'Font' drawing method on macOS

[FedericoSpada]

In the original repository, there is this PullRequest that implements the possibility to use custom Fonts on macOS.
This would also allow us to change the preferred_drawing_method from "polygons" to "font" on macOS, too.
I don't have a Mac to try the change. @ajkessel, can you have a look at it?
Many thanks in advance!

[ajkessel]

Seems to work fine. Applied here as #14 with https://itch.io/queue/c/1986458/fonts-creative-commons-zero-v10-universal saved to local font library as a test (HomeVideo-Regular)

import customtkinter

def button_callback():
        print("button clicked")

app = customtkinter.CTk()
app.geometry("400x150")

button = customtkinter.CTkButton(app, text="my button", command=button_callback, font=('HomeVideo-Regular',14))
button.pack(padx=20, pady=20)

button_y = customtkinter.CTkButton(app, text="normal button", command=button_callback)
button_y.pack(padx=20, pady=20)

app.mainloop()

[FedericoSpada]

What if you change "polygons" into "font" in the file ...\core_rendering\__init__.py?
Do you see a general improvement in the quality of the widgets? In particular, rounded edges should improve because the Font method uses Anti-Aliasing, so they should appear less serrated.

[ajkessel]

It's pretty subtle, can you tell the difference? Or is there a better way to test this.

I updated the PR with this change.

[FedericoSpada]

The change is more appreciable on low-resolution monitors.
In any case, I bet the top image uses the Font method.

[ajkessel]

The change is more appreciable on low-resolution monitors. In any case, I bet the top image uses the Font method.

The top image is from the pre-patched code on MacOS and has "drawing method" selected as "polygons" in the showroom. Is this PR not actually necessary to avoid using the Font method on MacOS? Is the issue font-dependent?

[FedericoSpada]

My bad, I didn't note that the method was reported in the image.

On Windows, with a 1920x1080 monitor and 125% scaling, you can really see how bad the Polygons method is:

I thought it would be the same on macOS... but looking at your screenshots, I prefer the Polygons method. Maybe things change if you try it on a low-resolution monitor.

[ajkessel]

Oh, sorry, this has gotten a little confusing because we're discussing the same thing on issue #12 and pr #14 . I did include some screenshots on #14 at 800x450 resolution and it's still not noticeable, which makes me wonder if the Mac is even honoring the chosen method or if some lower level OS function is taking over.

[FedericoSpada]

Maybe something has changed in Tcl 9.0. Can you try one last time with the previous version? Thanks!

[ajkessel]

Actually, I thought of that too--my most recent post with screenshots in the PR thread was from Python 3.14 / Tk 8.6.

[ajkessel]

Would it be worth trying some more specific code rather than the showroom, just to make sure we're barking up the right tree?

[FedericoSpada]

The Showroom App has been created to display all widgets with the widest range of configurations, so I would say it is already a good way to test the whole Library.
For now, let's just implement the management of custom fonts, without changing the default drawing method. Thanks!

[ajkessel]

Updated!