Skip to main content
H
Holger Walter34008837xo0j
Known Participant
March 19, 2025
Question

(DE/EN) Text rendering bug or incorrect display of character positions.

  • March 19, 2025
  • 2 replies
  • 1432 views

(The English text below, machine-translated)

 

DE: Hallo, ich habe ein Problem mit Illustrator, das aber auch andere Adobe-Programme wie InDesign und Photoshop betrifft. Es scheint ein allgemeines Adobe-Problem auf Windows-Geräten zu sein, und zwar:

 

Textzeichen werden beim Verändern der Laufweite, z. B. durch Kerning (siehe Video), nicht korrekt dargestellt. Die Zeichen verschieben sich rein faktisch korrekt (getestet mit dem Info-Panel), die visuelle  Anzeige auf dem Monitor ist jedoch fehlerhaft. Dadurch ist professionelles Arbeiten ausgeschlossen. Wahrscheinlich handelt es sich um ein Problem mit dem Text-Rendering, also der Display-Anzeige.

Dieser Fehler tritt übrigens nur in Adobe-Programmen auf. Alternative Grafikprogramme wie Affinity haben dieses Anzeigeproblem nicht.

 

Außerdem ist es kein individuelles Problem, das speziell mein Setup betrifft – auch andere Nutzer haben dieses Problem. Dazu ein weiterer Forum-Beitrag von mir, speziell für InDesign.

 

Bisherige Lösungsversuche:

  • Ältere Versionen der Programme Installiert (bis Versionen von 2023)
  • Getestet auf verschiedenen Geräten (Windows 10 und Windows 11)
  • Getestet mit dedezierter GPU (AMD 6650 XT) und GPU der CPU (Intel 12400 und i5-7200U)
  • Gestetet mit verschiedenen Auflösungen: 16:9 FHD, WQHD und 16:10 (WUXGA)
  • Getestet mit 60Hz, 75Hz und 120Hz
  • Getestet mit verschiedenen Schriften (Systemschriften, Cloudschriften etc.)
  • Deaktivierung von Windows ClearType
  • Deaktivierung OpenType-Funktionen
  • Programme auf Standardeinstellungen zurückgesetzt
  • Programme sauber deinstalliert und neu installiert
  • Programme als Administrator ausgeführt
  • Diverse Adobe-Programeinstellungen bezüglich der Anzeigeleistung/Qualität
  • Windows GPU-Einstellung auf Höchstleistung gestellt 
  • Diverse Optionen der AMD Adrenalinsoftware getestet
  • Einige Dinge mehr ....

 

Ich habe bei der Recherche nur einen(!) Windows-Nutzer gefunden, der dieses Problem nicht hat. Ggf. wegen der GPU von Nvidia bzw. der Software dazu.

 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

EN: Hello, I have an issue with Illustrator that also affects other Adobe programs such as InDesign and Photoshop. It seems to be a general Adobe problem on Windows devices:

 

Text characters are not displayed correctly when adjusting tracking or kerning (see video). While the characters are factually repositioned correctly (tested with the Info panel), the visual display on the monitor is incorrect. This makes professional work impossible. It is likely a text rendering issue, specifically related to display rendering. This error occurs only in Adobe programs. Alternative graphic design software like Affinity does not have this display issue. Additionally, this is not an individual issue specific to my setup – other users are experiencing the same problem. Here is another forum post from me, specifically about InDesign.

 

Previous troubleshooting attempts:

 

 

  • Installed older versions of the programs (going back to 2023 versions)
  • Tested on different devices (Windows 10 and Windows 11)
  • Tested with a dedicated GPU (AMD 6650 XT) and integrated GPU (Intel 12400 and i5-7200U)
  • Tested with different resolutions: 16:9 FHD, WQHD, and 16:10 (WUXGA)
  • Tested with refresh rates of 60Hz, 75Hz, and 120Hz
  • Tested with various fonts (system fonts, cloud fonts, etc.)
  • Disabled Windows ClearType
  • Disabled OpenType features
  • Reset programs to default settings
  • Cleanly uninstalled and reinstalled programs
  • Ran programs as administrator
  • Adjusted various Adobe program settings related to display performance/quality
  • Set Windows GPU settings to high performance
  • Tested various options in AMD Adrenalin software
  • And several other troubleshooting steps...

 

 

During my research, I found only one(!) Windows user who does not have this issue—possibly due to using an Nvidia GPU or related software.

 

 

    2 replies

    Brad @ Roaring Mouse
    Community Expert
    Brad @ Roaring MouseCommunity Expert
    Community Expert
    May 24, 2025

    This not a bug per se... it's actually in the category of "how things work".

    This is a font cache issue and is purely a display artifact. You will see it more prominent or less prominent depending on the resolution of your screen, and your current view percentage.

    Once a character of a font is rendered for the screen, each is stored as a bitmap in the cache for a particular size and orientation, and reused each time to speed up display avoiding having to render them again. Especially on pages with lots of text, not having to re-render each character saves time in redrawing the screen. However, because the bitmaps are already rendered, they can only be placed according to the pixel grid of your screen at that view, and will "snap" to the next available pixel column based on its position. When you kern like you wwre doing, you are moving the characters ever so slightly, but oOnce it gets past the half-way of a pixel's distance away, it snaps to the next available pixel position. And since each letter is defined with a slightly different starting position, the "snapping" will happen randomly as required in a line of text. The more you zoom in, or if you have a high-pitch monitor like a Mac's Retina screen, the less you will see this issue, or if you use a high-pitch display. This does NOT affect output, although the same thing technically happens on a high-resolution output device, but at such a high resolution that a one-pixel difference will not matter.

    The font cache approcah has been in use since the very beginning and is the basis of PostScript printing

    Other programs may not use a similar font cache approach, especially at certain type sizes and resolutions. The sample you saw with much smaller type and very low-resolution is rendering each character repeatedly and anti-aliasing them on the fly, probably since there is not much overhead there and it become beneficial to do it that way.

      B
      Community Expert
      Bobby HendersonCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 24, 2025

      How much does font hinting play into the equation with modern computer systems and monitors? I remember hinting being really important 20+ years ago when most people were using CRT monitors with modest resolution levels, like 1024 X 768. Some commercial type companies put a lot of work into the hinting data they would embed in font files. I wonder how much of that is still done with modern commercial OpenType fonts.

      Brad @ Roaring Mouse
      Community Expert
      Brad @ Roaring MouseCommunity Expert
      Community Expert
      May 24, 2025

      Hinting is very much still a thing, and very much still included in fonts, but it's intent is really targeted to improve printed output of smaller fonts on, say, a laserwriter. Because of the way laser toner is applied, it can make a character look fatter than it should at those sizes, so hinting helps counteract that by making the character a bit thinner. It does come into play on the screen as well, but with anti-aliasing it's not as dramatic. Of course, on high-resolution devices, it's not really necessary.

        Anubhav M
        Community Manager
        Anubhav MCommunity Manager
        Community Manager
        April 3, 2025

        Hello @Holger Walter34008837xo0j,

        Thanks for sharing the details. I have forwarded these to the product team, and they are currently investigating it. I will update this thread as I have more info.

        Feel free to reach out if you have more questions or need assistance. We'd be happy to help.

         

        Anubhav

        H
        Holger Walter34008837xo0jAuthor
        Known Participant
        April 3, 2025

        Oh, great, thank you so much. I really didn’t expect that anymore. 🙂

        Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement
        Using the community Terms of use Privacy Cookie preferences Do not sell or share my personal information ad choicesAdChoices