Home Forums Hardware Mac Desktops & Notebooks New used iMac shakedown cruise

I thought I would share my experience using and evaluating my new (used) imac which I bought from Mac of All Trades for $499. I have 90 days to return it, so if anything to check comes to mind let me know.

As advertised, it's in excellent shape. Except for some nicks and smudges it looks new.

I already had a Matias Quiet Pro keyboard, which the Mac refused to recognize until I installed USB Overdrive. Another strike against Matias.

Migration Assistant took from one to two hours. I was reluctant to use it because I didn't want to bring over any "bad files". In fact, after the info transferred I decided to move it into a second User account. So I'm trying to figure out how to merge these accounts or how to pick one over the other. I started updating the built-in account. After using migration assistant, I started using the transferred account as the default. Moving information manually might have been a wiser move. I even emailed Mac of All Trades to see if I could restore the factory settings for this Mac but they said no. They were surprisingly ignorant and unhelpful.

Last night I noticed a 4x4 inch or so yellow smudge on the monitor. I haven't seen anything like that since the TV my folks used to have in the 1980s or 1990s that would get those burn-in spots which came from, I think, my brother and me playing video games on the TV. Colored spots would show up, then disappear.

But it's much better having software from my old Mac than trying to download software from the Apple store, which I find almost unusable. As I have in the past, I went through the Apple ID cha-cha, which included iTunes and the iTunes store. Absurd. Trillion dollar company, indeed. The only software I had to pay to upgrade was 1Password. There's a company that's gone from great to terrible. Unbelievable what they make you go through. It's a good product but steep at $65 for the standalone, nonsubscription version. If there's an alternative that doesn't make you jump through hoops, get it.

The biggest obstacle for me is getting used to the small text. The display defaults to 1920 x 1080. Although there are other choices (1600x1900, 1344x756, 1280x720), they are unusuable because at those sizes the text is very jaggy and disproportionate. I thought Windows was bad with this problem, but Mac has it too. I have to wear glasses when I read and use the computer, but the text is still too small. I wonder if 3M makes some kind of magnifier. I found options to enlarge screen text on the desktop and I have Tinker Tool though it doesn't seem to have worked. On Firefox, I had to override web pages and use my own text preferences, which I ususally don't like to do. I still found myself clicking the plus sign to enlarge the screen.

Startup was quite slow until I disabled fonts, turned off Spotlight, turned off animation, turned off Dashboard, turned off (I think) Mission Control, which was new to me, as was Notifications—ugh, this has to be least welcome addition. Apple has been borrowing from Windows by nagging you. Fortunately Notifications comes with a Do Not Disturb sign.

After reading complaints about interface changes, I was prepared for the worst. But it's not all bad. I don't mind the flat look, but I dislike playing hide and seek with options, such as the disappearing menu bar. That is a dumb change. Pointless. In fact, it really discourages me from using the full screen, this great big 21 inch screen I have now. Sometimes when I use full screen in a program, I can't get out of it, such as iTunes. The program switcher (option-tab) didn't take me out of iTunes nor did clicking on Finder in the Dock. Moral: Don't use full screen. I couldn't get FinderPop to work, and that was my navigator for years. So I guess the dock is my launcher now, lacking FinderPop, as in Windows 7.

Sometimes programs open behind the current window instead of in front of. That's puzzling and annoying. Sometimes programs seem to have quit but are still in the dock. Cut and paste doesn't always work but that is probably the fault of particular software rather than the OS. ClipMenu still works and has a fork in Clipy.

I was disappointed that iCal includes Muslim holidays, and there is only one option: turn on all holidays on turn off all holidays. Another strike against Apple. I may look for another calendar if it can send reminders through Mail. That was how I organized appointments on my old Mac. I had iCal send me email reminders through Mail. That was a nice feature. It's good to have Mail working again. I've always liked it...when it works.

Downloads are large and installing them is slow. Here again I feel like I'm watching the Windows cursor while it installs updates, the kind of thing I want to avoid if I build my own computer. Much else on this iMac is acceptably snappy. Onyx is surprisingly quick. I remember years ago waiting something like twenty minutes for permissions to be fixed.

