B4J Question prism.lcdtext always false [Font Antialiasing]

[jmon]

Hello,

I have been trying (for years now) to improve the font anti-aliasing in Javafx. I have read several times that there are 3 ways to change the font anti-aliasing:

CSS (gray / lcd)

.text{
    -fx-font-smoothing-type: gray;
}

Jar Arguments (true/false)

-Dprism.lcdtext=false

Code properties (true/false)

System.setProperty("prism.lcdtext", "false");

The problem is that regardless of what I do, it actually never changes anything when I run the program. I know that it's always false using this function:

Sub getAllSystemProperties
    ' Declare the javaobject and init the class
    Dim JO As JavaObject
    JO.InitializeStatic("java.lang.System")
    ' Get the system properties into one object
    Dim objProperties As Object = JO.RunMethod("getProperties", Null)
    ' Convert the properties object into a list of strings
    Dim s As String = objProperties
    s.SubString(1)
    Dim l As List
    l = Regex.Split(", ", s)
    l.Sort(True)
    ' List the properties
    For i = 0 To l.Size - 1
        Log(l.Get(i))
    Next
End Sub

which returns this:

Prism pipeline init order: d3d sw
Using Double Precision Marlin Rasterizer
Using dirty region optimizations
Not using texture mask for primitives
Not forcing power of 2 sizes for textures
Using hardware CLAMP_TO_ZERO mode
Opting in for HiDPI pixel scaling
Prism pipeline name = com.sun.prism.d3d.D3DPipeline
Loading D3D native library ...
succeeded.
D3DPipelineManager: Created D3D9Ex device
Direct3D initialization succeeded
(X) Got class = class com.sun.prism.d3d.D3DPipeline
Initialized prism pipeline: com.sun.prism.d3d.D3DPipeline
Maximum supported texture size: 16384
Maximum texture size clamped to 4096
OS Information:
Windows 7 build 7601
D3D Driver Information:
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080
\\.\DISPLAY2
Driver nvd3dumx.dll, version 26.21.14.3086
Pixel Shader version 3.0
Device : ven_10DE, dev_1B80, subsys_859B1043
Max Multisamples supported: 4
vsync: true vpipe: true
Waiting for debugger to connect...
Program started.
awt.toolkit=sun.awt.windows.WToolkit
file.encoding=UTF-8
file.separator=\
java.awt.graphicsenv=sun.awt.Win32GraphicsEnvironment
java.awt.printerjob=sun.awt.windows.WPrinterJob
java.class.path=C:\Program Files (x86)\Anywhere Software\B4J\libraries\jDebug.jar;C:\Program Files (x86)\Anywhere Software\B4J\libraries\jcore.jar;C:\Program Files (x86)\Anywhere Software\B4J\libraries\jfx.jar;C:\Program Files (x86)\Anywhere Software\B4J\libraries\javaobject.jar;C:\Program Files (x86)\Anywhere Software\B4J\libraries\json.jar;;bin\classes\;bin/classes/;../;b4xlibs
java.class.version=55.0
java.home=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.1\jdk-11.0.1
java.io.tmpdir=C:\Users\xxx\AppData\Local\Temp\
java.library.path=xxx
java.runtime.name=OpenJDK Runtime Environment
java.runtime.version=11.0.1+13
java.specification.name=Java Platform API Specification
java.specification.vendor=Oracle Corporation
java.vendor.url.bug=http://bugreport.java.com/bugreport/
java.vendor.url=http://java.oracle.com/
java.vendor.version=18.9
java.vendor=Oracle Corporation
java.version.date=2018-10-16
java.version=11.0.1
java.vm.compressedOopsMode=Zero based
java.vm.info=mixed mode
java.vm.name=OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM
java.vm.specification.name=Java Virtual Machine Specification
java.vm.specification.vendor=Oracle Corporation
java.vm.specification.version=11
java.vm.vendor=Oracle Corporation
java.vm.version=11.0.1+13}
javafx.runtime.version=11.0.1+1
javafx.version=11.0.1
jdk.debug=release
jdk.module.path=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.1\jdk-11.0.1\bin\..\javafx\lib
line.separator=
os.arch=amd64
os.name=Windows 7
os.version=6.1
path.separator=;
prism.lcdtext=false
prism.verbose=true
sun.arch.data.model=64
sun.boot.library.path=C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-11.0.1\jdk-11.0.1\bin
sun.cpu.endian=little
sun.cpu.isalist=amd64
sun.desktop=windows
sun.io.unicode.encoding=UnicodeLittle
sun.java.command=b4j.example.main
sun.java.launcher=SUN_STANDARD
sun.jnu.encoding=Cp1252
sun.management.compiler=HotSpot 64-Bit Tiered Compilers
sun.os.patch.level=Service Pack 1
user.country=GB
user.dir=M:\B4j\Tests\TestAntialiasing\Objects
user.home=C:\Users\jo
user.language=en
user.name=xx
user.script=
user.timezone=
user.variant=
{java.specification.version=11
new alphas with length = 4096
QuantumRenderer: shutdown

