Can the quality of font rendering affect programming, or is the OS completely running it?

Question

I work with a programmer who uses Java to create an interface for an application.

The fonts in the program look ugly to me. Somehow too harsh, as if they were not flattened or something else. Sorry for the nebula, but they just look "clumsy" to me.

I know that the OS has settings for changing the way the font is displayed, for example, smoothing subpixels or smoothing in grayscale, as well as subpixel order and hint.

Since fonts look bad in this program, I wonder - is there anything on the programming side that can be done to improve font rendering?

Answer 1

If you are using Java 6, there is a system property awt.useSystemAAFontSettings that you can use to control anti-aliasing. Possible values:

"LCD" Smoothing smoothing styles ClearType.

false Turn off anti-aliasing.

"on" The best contrast.

"choke" Standard anti-aliasing.