Dreamweaver text becomes unusually blurry when magnified on Mac

[dlawhon]

In Dreamweaver 2021 (21.3, 15593 Build) under macOS 13.1, if I magnify the Dreamweaver window contents (using View/Design View Options/Magnification), the text becomes extremely blurry. If I then click on the Desktop, the text in that Dreamweaver window displays normally and is crisp. If I then click back on the Dreamweaver window and then click on the text, it becomes blurry again. This occurs at all magnification values except 100%. This issue didn't used to occur.

I've included three screenshots. The first shows the window at 100% with the Dreamweaver window having the focus, and the text looks normal. The second shows the window at 150% with the Dreamweaver window having the focus; the text is blurry. The third shows the Dreamweaver window at 150% with the Finder having the focus; the Dreamweaver window text looks normal again.

[Ben M]

Is this only happening in Design View? Design View should only be used for estimation and not for a close representation of your layout. For that you should be using Live View.

[dlawhon]

It only happens in Design View. I agree that Live View is preferable to use; however, the blurriness in Design View is still an issue that Adobe should address so long as Design View is a part of Dreamweaver. It may have been caused by changes Adobe made in the current version of Dreamweaver, or it may have been caused by changes Apple made in macOS Ventura, or a combination thereof.

[Nancy OShea]

@dlawhon,

Since 2021, Dreamweaver is in minimal maintenance status. No new features are planned except for occasional security & library updates.  So whatever happened to your display, it's nothing that Dreamweaver did.

Suggest you update graphics drivers, adjust display resolution & Font Smoothing settings at the OS level.  See Apple support links below.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201177

https://help.apple.com/pages/mac/4.3/help/English.lproj/pgs/sl15187853.html

Hope that helps.

[dlawhon]

Hi Nancy,

I think that there was, perhaps, a miscommunication.

Nothing happened to my display--it's fine in all other apps, and fine in Dreamweaver other than when it's magnifying (using Dreamweaver's Magnification feature) in Dreamweaver's Design View (at which time other apps aren't affected). The problem is confined to magnifying in Design View and the oddity that, when magnified, the Design View text is fuzzy when Dreamweaver is the frontmost app, but that the same Design View text is crisp if I make another app (including the Finder) frontmost.

I think that you may have thought that there's a problem with blurriness in general on my Mac (which there isn't). I can't update the graphics drivers, because they're AMD drivers that aren't provided directly to users but are instead provided to Apple to release with updates to macOS. (And, I'm using the latest version of macOS--version 13.2--so I'm using the latest graphics driver that's available.) The Apple document you linked to regarding font smoothing is old--those System Preferences items don't exist in macOS Ventura due to the fact that they're really related to non-Retina displays, and mine is a Retina display. As far as the resolution goes, it's at the default set by Apple.

Again, perhaps it's a bug caused by macOS Ventura, or it's an old Adobe coding flaw that the release of macOS Ventura exposed, or a combination thereof. But, it sounds as if the only way it's going to be fixed is if Apple resolves it by chance. But, I suppose since Live View is preferable, that it's not so serious an issue if Design View doesn't magnify correctly.

I appreciate your suggestions about text sizes and will try to implement them. The sample text was very helpful.

You mentioned that, "Since 2021, Dreamweaver is in minimal maintenance status." Does this mean that there is another Adobe app that is replacing Dreamweaver's function? If so, which one?

Thanks,
David

[Nancy OShea]

Patient:  Doctor, doctor, it hurts when I do THIS (raising arm).

Doctor:  Then stop doing THAT.  🙂

As previously stated, magnification above 100% (Cmd+0) causes distortion & leads to pixelation.  Nothing anybody can do about that. 

Use LIVE view or don't magnify pixels in DESIGN view.  Your choice.

[Nancy OShea]

No, there are no plans to replace Dreamweaver.  Sorry.

[Nancy OShea]

Aside from the distracting repeating background image, magnification above 100% distorts pixels, that's a given.  Is it any better in LIVE view (Ctrl/Cmd + Shift + F11)?  LIVE view is more like an actual browser than DESIGN.

Best advice, use 100% magnification and increase your CSS font-sizes to something more easily viewed on Retina displays.  See example document below. 

<!doctype html>
<html lang="en">
<head>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<title>My Unique Page Title</title>
<meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1">

<style>
body {font-size: 1.16rem}
h1 {font-size: 2rem}
h2 {font-size: 1.75rem}
h3 {font-size: 1.50rem}
li {font-size: 0.85rem}

</style>
</head>

<body>
<!--Javascript document title in header-->
<header>
<h1>
<script>document.write(document.title);</script></h1>
</header>

<main>
<h2>Heading 2</h2>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Voluptatum rerum beatae minus laborum quam maiores culpa provident, ipsam vel? Esse voluptates omnis ipsum adipisci voluptatem aliquam nesciunt, sint iure. Dignissimos.</p>

<ul>Unordered List:
<li>List Item</li>
<li>List Item</li>
<li>List Item</li>
<li>List Item</li>
</ul>
<ol>Ordered List:
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
<li>Item</li>
</ol>

<h3>Heading 3</h3>
<p>Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit. Enim nulla vitae et dolore, pariatur molestias eligendi veniam architecto beatae aut adipisci quo, facilis ratione hic neque. Labore animi incidunt, molestiae!</p>
</main>
</body>
</html>