Now, if I change the " -fx-font-smoothing-type" in CSS and preview my CSS in SceneBuilder, I can see it changing.
To illustrate the problem, please see this example:

Left is SceneBuilder, Right is the jar ran:

We can see that sceneBuilder has the "LCD" antialiasing applied (Which spills some RGB colors), but my JAR is always "GRAY" antialiasing:

Anyone has an idea why I can't change my jar to "LCD" ? I'm using Java 11.

Thanks for your help

(Edit: the screenshots are not very obvious, I think the jpeg compression actually did a smoothing on top)

 

[Erel]

I've tried several things, including this:

Dim text As JavaObject
text.InitializeNewInstance("javafx.scene.text.Text", Null)
text.RunMethod("setFontSmoothingType", Array("LCD"))
text.RunMethod("setText", Array("Testing 123"))
MainForm.RootPane.AddNode(text, 10, 10, 100, 100)

Didn't change anything...

 

[jmon]

To illustrate the result I'm trying to achieve, you can test in JavaFX scene builder.

1) create a text file, name it "style.txt"
2) Go to Javafx scene builder, create a label
3) Go to (Menu) "Preview/Scene Style Sheets/Add Style Sheet" >> Select "Style.txt"
4) Press CTRL+P , that should open the preview window
5) in "style.txt" type this and save the file:

.text  {
    -fx-font-size: 48px;
    -fx-font-smoothing-type: gray;
}

Now, in the preview window, you should see the antialiasing changing.

Try changing between: "gray" / "lcd" modes (save the file each time), I think the difference is quite obvious.

It seems that the executed Jar is locked to "lcd" mode, and I'd like to change it to "lcd"

 

[Erel]

I've checked the source code. The jFX library doesn't set the smoothing method. I guess that JavaFX engine decides based on unknown parameters to use the GRAY method.

BTW, the method is set to LCD as tested with:

    Dim text As JavaObject
   text.InitializeNewInstance("javafx.scene.text.Text", Null)
   text.RunMethod("setFontSmoothingType", Array("LCD"))
   text.RunMethod("setText", Array("Testing 123"))
   text.RunMethod("setFont", Array(fx.CreateFont("", 40, False, False)))
   Log(text.RunMethod("getFontSmoothingType", Null))
   MainForm.RootPane.AddNode(text, 10, 10, 100, 100)
   MainForm.Show

 

[jmon]

BTW, the method is set to LCD as tested with:

It seems that with TEXT nodes, it the antialiasing is nice and smooth.

Here they say, I just saw it:

Note: LCD mode doesn't apply in numerous cases, such as various compositing modes, where effects are applied and very large glyphs.

In my case, I think I get the problems on labels and buttons. I'll test with replacing the label with text. Here we can see the default behavior between Label/Text (see the "e" is quite aliased on the label):

Damn, I was hoping for years that they would fix that in Java 11!

 

[Erel]

I don't see such difference between Text and Label:

 

[jmon]

wow, I missed some update at some point! I didn't even know if was in B4J, maybe I found the culprit:

#Region Project Attributes
    #MainFormWidth: 600
    #MainFormHeight: 600
    #LcdFontSmoothing: True
#End Region

So this #LcdFontSmoothing is overriding other "SetSystemProperty", CSS tricks and command line arguments.

It works if I set #LcdFontSmoothing to True. Now it seems that with big fonts, it's better to set #LcdFontSmoothing=false, but for my project, and small fonts, #LcdFontSmoothing=true works better in my opinion (See the words "button" and "Label").

In my opinion, they should do the opposite, True for small fonts, and false for big fonts.

 

[jmon]

I see the Tooltip for #LcdFontSmoothing is "Disabled by default as small fonts appear less smooth", but I think it's the opposite don't you? Small seem smoother, but big feel too sharp?

edit another example, font is at 13px:

edit: we can see some letters are almost lost when set to false (l, T, Y, F...)

 

[Erel]

I forgot about this attribute...

Use whichever smoothing you prefer. I guess that the results might be different with a dark text over light background.