Networking settings transferred without a hitch, as did printing settings. Both have worked fine without error. This is also a positive change from years passed.

Jacks, external drives, RAM:

Thunderbolt is new to me. I also have four USB 2 jacks and one Firewall 800. I'm quite happy about having these plentiful, fast (to me) connections. My Matias keyboard has two USB ports but they're not very good. Another strike against Matias.

I'm looking at hard drives for backup. Any opinions? Which port should be used with a backup drive: USB 2, Firewire 800, or Thunderbolt? I would probably get a mechanical backup drive, not an SSD. I'm not sure. It has to be bootable. On my old iMac I used SuperDuper to clone the hard drive to an OWC Firewire 400 drive, then did incremental backups. That drive booted the OS with no problem. I dislike Time Machine and never used it. I dislike the idea of a constant backup in which your hard drive is always connected, always running, reading and writing data. I would rather keep it in another room without so much use. In all these years I've only had one hard drive go bad, an external Fantom. SuperDuper has always done what I've wanted without problems, and I see no reason to change, though using Windows 7 taught me how handy disc images and ISO files can be.

Anyone have an opinion about the speed and quality of OWC drives versus other brands? I've bought a lot from OWC over the years but I sometimes wonder if there are better, faster products.

What about OWC RAM versus Crucial RAM? Crucial is out of stock of the RAM that works for this iMac, but I'm wondering if I even need more RAM. I have 8 GB now. Would another 8 or 16 GBs give me a noticeable improvement?

Thunderbolt is, by far, your fastest choice for an external. I have two OWC SSDs plugged into an OWC thunderbolt dock. Both have been fine, and for me, incremental backups via Carbon Copy Cloner take about 5 minutes. The SSDs also boot much faster than HDDs, as I can personally attest, because I also have a HDD clone.

When I bought my iMac, I also bought OWC RAM and have not had a hint of a problem. IMHO, add as much RAM as your machine and budget allow. RAM is relatively cheap and well worth the price.

Restoring to the original configuration as it left the factory is doable, but it requires a copy of MacOS 10.6.6 (the original OS that shipped with a mid 2011 iMac) and that would be hard to find — and Apple is unlikely to be of help in that regard. However, MacOS 10.
11 was correctly installed you can easily go back to a clean install of El Capitan. Just boot from the Recovery Drive — Power down then hold ⌘-R while booting. From there you can run Disk Utility to erase the hard drive followed by running the Installer from the Recovery Drive.
[quote-deniro]The biggest obstacle for me is getting used to the small text. The display defaults to 1920 x 1080. Although there are other choices (1600x1900, 1344x756, 1280x720), they are unusuable because at those sizes the text is very jaggy and disproportionate. I thought Windows was bad with this problem, but Mac has it too. I have to wear glasses when I read and use the computer, but the text is still too small. I wonder if 3M makes some kind of magnifier. I found options to enlarge screen text on the desktop and I have Tinker Tool though it doesn't seem to have worked. On Firefox, I had to override web pages and use my own text preferences, which I ususally don't like to do. I still found myself clicking the plus sign to enlarge the screen.[/quote]

1. Be sure you have the correct version of TinkerTool
2. TinkerTool only changes the System fonts and some apps.
3. What you see on a web page is controlled by HTML, CSS, and settings in the browser itself. I am not familiar with Firefox, but in Safari there is an accessibility setting to "Never use Font sizes smaller than xx pt" Surely there is a similar setting in Firefox.

Holidays is and always has been a calendar that you subscribe to, just as you can subscribe to a calendar with your favorite sports team schedule or even to a calendar posted by your church or other organization. The default Holidays calendar is for the United States and includes Federal holidays as well as holidays for major religious groups including Christian, Jewish, and Islam. If you want ONLY Federal Holidays you csn probably find what you are looking for here. These can easily be added to Calendar (another change — iCal is now known as Calendar.)


