Do you notice blurry text on your Mac’s display when navigating through menus and apps? In particular, has this issue been present since you upgraded to macOS Monterey or Big Sur and on a non-retina display? If this is the case, font smoothing is most likely enabled by default, and some users feel that this can result in slightly blurry text in menus and apps. If you don’t like it, you need to disable this feature in macOS.
Prior to the release of macOS Big Sur, there was a “Use font smoothing when available” option found in the General section of System Preferences. If you’ve used this setting and can’t find it anymore, it’s because Apple removed it for some reason. If you’re using macOS Monterey or macOS Big Sur on a regular non-retina display, you may also notice blurry text when font smoothing is turned off. Although the switch to enable/disable font smoothing is no longer available, it can still be accessed at the system level by accessing the command line.
Want to make text clearer by turning off or adjusting the level of font smoothing in macOS? We got you covered, read on.
How to disable font smoothing in macOS Monterey & Big Sur
Because this feature is still available at the system level, it can be accessed using the Terminal app and the default recording commands. Just follow the instructions below to get started.
- Click the Finder icon located in your Mac’s dock.
- This will open a Finder window on your screen. Now click “Applications” on the left pane and navigate to the “Utilities” folder to continue.
- In the Utilities folder, you will find the Terminal application. Click on it to launch the Terminal on your Mac. Alternatively, you can open the Terminal with Spotlight search by pressing Command + Spacebar.
- Now type the following command and press Return or Enter:
defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0
- Exit the terminal and click on the Apple logo in the top left corner of the screen. Select “Restart” from the dropdown menu and restart your Mac.
That’s all. As soon as your Mac boots up, you will notice that the text is crisper and clearer. This can be a noticeable difference, especially on non-Retina displays, but for Retina Mac users, they may not notice much of a difference, or the difference may not be desirable.
How to change font smoothing levels in macOS Monterey & Big Sur
The command we mentioned above is for turning off anti-aliasing completely, but if the text is still blurry, you can adjust the font anti-aliasing level by modifying the command slightly. See the integer value at the end of the command? Change this value to “1” if you want light anti-aliasing, “2” if you want medium anti-aliasing, and finally “3” for strong font anti-aliasing. Thus, in the Terminal, you must use commands such as the following:
Light:defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 1
Middle:defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 2
Strong:defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 3
Off:defaults -currentHost write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int 0
We’ve already discussed changing font smoothing settings on Mac several times with similar issues, with users complaining about blurry text across different editions of MacOS, including Mojave and Yosemite, but it’s certainly worth recalling for modern MacOS releases as well, especially now that the system is separate. preference option is not available.
If you’re using a Mac with a non-retina display, say you’ve connected your Mac mini or MacBook to a Full HD monitor, you may need to turn on some kind of font smoothing to make text crisp again. On the other hand, if you’re already using a high-resolution Retina display and you’re seeing blurry text, turning off font smoothing can help. Some of them are entirely up to the user’s preference, because text may look crisp to some users and blurry to others.
We assume that Apple has removed the font smoothing option from System Preferences since they no longer sell non-Retina Macs. In fact, the 2017 MacBook Air was their last Mac with a low-res display. Whether or not you need font smoothing will depend entirely on your Mac’s display or the external monitor it’s connected to, as well as your specific preferences.
We hope you were able to get rid of blurry texts in menu items and apps by enabling or disabling font smoothing on your Mac. What integer value did you set for font smoothing? What is your opinion on font smoothing on your particular Mac display? Share your personal experience and express your opinion in the comments section below.
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