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Issue 633366 link

Starred by 4 users

Issue metadata

Status: Available
Owner: ----
Cc:
Components:
EstimatedDays: ----
NextAction: ----
OS: Chrome
Pri: 3
Type: Bug

Blocked on:
issue 824150



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"le" character sequence is poorly hinted in omnibox

Project Member Reported by derat@chromium.org, Aug 1 2016

Issue description

Chrome OS 51.0.2704.106, lumpy

On a low-DPI display, "le" sequences of characters are poorly-hinted in the omnibox -- they're too close together. Unfortunately, these characters appear in "google". :-(

It doesn't appear to be subpixel-positioning-related; they're always too close.

It looks like Chrome OS is using "Roboto, 12px" as its base font description. Depending on the MD setting, we derive a font either 2 or 4 pixels bigger (I'm not sure which is being used here), although it may be shrunk to fit later in the code.

Jungshik, do you know if this is something we can address through a modification to the font or its BCI setting?
 
bad_omnibox_hinting.png
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Comment 1 by derat@chromium.org, Aug 1 2016

(View the original image to see the problem; it looks less bad when scaled up by the bug tracker.)

Comment 2 by derat@chromium.org, Aug 1 2016

Oh, and it's still the same on 52.0.2743.85.
jshin@ pinging you on this to see if this is something we can address through a modification to the font or its BCI setting?
 
Owner: js...@chromium.org
Status: Assigned (was: Untriaged)
ping :) 
Labels: Needs-Feedback
ping jshin@
Labels: Hotlist-Polish
Emailed jshin@ separately in case these updates are getting filtered.
Cc: jdonnelly@chromium.org
jdonnelly@, did you get a reply?
No. Pinged and cc'd you.

Comment 10 by js...@chromium.org, Dec 15 2017

Sorry that I haven't replied earlier. Do you still observe this issue? 

FreeType has been updated since and this issue may not be present any more. 

I'll also see if it's still an issue with a low res device. 

Comment 11 by derat@chromium.org, Dec 15 2017

It'll be a few weeks before I'm able to test this again, but I'll comment here when I can. Thanks!

Comment 12 by js...@chromium.org, Dec 15 2017

It appears to be ok (see the screenshot) with Chrome OS 64 on Asus Chromebook C300SA, but mine is 1926 x 1080 (13.3" => ~ 165 dpi).  So, it's not really low-res.  

I'll try again at home with a ~ 4-yr old real low-res Chromebook. 
google omnibox 64.0.3282.24 2nd.png
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Here's a screenshot from a lumpy device with Chrome 65.0.3299.0. We're using subpixel rendering now (as we should), but the 'l' in 'www.google.com' still looks closer to the 'e' than to the 'g' to me (both on-device and with an HP Z24i display). Not sure how much we can do about it, though.
Screenshot 2018-01-02 at 10.40.43.png
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jshin@, did you try again at home with your old, low-res chromebook?
jshin: ping?
jshin: ping
(monthly omnibox triage for needs-feedback)
Blockedon: 824150
Pretty sure subpixel positioning would fix this but is currently disabled on low-dpi Chrome OS.

Note that there are 2 code paths for enabling subpixel positioning (last I looked). UI subpixel positioning is separate from web content subpixel positioning. I believe the omnibox is in the UI code, not web content.

I puzzled through some of this in  issue 740385 .
Also, even with subpixel rendering, you still need subpixel positioning to fix this.
Labels: -Needs-Feedback
Owner: ----
Status: Available (was: Assigned)
Removing needs-feedback; it's clear this is still an issue.  (Which is what the label was applied to ask about.)

Marking as available.

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