The major speed factor is determined by

1. the specific drive mechanism used in the enclosure and in most cases you have no idea who builds the drive in the enclosure. Which is why I buy the enclosure and drive separately.
2. the drive RPM
3. Internationally recognized standards for the SATA interface in the enclosure (3 Gbps or 6 Gbps)
4. The interface between the enclosure and the computer (Thunderbolt 3, Thunderbolt 2, USB C, USB 3, Firewire 800, Firewire 400, USB, USB 2, USB 1 — from fastest to slowest).
5. With USB C and Thunderbolt 3 the speed of the particular port on your iMac
   • USB — 480 Mbps
   • Firewire — 800 Mbps
   • Thunderbolt 1 — up to 10 Gbps
6. With Thunderbolt the length and quality (a.k.a. cost) of the connecting cable

Personally I am more inclined to consider reliability over speed as the difference in speed of similarly configured drive and enclosures has very little, if any, significant impact for a backup drive. I have found OWC enclosures to be rugged and reliable (I have never had one fail) and I pair them with either HGST or Toshiba drives for their reliability.


On the current production Macs 8 GB is the minimum configuration and for many models 16 is the maximum. It really depends on what kind of work you will be doing, but looking at "memory pressure" and "swap used" in Activity Monitor on my MacBook Pro with 16 GB of memory, I have never seen "Memory Pressure" any thing but Green and "Swap Used" is very often "0". 👌

As for as OWC brand memory goes, like their enclosures I have never had one of their DIMMs fail.

I didn't know I had to subscribe to a calendar.

Can you show me an example of a OWC enclosure that you would use?

I have two HDDs in the OWC Mercury Elite Pro Dual Performance RAID Enclosure and two SSDs in the OWC Drive Dock Dual Drive Bay Solution. Both work well for me.

deniro's Mid 2011 iMac is the earliest one that can run Internet Recovery (Computers that can be upgraded to use OS X Internet Recovery), and according to this Apple doc he can use an Option-Command-R boot to install the macOS that came with his Mac, or the version closest to it that is still available (whatever that may be).

I use the Envoy Pro Mini a genuine SSD in a near thumb drive format. Not terribly fast but faster than most hard drives and extremely convenient to carry around. I keep TechTool Pro-To-Go bootable configurations on it, in case emergency volume repairs are needed. To be truthful I haven't needed to use it in years, but I still keep it around — just in case.

I use a enclosure with an [url=https://eshop.macsales.com/item/HGST/0J22423/]HGST 1 TB 7200 RPM drive as a clone drive for my MacBook Pro. The enclosure has an off/on switch and merely switching it on triggers Carbon Copy Cloner to clone my HD. This is my favorite general purpose external enclosure.

I have a variety of OWC Express enclosures with drives from old Macs that I use for a variety of intermittent or light duty purposes. They are cheap and allow me to get added use from drives that would otherwise be discarded.

For "belt and suspenders" Time Machine drive I use a Thunderbay 4 Thunderbolt enclosure with four factory rebuilt HGST 7200 RPM drives configured as RAID 5. Virtually silent, and if one of the drives fails it can be swapped out and the data will be completely restored by the SoftRAID RAID 5 software. About as reliable as you can get.

The links in your second paragraph should be enclosure & HGST 1 TB 7200 RPM

I'm working with my second Mercury Elite Pro mini enclosure, which replaced my first one that died of a failed USB 3 port; the new one, the USB 3 port in particular, is more solidly built than its predecessor, and I'm happy with it.

The aspect of the Mercury that I really love is that it's "reversible", i.e. its works can be installed upside down, which negates the need for twisting the short cables with which I work.

Would anyone like to comment on the jagged font problem?

Is it a problem or is it the norm? I read again recently the speculation that Apple started designing its OS for Retina monitors, and the rest of us can go to hell. Still, switching resolutions ought to be acceptable, otherwise why include them? In recent days I've read some interesting posts by people unhappy with font handling in the OS, the iMac, and particularly third-party monitors.

I've never had much of a problem with hard drives despite the dire warnings my whole life. I quit defragmenting and optimizing drives when I moved to OS X in the 1990s. As I said, I don't run them into the ground by using Time Machine or some other constant backup program.

