microsoft / microsoft/terminal

Enable ClearType by default

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#14,055 2 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Area-Rendering Area-Settings Issue-Task Product-Terminal
Dominant language
C++
Stars
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Forks
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Avg merge
3d 17h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

Description of the new feature/enhancement

In testing I found absolutely no difference in visual appearance on my 27" 4K display (163ppi), but a noticeable improvement in clarity/readability on my 27" 1440p display (109ppi).

Proposed technical implementation details (optional)

There's two ways we can go about this:

  • Enable ClearType for everyone under all circumstances
    • Pro: A single line change in our settings model.
    • Con: Uses 4x more memory for glyphs (4MB -> 16MB @ 2048x2048).
      But this could be a future-us concern, since right now we always use such a 16MB texture.
  • Enable ClearType only at 100% display scale
    • Pro: Less memory usage in the future.
    • Con: Another "default" setting is needed in the settings model.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the settings model and the existing ClearType setting; the issue does not name a file or test. Review how display scaling and glyph texture memory are handled, then implement the agreed default behavior and verify text rendering at the relevant display scales.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
cpp
Domain
cli
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
1-2 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
45/100

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