Fuzzy text in NSStatusItem

Question

I'm displaying a statusItem at launch like this:

theItem = [[[NSStatusBar systemStatusBar] statusItemWithLength:NSVariableStatusItemLength] retain];

 NSString *theString = [textField stringValue];
 (textField.stringValue = theString);

    [theItem setTitle:theString];
    [theItem setHighlightMode:YES];

The text looks very fuzzy. How can I clean up the look of the text?

Thanks.

Paul

Here's a screenshot with the digital menu bar clock on top, and NSStatusItem title on bottom:

Digital Clock on top, NSStatusItem title on bottom

score 1 · Answer 1 · edited Sep 12 '11 at 19:35

1

Have you tried drawing the text into an image and using that image in the NSStatusItem?

edited Sep 12 '11 at 19:35

Jérôme Verstrynge

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answered Sep 09 '11 at 05:07

Chris Cieslak

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score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 28 '11 at 00:57

0

Looks rather fine to me.

test status bar with "testing.…" in text

Okay, not "perfect" but it's more about uneven scaling than "fuzziness." Is this what you're seeing too?

answered Jan 28 '11 at 00:57

Christian L

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The title of an NSStatusItem uses sub-pixel antialiasing. Thus edges of the glyphs appear to contain shades of red and blue. The edges of glyphs in, for example, the digital menu bar clock, only appear to contain shades of gray. This makes the NSStatusItem title appear "fuzzy" by comparison. – lemnar Sep 08 '11 at 17:30

Fuzzy text in NSStatusItem

2 Answers2