I put a Crucial SSD in my Dell laptop and a Samsung SSD into my parents Dell desktop. I can't telly which is faster, but I'm probable partial to the Crucial since it was the first SSD I ever used. Wow, what a difference. I had to using mechanical drives after that. A firmware upgrade made the drive ever better. In Windows I've had trouble mounting those colorful plastic WD My Passport drives and getting Windows 7 to recognize them. Getting this to work usually involves having various services and software activated on startup.

On the Mac I have used mostly OWC drives. I don't recall any of them failing, though they seem slower than the WD drives. I will probably continue to support OWC by buying both RAM and external drive from them, probably a Firewire drive.

Other than separating the sizes into dual chips, there are differences in the RAM modules. For example:

8.0GB (2x 4GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SO-DIMM 204 Pin CL9 SO-DIMM Kit 51.75
8.0GB (2x 4GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SO-DIMM 204 Pin CL9 SO-DIMM Memory Upgrade Kit 69.99
8.0GB (2x 4GB) PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SO-DIMM 204 Pin CL9 SO-DIMM Memory Upgrade Kit 69.99
8.0GB (2x 4GB) PC3-12800 DDR3L 1600MHz SO-DIMM 204 Pin CL11 Memory Upgrade Kit 67.99
8.0GB PC3-10600 DDR3 1333MHz SO-DIMM 204 Pin CL9 SO-DIMM Memory Module 74.99
8.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3L 1600MHz SO-DIMM 204 Pin CL11 SO-DIMM Memory Module 71.99

In the left column you can see the choices DDR3 v. DDR3L, 1333 MHz v. 1600 MHz, PC3-12800 v. PC3-10600.

Any opinions about that?

https://eshop.macsales.com/upgrades/imac-21-5-inch-mid-2011-2.8-ghz/memory

I presume you've ticked the font-smoothing box in System Preferences/General ?

Yes

So you're experiencing the same font issue you experienced in 10.6.8 on your old iMac in 10.11.x(?) on your new one?

Yes, in fact. I did wonder whether I might have brought some kind of bad file from the old computer until I saw so many other people on the internet complain about the same problem. At this point it's more of a norm than a problem.

I read many complaints over the weekend about all kinds of models running the OS with jagged and blurry text. The conclusion many people draw is that Apple has been tailoring its OS for their retina monitor and newer more expensive models. Many unhappy people resent being pushed to buy the most expensive computer after they have dumped thousands of dollars on a computer that essentially doesn't work. The complaints go back many years. Some people saw it in Lion.

As far as I know Apple has never addressed the problem, though there are helpful options in the OS to make changes. I have also found that Helvetica Neue works better as a default system font. Readers with jaggy text might want to play around with their font panel and look at different weights, too.

Although Apple hasn't said anything, I'm willing to grant that some head scratching and innovation are required of brainiacs to adapt an OS to increasingly large (tall and wide) monitors. Windows has the same problem but has done a better job of font handling, something that used to be Apple's specialty. I've done a lot of fiddling with resolutions and font sizes on a 10 year old Dell laptop running Windows 7 and a three year old Dell desktop running Windows 8.1 I would call my results satisfactory given the limitations but not all that acceptable. Isn't there some kind of software that can address this? I saw only one company listed that sells a screen magnifier, but I don't know anything about it.

I figure with a laptop you're screwed because most laptops are small and the text has always been small. But desktops ought to be a different story. That's why I have preferred desktops.

I don't know why this topic is discussed so often in forums and comments sections but so rarely in the tech press. Obviously it's important. Customers ought to be able to read computer text out of the box. They ought to be able to change resolutions and expect the text to be readable, otherwise why include the ability to change resolutions?

A couple times I posted a link to an article in a British computer magazine about how monitors went from being sold in a 12:9 ratio to being sold in a 12:10 ratio to accommodate wide screen video for movies and games (or di I have that backwards?). He's the only person I've read who has talked about that subject. I've more of a text guy. I don't need wide. The internet scrolls vertically.

