ActiveState Community

How do I get non-AA fonts?

Posted by n8gray on 2009-06-25 14:45
OS: OS X Leopard

I'm using the latest Komodo Edit on OS X Leopard and I can't find any way to turn off anti-aliasing for fonts. AA is fine for dark-on-light text but rotten for light-on-dark.

Also, do I seriously have to change the "default" setting separately in *every* language mode to change the background color globally?

Thanks,
-n8

Workarounds
troyt | Tue, 2009-06-30 15:51

There's an bug in our database to add toggling of anti-aliased fonts in Komodo:

http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=72936

Note the workaround solution: 

defaults write com.activestate.Komodo AppleAntiAliasingThreshold 20

As for changing the background color, try starting with the Dark color scheme or one of these user-contributed ones:

http://community.activestate.com/forum-topic/where-to-find-komodo-edit

Ok
n8gray | Tue, 2009-06-30 16:04

Thanks for the workaround -- that should help. Bummer about the dark background though. I can't believe that's not a global setting!

Use the Common Syntax settings
troyt | Tue, 2009-06-30 16:18

If you start with the Dark color scheme, you should have reasonable (i.e. visible) colors for text on a black background. These colors can then be modified in the "Common Syntax" tab. The settings in the "Lang-Specific" tab are only if you want to override settings in the "Common Syntax" tab.

Use the Common Syntax settings
troyt | Tue, 2009-06-30 16:18

If you start with the Dark color scheme, you should have reasonable (i.e. visible) colors for text on a black background. These colors can then be modified in the "Common Syntax" tab. The settings in the "Lang-Specific" tab are only if you want to override settings in the "Common Syntax" tab.

Using the Dark scheme helps
n8gray | Tue, 2009-06-30 16:40

Using the Dark scheme helps a bit, but if you don't want a black background you've still got a lot of work to do. (I use a sort of dark slate green background.) AFAICT the background for most of the editing area is determined by the "default" element type in the Lang-Specific tab for each language. (This took me quite some time to figure out, BTW.) Unfortunately there's no "default" element type in the Common Syntax tab, so you have to change it in every language individually.

Cheers,
-n8

re: fonts and colors
toddw | Wed, 2009-07-01 11:03

For the Komodo schemes, the only two settings you need to change are:
"Fonts and Colors -> Fonts -> Fore"
"Fonts and Colors -> Fonts -> Back"

This will update the default foreground and background colors of all the languages. I tested this using the "Default" Komodo color scheme, changing the colors to be white on black (instead of black on white) and the colors changed for all the languages I was had opened (HTML, Python, Django, PHP).

Cheers,
Todd

Bingo!
n8gray | Wed, 2009-07-01 11:15

Ah, thanks! I'm glad to hear I was wrong about that. In my defense, it would make loads more sense to put that in the "colors" tab instead of the "fonts" tab. A user trying to change the colors but not the fonts will drive himself nuts searching for that. I'll file a bug...

Cheers,
-n8

Bug filed
n8gray | Wed, 2009-07-01 11:30

http://bugs.activestate.com/show_bug.cgi?id=83551

Thanks again,
-n8