Except staff lines from antialiazing

• Mar 15, 2014 - 18:49
Type
Graphical (UI)
Severity
S5 - Suggestion
Status
active
Project
MuseScore

Hi there

I transferred some Capella files recently and had both MuseScore nightly and Capella running. Switching between the two I got the impression of a clearer canvas in Capella. Reason might be, I thought, that Capella does not antialiaze staff lines. I switched off antialiazing in MuseScore and found the visual impression much clearer and "crisper" if you will, combined with the drawback, that beams and slurs, everything not horizontal or vertical to the screen axis had the typical staircase appearance. With antialiazing "on" the staff lines seem a bit blurred.

So wouldn't it be a good idea to except the staff lines from antialiazing for they will always remain horizontal or vertical ? Even better would be to let the user decide wether he wants staff lines to be antialiazed or not.

This is the feature request.

Comments

• Mar 16, 2014 - 12:32

There is no 100% solution, unfortunately. By using antialiasing the line might look fuzzy at some zoom level but they look the same. If antialiasing is off, the line are "sharp" but they can look different, or even disappear and small zoom level (faster on lower resolution screen)

shot_140316_132908.png

So we need to make a choice, I like the current status better.

Attachment Size
shot_140316_132908.png 7.59 KB

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• Mar 16, 2014 - 16:34

I am not convinced so let me try to make a few points here:

1) My screen captures were made at page view 100 %. With anti aliazing set "on" the staff lines definitely do not look the same and - at the same time - look much better without anti aliazing. Playing around with different zoom levels I did not get into a situatione where lines were disappearing. Might get there faster with lower resolution screens, as you mentioned but not on the one I use at the moment (1280 x 1024)

2) So why not let the user decide wether he or she wants

a) Anti aliazing
b) Anti aliazing except staff lines
c) No anti aliazing

3) Put annother way: If c) is offered to the user as an opportunity, can't a mode like b) be looked on as something like an enhanced un-antialiazed mode ?

a) and c) are already there. Would the implementation of b be much effort ? In my opinion it would make a great difference to the better.

Finally: No offense meant, it already is a fantastic software.

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• Mar 19, 2014 - 07:46

Personally I would remove the option to change the antialiasing in preferences and set it to antialising on. I don't understand how adding options make the software better.

Reasons:
- One less option in the UI, means clearer UI, means easier to learn MuseScore.
- No support question. "My lines looks uneven, why is that?" because you changed an option and you don't remember...
- After 6 years and millions of users, no one complained about the lines being fuzzy.

Reply

• Mar 19, 2014 - 14:17

Hi Lasonic,

don't let me be misunderstood. I am not complaining, I tried to make a suggestion. So it would be kind if you would try not to twist words on my tongue.

Options mean flexibility and that means that the software can be adapted to as many situations as imaginable. Musescore 2.0 is a project that is distinct from the predecessor by having a lot more options, let me just mention the tabulature capability. If I sift through the contributions of the issue tracker and keep in mind that there even is a category "feature request", I see that half of the stuff there is about more new options. So the idea of leaving an option is not convincing as a concept. Looking at the item itself the one checkmark more or less will to my conviction not overstrain the average user's ability or at least willingness to deal with it. Notation software is complex by nature, everyone who seriously wants to work with it will accept that.

Topic itself: I detected by coincidence, that the Capella canvas looked better, the reason is, that staff lines are clear and sharp. The next step was, that I looked thru the Capella options (it is Capella 2002) and found out, that only hooks, slurs and other symbols not vertical or horizontal are subject to anitaliazing. For good reason that is.

Best regards

Reinhard

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