Many customers blame themselves, their age, their poor eyesight for the ability to read computer text. That's wrong. Text should be easy to read and easy to change. This is a clever trick by the industry, blaming the victim. I've instructed my parents not to fall for it. Computers should make you feel smarter, not dumber. Home computers, personal computers, should be easy to use and they should work. There shouldn't be any learning curve. There are many problems which exist today in computers which didn't in the past. The situation is absurd. I wonder what it's building up to.

You can see why I want to build my own computer.

Changing screen resolution worked well on video monitors but not so much with LCDs. This was pretty well discussed some 30 year ago when LCDs where the hot new technology. The "trick" to eliminating jaggies on a LCD monitor is using the default screen resolution. I stick to the default resolution on my MacBook Pro and I am not seeing any jagged characters or readability issues on either the built-in 13" screen or an attached 27" Thunderbolt monitor.

If you want larger characters for improved readabiity it is better to change the font size. I use Helvetica Neue — 18 pt as the Application font and 14 pt Menlo Regular for fixed pitch. The various system font sizes are set at 16 pt and Safari is set to Never use font sizes smaller than 12 pt.

NOTES:

1. Setting the minimum font size too large can cause text truncation, text overwrite, and other issues in the system and apps
2. Changes in the size of system fonts may not show up in an application until the app is restarted
3. Some system font changes may not show up until the computer is rebooted
4. Web page font sizes are controlled by HTML, CSS, the browser, and custom style sheets but Safari supports default Zoom settings on a global or site by site basis. For example my default zoom setting is 100%, but the default for FTM is set at 150% for comfortable reading.

Curious where you are making all of these font setting changes. Within each app (like in Safari) or on a System-wide basis?

Text is too small on the default resolution. On any other resolution, text is jagged and blurry.

I always use Firefox. I've been fiddling with the settings but everything seems too small. Here are the choices:

0) Fonts for - Latin
1) Default Font - name and size
2) Proportional - "serif" or "sans serif", plus size
3) Sans serif - name
4) Monospace - name and size
5) Minimum font size - size
6) Allow pages to choose their own fonts - checked or unchecked

For example, while viewing Fine Tuned Mac, the following setting is way too small (and skinny!):

1) Helvetica Neue 16
2) Serif 16
3) Helvetica Neue
4) Helvetica Neue
5) 14
6) unchecked

In the past I usually surfed the web with Georgia and Verdana (Tahoma when using Windows on my Dell laptop, which looks quite nice). Verdana has been my go to font for years for most purposes, though during the past year I was printing in Times 12 (not Times New Roman) on 10.6.7

What's really dumb on the default resolution is when I'm writing. I know that I want to print in standard Times 12, but there's no way I can write at that size because it's way too small.

Moreover, in Pages 3.0.3 there is no Times 16. There's Times 14 or Times 18. I spend a lot of time reformatting text I've copied and pasted from the Web, and it takes a lot of time to resize it properly. The default resolution of this monitor would force me to write at a larger font, then change everything before printing, possibly forcing me to make even more adjustments.

This is what happens when WYSIWYG no longer applies. One of the fundamentals of desktop publishing.

All of this may seem excessive and fussy, but it isn't.

See what happens if you set under Firefox's Fonts & Colors the Default font to Verdana, Size 13.
I've been using that for 20 years, and it works like a charm (with default for display on my 21.5" monitor).

I don’t recall Pages 3, but the current Pages allows font sizes with two decimals precision, and a zoom level for easier screen reading. [img]https://i.imgur.com/T2LIGbX.png[/img]

Verdana 13 is not bad in Firefox. For me, too, that has been a default font for many years. But it's too small now in some sites.

There's a company named Kantek that makes screen magnifiers. I wonder how that looks.

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi...&Submit=ENE

I have no idea what app you are using, but most apps have a Zoom option that allows you to zoom the image on the screen so that 12 pt text will still print as 12 pt but on the screen each character may display at almost any desired size from 1/72 of an inch to several inches in size.


