VS Code fonts don't seem to be using system antialiasing on Windows

[tgani-msft]

Issue Type: Bug

The same font used in VS Code renders fuzzier than in VS. It looks like system anti-aliasing is not being used on Windows.

I have JPG's from screenshots to share which I can add later.

VS Code version: Code 1.39.2 (6ab5985, 2019-10-15T15:35:18.241Z)
OS version: Windows_NT x64 10.0.18362

System Info

Item	Value
CPUs	Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4790 CPU @ 3.60GHz (8 x 3592)
GPU Status	2d_canvas: enabled flash_3d: enabled flash_stage3d: enabled flash_stage3d_baseline: enabled gpu_compositing: enabled multiple_raster_threads: enabled_on native_gpu_memory_buffers: disabled_software oop_rasterization: disabled_off protected_video_decode: unavailable_off rasterization: enabled skia_deferred_display_list: disabled_off skia_renderer: disabled_off surface_synchronization: enabled_on video_decode: enabled viz_display_compositor: disabled_off webgl: enabled webgl2: enabled
Load (avg)	undefined
Memory (System)	14.76GB (4.75GB free)
Process Argv	firstsets.cpp
Screen Reader	no
VM	0%

Extensions (3)

Extension	Author (truncated)	Version
remote-wsl	ms-	0.39.9
cpptools	ms-	0.26.0
perl	ric	0.9.0

[tgani-msft]

@roblourens, I'm on the same floor as you if you want to take a look in person.

[roblourens]

Screenshots might help for @deepak1556 to identify it. Also you can compare it to text you see in Chrome.

[tgani-msft]

Open the above files in mspaint and enlarge to 300% to see the difference.

[tgani-msft]

The first one is for VS. It's interesting to note that if font scaling is used in VS, it resembles VS Code exactly.

[roblourens]

To me, it sort of looks like a different font. But even if it's the same, the font rendering will always be slightly different. It should be the same as what you see in Chrome. From the screenshot, I can't tell whether it's wrong.

[varunj166]

@deepak1556 Instructed from #84154 to add information here. I had opened a separate issue #84214 because I hadn't seen any Windows users reporting what I was seeing, but #84154 tells me I'm not alone.

Version: 1.40.0
OS: Windows 7 64 bit

Resolutions attempted and failed:

• Complete uninstall re-install
• Disable all extensions
• Try different themes

There has been a very clear loss of editor text sharpness from 1.39.2 to 1.40.0. Downgrading back to 1.39.2 solves the issue. A gentleman on #84214 tells me this is because VS Code switched from RGB subpixel antialiasing to grayscale subpixel antialiasing, perhaps because of Electron 6.

Whatever the reason, it made looking at the editor window very unpleasant, forcing me to downgrade to 1.39.2 until (if) the issue is fixed.

Screenshots:

1.39.2

1.40

[bhughes339]

I was instructed to leave a comment here. I'm having this issue on Windows 10, starting with v1.40. Font is blurrier and bold scopes (most obviously the red text from the gif) are much less pronounced.

Monokai color scheme:

Original comment: #84154 (comment)

[bpasero]

/duplicate #84214

[vscodebot]

Thanks for creating this issue! We figured it's covering the same as another one we already have. Thus, we closed this one as a duplicate. You can search for existing issues here. See also our issue reporting guidelines.

Happy Coding!