Open Bug 1366880 Opened 7 years ago Updated 11 months ago

kerning in google sheets is a mess

Categories

(Core :: Layout: Text and Fonts, defect, P3)

defect

Tracking

()

People

(Reporter: asa, Unassigned)

References

(Depends on 1 open bug)

Details

(Whiteboard: gfx-noted)

Attachments

(4 files)

Kerning in Google sheets is pretty awful. It's especially noticeable around certain letters like "v". Screenshot attached.

Tested latest nightly on Windows 10.
Can you attach your about support please?
Flags: needinfo?(asa)
Whiteboard: gfx-noted
I see several kerning problems in Google Spreadsheet.

Image attached shows it with Arial in different font sizes, especially noticeable around "az", "ov" and "mp" in this image.

I have observed kerning problems with Trebuchet MS and Verdana as well.
Flags: needinfo?(lsalzman)
Attached file aboutsupport.txt
Attached file aboutsupport.txt
I also have the same problem, with the latest stable release (61). I notice it's fine on the first couple of seconds while still loading, but after it's completely done, the kerning problems become apparent.
Jonathan, ideas?
Flags: needinfo?(lsalzman) → needinfo?(jfkthame)
Component: Graphics: Text → Layout: Text and Fonts
Flags: needinfo?(asa)
(In reply to Lee Salzman [:lsalzman] from comment #6)
> Jonathan, ideas?

Not really... I don't have much idea how Google Sheets is constructed. Does it end up drawing the entire sheet "manually" on a canvas element rather than using HTML text rendering? ISTR we had a bug on file -- several years ago -- about some kind of text measurement discrepancies (fractional-spacing issues?) between HTML and canvas text, which might be related.

(In reply to khorino from comment #5)
> I notice
> it's fine on the first couple of seconds while still loading, but after it's
> completely done, the kerning problems become apparent.

This sounds like it might have something to do with a switch between grayscale and subpixel AA, which could affect glyph advances. If the rendering mode changes (e.g. when a layer goes from active to inactive) but Sheets is placing all the glyphs explicitly using positions that were computed with the former mode, I expect that could result in poor spacing.
Flags: needinfo?(jfkthame)
Found a workaround.

Remove "Arial" from "gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.force_gdi_classic_for_families" in "about:config" (and rebooting Firefox) and the kerning problem disappear for Arial.

Works the same for Trebuchet MS and Verdana as well.
(In reply to Mikael Håkansson from comment #8)
> Found a workaround.
> 
> Remove "Arial" from
> "gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.force_gdi_classic_for_families" in
> "about:config" (and rebooting Firefox) and the kerning problem disappear for
> Arial.
> 
> Works the same for Trebuchet MS and Verdana as well.

I can confirm this works.

Bug 1445596 is a more generic report of this problem.

Depends on: 1445596

The workaround from Mikael doesn't work for me, there isn't even such an option in the about:config

Severity: normal → S3
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