The currrent version of Pages is 7.1 and is available as a FREE download from the App Store. That should take care of selecting the correct font size, but remember it may look larger on the screen because the screen image is zoomed or otherwise enlarged by HTML, CSS, and the browser but when you cut and paste the type that sizing is not copied. If you want to copy the actual size characters you have to

• Print the page as PDF
• Export the page as PDF
• Take a screenshot

You will not be able to copy and paste text from PDFs unless you OCR them.

WYSIWYG still applies. Zooming is the electronic equivalent of using a magnifying glass on printed material and has no affect WYSIWYG. Pagination and layout does not change. WSIWYG is alive and well in MacOS. FULL DISCLOSURE changing typefaces, using a the same font from a different font foundry, or even a different release of a font from the same font foundry can and will change pagination and layout because the physical size of the characters and the spacing between characters may change. But what you see on the screen will still be what you see on the printed page. Zooming keeps every thing in proportion and maintains WYSIWYG,

Your allegations are based on a misunderstanding of the technology, not technological facts. If you stick with it you should catch up with the technological changes (I started to say advances but some may argue if it is an advance or not, but it is change).

Text does look smaller on a display with higher resolutions regardless of font size.

Say I print a page in Verdana 11 in Pages. Then I place the printed page next to the screen page. Do they look identical? They do not. What I'm seeing isn't what I'm getting. Which word am I using incorrectly?

I agree that a 10 page document in Pages in Verdana 11 at 1920 x 1080 will be a 10 page document at 1600 x 1900. But what does it look like on the screen at each resolution? What does the printed result look like compared to what's on the screen?

Verdana 11 onscreen in the first resolution is smaller and harder to read than the second resolution, though the second confounds the problem by rendering the page in jagged text.

Moreover, I doubt this is a problem with LCDs vs CRTS because the complaints have increased long after LCD monitors became the default. It may be that the 16:10 v. 16:9 ratio is the problem, not the LCD technology, and that is something I see discussed rarely. In some online stores you can use either ratio as a search filter. As you know, some monitors pivot 90 degrees. Or the problem may be in how the OS or the graphic cards or both render fonts.

Don't take my word for it. All you have to do is google Mac or iMac and "jagged text".

People with eyesight limitations are being advised online to buy a bigger monitor. That won't solve the problem if while monitors are getting bigger the text is getting smaller. From what I've read, a 27" non-retina iMac is harder to read than a 20" iMac. Perhaps no one over 40 ought to buy an retina iMac.

There are many obvious articles online written as though they were bold discoveries. Change the resolution, they advise. No kidding. That's not an option when only one resolution, the default resolution, is readable. Few to none of these articles address the problems mentioned by people in the comments sections.

It's even more absurd to tell someone who just bought a retina iMac to change the resolution. They bought that kind of monitor precisely because of all the hype and praise about the great resolution. No one, not Apple, not one reviewer as far as I know said "unless you're interested in text, that is, in which case, move on." Maybe the assumption is that we'll continue to communicate with emoji hieroglyphics instead of text.

If only the carrier pigeon were still around...

I'm guessing that from all the frustration with respect to fonts that you'll be taking advantage of the 90-day return policy and then opting for a Mac (iMac?) with a non-Retina monitor.

No, I have no plan to return this Mac unless I can confirm this jaggy font problem is exclusive to this machine. I'm certain it isn't. But it may be different on different operating systems and different models of computers. So far my reading suggests the problem is widespread.

I don't have a retina iMac and I don't want one. I have no reason to think any other Mac would be different. I have no intention of moving to High Sierra or Mojave unless there are signs that those systems are a step forward rather than backward. Nevertheless, I'm open to options.

The frustration is when someone accuses me of not knowing what I'm talking about. The frustration comes from seeing all the greed and stupidity and absurdity. So many people go along with it, defend it, or refuse to question it. When you live long enough, you have more experience to draw from. You no longer need to rely on books or secondhand news. If you live long enough and pay attention and use your senses, you can see decline much clearer. If you're not a sheep, you start grumbling. In a certain sense I grew up with Apple and the home computer industry. I hate to see it go backwards. And worse.

So the subject at hand is, for people who write a lot, what kind of desktop computer experience can they expect in 2018, what is the state of font rendering, what is it like to change resolutions of monitors and operating systems, and why is it so much worse than it was in the past. Maybe I should try Apple tech support.

