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Text appears with shadow (antialiasing) when using the Spleen font #21175

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opened 2026-01-31 07:35:25 +00:00 by claunia · 6 comments
claunia commented 2026-01-31 07:35:25 +00:00
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Originally created by @george-tsiros on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024).

Windows Terminal version

1.20.10293.0

Windows build number

10.0.22631.3007

Other Software

No response

Steps to reproduce

get spleen 12x24, .otf
install it
set WT to use it
text_rendering
there is a right drop shadow.
in the screenshot you see how notepad, visual studio, notepad++, gitk and paint.net render the text using the same font.
I tried changing atlas on/off, sw render on/off, system-wide font smoothing on/off (but never cleartype)
By the way, using vector fonts on raster devices was and always be a mistake. At least until we reach... I dunno... 600dpi? Maybe 300? Right now for desktop monitors we are looking at ~180 for a 24" 4k monitor. But I digress.

Expected Behavior

Text to be rendered without shadow.

Actual Behavior

Text is rendered with shadow.
For what it's worth, the little preview window does show this shadow.
Yes, I know this sounds minor, but... I consider text rendering to be quite important.

Originally created by @george-tsiros on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024). ### Windows Terminal version 1.20.10293.0 ### Windows build number 10.0.22631.3007 ### Other Software _No response_ ### Steps to reproduce get spleen 12x24, .otf install it set WT to use it ![text_rendering](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/assets/54522275/afac488e-b2e0-4291-8417-adb540912341) there is a right drop shadow. in the screenshot you see how notepad, visual studio, notepad++, gitk and paint.net render the text using the same font. I tried changing atlas on/off, sw render on/off, system-wide font smoothing on/off (but never cleartype) By the way, using _vector_ fonts on _raster_ devices was and always be a mistake. At least until we reach... I dunno... 600dpi? Maybe 300? Right now for desktop monitors we are looking at ~180 for a 24" 4k monitor. But I digress. ### Expected Behavior Text to be rendered without shadow. ### Actual Behavior Text is rendered with shadow. For what it's worth, the little preview window _does_ show this shadow. Yes, I know this sounds minor, but... I consider text rendering to be quite important.
claunia added the Help WantedIssue-BugProduct-TerminalArea-FontsArea-AtlasEngine labels 2026-01-31 07:35:25 +00:00
claunia commented 2026-01-31 07:35:26 +00:00
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@blueee04 commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024):

Assign me, i'll look into this

@blueee04 commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024): Assign me, i'll look into this
claunia commented 2026-01-31 07:35:26 +00:00
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@DHowett commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024):

Assign me, i'll look into this

That's fine. You do not need to be assigned to investigate an issue!

@DHowett commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024): > Assign me, i'll look into this That's fine. You do not need to be assigned to investigate an issue!
claunia commented 2026-01-31 07:35:27 +00:00
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@DHowett commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024):

I consider text rendering to be quite important.

As do we.

Thanks for reporting this!

@DHowett commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024): > I consider text rendering to be quite important. As do we. Thanks for reporting this!
claunia commented 2026-01-31 07:35:27 +00:00
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@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024):

For now, you can circumvent the issue by setting the "Text antialiasing" setting to "Aliased". You can find the setting when opening a profile's "Advanced" settings.

Supposedly spleen is a bitmap font, but if I open it in FontForge I can see that it also contains a vector font that follows a theoretical pixel path. The only application I can rely on to tell me how a font is supposed to look like in either GDI or DirectWrite is Visual TrueType (sort of Microsoft's reference text renderer) and that one fails to open the font (my first time seeing this - spleen should fix this if they can):
image

This makes it very difficult for me to fix the issue in our own text renderer. Only Visual TrueType allows me to see a reliable reference rendering with GDI and DirectWrite.

BTW it's natural that we look slightly different from the other applications you've shown above, because all the other ones use GDI and we use DirectWrite. Given that GDI uses a different rasterization approach (stronger hinting among others), it wouldn't be surprising that it also fails to use any embedded bitmap but happens to succeed to draw the vector font without a shadow out of coincidence.

@lhecker commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024): For now, you can circumvent the issue by setting the "Text antialiasing" setting to "Aliased". You can find the setting when opening a profile's "Advanced" settings. Supposedly spleen is a bitmap font, but if I open it in FontForge I can see that it also contains a vector font that follows a theoretical pixel path. The only application I can rely on to tell me how a font is supposed to look like in either GDI or DirectWrite is Visual TrueType (sort of Microsoft's reference text renderer) and that one fails to open the font (my first time seeing this - spleen should fix this if they can): ![image](https://github.com/microsoft/terminal/assets/2256941/b329a53b-1124-4443-b8ba-1497098aec8a) This makes it very difficult for me to fix the issue in our own text renderer. Only Visual TrueType allows me to see a reliable reference rendering with GDI and DirectWrite. BTW it's natural that we look slightly different from the other applications you've shown above, because all the other ones use GDI and we use DirectWrite. Given that GDI uses a different rasterization approach (stronger hinting among others), it wouldn't be surprising that it also fails to use any embedded bitmap but happens to succeed to draw the vector font without a shadow out of coincidence.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 07:35:27 +00:00
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@george-tsiros commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024):

Only thing I wish to add is that Spleen has a creator.

@george-tsiros commented on GitHub (Feb 1, 2024): Only thing I wish to add is that Spleen has a creator.
claunia commented 2026-01-31 07:35:27 +00:00
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@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Feb 6, 2024):

Excellent point! @fcambus - would you have any ideas as to what might be going on here? Any hints that might point us in the right direction? Or does this just come down to a GDI vs DirectWrite fundamental difference?

@zadjii-msft commented on GitHub (Feb 6, 2024): Excellent point! @fcambus - would you have any ideas as to what might be going on here? Any hints that might point us in the right direction? Or does this just come down to a GDI vs DirectWrite fundamental difference?
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Reference: starred/terminal#21175
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