Processing 1.0 - Processing Discourse - OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering

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Index › Programming Questions & Help › OpenGL and 3D Libraries › OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering

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OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering (Read 2722 times)

flourish

OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering
Mar 24^th, 2010, 6:07am

Hi,

I just recognized that using textSize() in OPENGL mode results in burry text exept when using the generated font size.

Code:

import processing.opengl.*;

void setup(){
  size(400, 400, OPENGL);
  background(255);
  fill(0);
  PFont font = createFont("Arial", 14);
  textFont(font);
  text("This is crisp sharp text", 100, 30);
  textSize(20);
  text("This looks really blurry", 100, 50);
}

void draw(){
}

In JAVA2D it works really good (even looks better). Any ideas how to handle that issue?

Flo

« Last Edit: Mar 24^th, 2010, 12:15pm by flourish »

jeffg

Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering
Reply #1 - Mar 24^th, 2010, 7:14am

Try to create a font larger or at the same size as the size you are using. A pfont takes a font and turns it into a graphic. So what your doing is creating a small graphic (14) and making it bigger (20), which gives it a blurry effect. It would look better if it was created either the same size (20) or larger (32, 48, etc) than the size your using. Shrinking the image to 14 should not blur it but will end up taking a little more memory.

For example, this looks fine
Code:

import processing.opengl.*;

void setup(){
  size(400, 400, OPENGL);
  background(255);
  fill(0);
  PFont font = createFont("Arial", 20);
  textFont(font);
  textSize(14);
  text("This is crisp sharp text", 100, 30);
  textSize(20);
  text("This is crisp sharp text too", 100, 50);
}

flourish YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 7	Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering Reply #2 - Mar 24^th, 2010, 7:38am Ok that fixed the problem partly but I got rid of the really blurred text. It's still not as good as the Java2D but I think I'll have to live with it..

jeffg Senior Member Offline Posts: 472	Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering Reply #3 - Mar 24^th, 2010, 7:49am Try using this hint in your setup. Code: hint(ENABLE_NATIVE_FONTS);

flourish

Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering
Reply #4 - Mar 24^th, 2010, 8:47am

Couldn't include a link to the output image (due to restrictions)
dl.dropbox.com/u/974773/openglfont.png

Code:

import processing.opengl.*;

void setup(){
  size(400, 400, OPENGL);
  hint(ENABLE_NATIVE_FONTS); 
  background(255);
  fill(0);
  PFont font36 = createFont("Arial", 36);
  textFont(font36);
  text("This is sharp text", 10, 40);
  textSize(12);
  text("This looks really blurry in OPENGL when using textSize()", 10, 60);
}

void draw(){
}

Did not change anything. Creating several PFont at different sizes would work but that can't be the trick, eh?

jeffg Senior Member Offline Posts: 472	Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering Reply #5 - Mar 24^th, 2010, 9:06am Perhaps disabling smooth.. createFont(name, size, smooth) Code: createFont("Arial", 36, false);

jeffg Senior Member Offline Posts: 472	Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering Reply #6 - Mar 24^th, 2010, 9:09am Nope, tried setting smooth to false myself and it didn't help.. If I switch to SansSerif, that seems to do a better job. Tahoma also has less blur. So maybe Arial is not the best font option for what your trying to do. Code: PFont font36 = createFont("SansSerif", 36);

flourish YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 7	Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering Reply #7 - Mar 24^th, 2010, 9:26am Yeah disabling smoothing does not change anything. Of course Arial is not the best choice and I already tried different fonts but never get the good result compared to java2d.

flourish YaBB Newbies Offline Posts: 7	Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering Reply #8 - Mar 25^th, 2010, 5:10am I'm wondering that nobody else complained about this yet (checked the bugs section but did not find that specific problem). Any workaround ideas? I definitely need OpenGL as the renderer.

jeffg

Re: OPENGL textSize() results in blurry font rendering
Reply #9 - Mar 25^th, 2010, 10:25am

Not sure if you'll get a different result, but there are several font libraries for Processing.
http://processing.org/reference/libraries/#typography_geometry
Unfortunately, I don't think Vertext has been updated in a while, so I don't think it works correctly.

The glGraphics library also has a new class called glFont.

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