for both the dev AND ini discussions, being both fairly active.

I think ChicoThorn's ini seems to be the most tuned and balanced to my eyes and is probably the best introduction to MacType for new users for the roman fonts. And probably also a good starting point for new users to tune to their own preferences.

However, there are so many MacType users using Japanese/Chinese/Korean/etc ... how does it perform for those. Can anyone comment?

[wmjordan]

However, there are so many MacType users using Japanese/Chinese/Korean/etc ... how does it perform for those. Can anyone comment?

The config did not display very well on my system. Microsoft Yahei, the default system font on Chinese system, has terrible hintings. With that turned on, some characters will appear taller than others. I prefer using No Hinting (HintingMode=1).

And sub-pixel rendering will cause my eyes. I have to turn it off. (AntiAliasMode=1)

Having changed that, the config appeared better. I am comparing it with my own, which had been used for about years.

[sammilucia]

@wmjordan thanks! how does it look with those changes? (and the rest of @ChicoThorn's recommendations?)

[wmjordan]

@sammilucia
After some more minutes' experience with @ChicoThorn's configuration, I found that the font SimSun (a font used to be the default font in Chinese version of Windows) was rendered too thin, so were some fonts named MingLiU (default font used in Hong Kong). I also copied the [Individual] settings from the default.ini to his config.

I had not yet rebooted my computer to apply the 113% settings.
I will post some screenshots after doing so.

[ChicoThorn]

I use LibreOfficeDev and discovered something interesting so I thought I'd share it. I don't know exactly how OpenGL works nor Skia — but these settings in LibreOfficeDev really have a huge effect on how text is rendered. Interestingly, it affects all the dialog boxes as well, which is why I used the setting dialog for the comparison screenshots:

With both OpenGL and Skia turned OFF

With Only OpenGL turned ON

With Only Skia turned ON

With Both OpenGL and Skia turned ON

OpenGL when on, produces light and sketchy text rendering. Skia when on (either alone or combined with OpenGL), produces excessively heavy and dark rendering. It's pretty obvious that OpenGL and Skia must be turned off in order to produce the best text rendering with MacType. Is this something unique to LibreOffice? Or does OpenGL and Skia cause text rendering to behave this way when and wherever it's used? — Thorn

LibreOfficeWriter - OpenGL & Skia.zip

[wmjordan]

After rebooting with the 100% scaling & 113% Make text bigger setting, I found that most text on my laptop with a 14-inch monitor 1920*1080 resolution was too small (icons were so small in many application windows). Therefore, I reverted to use a tool which had been there for years to adjust the entire system resolution to 113% and tried to see whether it was good or OK--previously I was using 125% scaling.

Here is how it looks on my computer now.

Document font: SimSun
Menu bar: Microsoft Yahei + Segeo UI - the official one
Tab bar: Times New Roman
Folder and File list: FZKai (it looked a little blur and pale)

System font: Microsoft Yahei + Segeo UI

The dot on the "i" looked quite weird in the command console. The "i" was displayed correctly with the same font in other applications.

Modified settings were listed below:

HintingMode=1
AntiAliasMode=1

[Individual]
宋体=,,30,,,
新宋体=,,30,,,
Batang=,,30,,,
MingLiU=,,30,,,
PMingLiU=,,30,,,
PMingLiU_HKSCS=,,30,,,
MingLiU_ExtB=,,30,,,
PMingLiU_ExtB=,,30,,,
PMingLiU_HKSCS_ExtB=,,30,,,
MS Mincho=,,30,,,
MS PMincho=,,30,,,

Note: The tool which I used to adjust the DPI setting was called XPExplorer - Windows 10 DPI Fix.

[sammilucia]

@ChicoThorn hmm, i really really prefer the first one (With both OpenGL and Skia turned OFF)! ... the second one the hinting is all crazy. Third looks like hinting crazy and weight too heavy. Fourth hinting looks fine but weight is too heavy?

[sammilucia]

@wmjordan Explorer looks really nice to me with those settings, but I can't read Chinese so I can't comment as to legibility?

[wmjordan]

Third looks like hinting crazy and weight too heavy. Fourth hinting looks fine but weight is too heavy?

You must have been gotten tricked. :-P
I pasted the 3rd and the 4th into an image processor and subtracted one with the other. The only difference was the check box and the background surrounding the dialog.

[wmjordan]

Explorer looks really nice to me with those settings, but I can't read Chinese so I can't comment as to legibility?

I compared this configuration with my own. For this configuration, the legibility was good and strokes were clean, nevertheless, it looked a little bit lacking of contrast that the black characters appeared to be dark gray. Perhaps it is a shortcoming of gray scale rendition compared with sub-pixel rendition--the former is usually a bit lighter than the latter. However, my eyes are too susceptible to colorful pixels and consequently I can't live with sub-pixel rendition. While I worked with documents with a lot of characters for a while, I felt my eyes a bit tired. I think that the configuration needs more tuning for me.

[ChicoThorn]

You must have been gotten tricked. :-P

I thought the 3rd and 4th looked the same too... Not sure why, but OpenGL and Skia don't play nice with MacType, at least not in LibreOffice... 😉

I'm really curious also to see what you come up with for tweaking ChicoThorn-v1.5.1.0.8.ini to work better in Chinese.

[sammilucia]

@wmjordan oh wow! isn't that interesting!

i'm an audio engineer (one of my gigs lol), and what i find most interesting about the ears is they're not at all like microphones ... we talk about "psychoacoustics" because it's very easy to 'trick' the ears into hearing what you want ... Any number 1 pop song - they use that extensively to keep you engaged for 3:20 minutes.

It's the same with the eyes... Which is why we need tools like subtraction! Good one! 😜

[sammilucia]

However, my eyes are too susceptible to colorful pixels and consequently I can't live with sub-pixel rendition

I get that... could you give us a screenshot of your normal INI?