Some other things for interested readers to try.

You can download SwitchResX, which might give your monitor some other choices. For my imac it gives an additional 1680 x 1050, halfway between the two biggest resolutions, which I nevertheless found too small but a slight improvement. There are other tweaks in this program but I'm not going to mess with it until I've read more. To install it, you have disable SIP, install SwitchResX, then enable SIP.

FinderPop won't work even if you install it with SIP disabled. Too bad. That one goes back a long way. The right-click habit is deeply ingrained.

People with external monitors might want to see this link:

http://www.mathewinkson.com/2013/03/forc...xternal-monitor

I emailed Kurt Lang and he was kind enough to respond quickly and in detail:

____________

The main issue is likely scale factor. The default (and native) resolution for that screen is 1920x1080.

Here's the problem. The lower resolutions are all proportional (same scale factor in height and width), which means a circle will still look like a circle and not an ellipse. But, the scale percentages are all oddball. As in, not whole number divisions of 2, 3, 4, etc.

1600 x 900 = 83.33%
1344 x 756 = 70%
1280 x 720 = 66.66%

Computers with LED screens don't like these kinds of screen values, which is something joemikeb already explained.

It didn't matter on old CRT screens since an electron gun was far from anything you'd call accurate. And a pulse would almost always at least partially excite a neighboring pixel, causing it to blur out the pixel being sent to the screen. Meaning, nothing was ever super sharp on a CRT and jaggies practically didn't exist. It had to be something obvious before you'd notice.

On an LED, when you're trying to increase the image size by lowering the resolution, you run into this percentage problem. Take 1600 x 900. Remember, the screen itself is always 1920 x 1080, so what's drawn has to be dumbed down to fit.

Okay, the OS needs to draw one pixel. Which pixel on the screen is it supposed to use? The call to display one pixel is now larger than the scale factor. Should it go to pixel 1122 in the row, or 1123? Does it mathematically land right in the middle and the OS displays black on both neighboring pixels? Or does it skip drawing it at all and those two spots remain the background color? As you round the curve of say, the letter S, is the pixel on row 82 going to draw on pixel position 448, and on row 83 the next pixel of the curve draws on pixel position 450 rather than 449 because that's how the math came out for the nearest pixel position?

There isn't much you can do about this when using non-native resolutions on screens with exactly defined pixel locations.

Though one thing that could help is using HiDPI. I don't know if this works anymore, but you can give it a try. Open Terminal and copy/paste this line into it:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.windowserver.plist DisplayResolutionEnabled -bool true

Quit Terminal.

Since the file you're trying to add this to is in the root Library folder, you may get a message that you don't have permissions. If that's the case, you'll have to temporarily disable System Integrity Protection so you can run the command, then turn SIP back on.

Open the System Preferences and click Displays. Click the Scaled radio button. Now, hold down the Option key and click directly on the word Scaled.

If this still works, you'll find lower resolutions with (HiDPI) listed after the values. The largest one you can pick is half the native resolution. What this does is cause the Mac to draw everything with much better smoothing results.

Thanks for a very interesting post!

And thanks for verifying that Kurt Lang is a real person. I thought he might just be some sort of Marvel Lord of the Fonts! I've been following his guidelines for years.

Cheers!

I suspect the communications issue here is due to the definition and meaning of key words, aggravated by sloppy misuse in general and too often in the media that should know better. So I am going to try to clarify what I am trying to convey by beginning with some definitions and to limit the discussion to a printed output prepared with Pages. (Web documents are subject to any number of curve balls in this.)

WYSIWG — does not mean an exact pixel by pixel duplication, rather a reasonably accurate SCALE representation of what the preparer sees in the Pages window is what appears on the page when printed out.

POINT — a measure of the height of a character (technically the height of the metal the typeface was cast on). It was stadardized with the advent of desktop publishing at 1/72 of an inch. Printed output is specified in Points.

PIXEL — is the smallest controllable element of a picture represented on the screen and its size is a function of many hardware factors independent of what is displayed on the screen. When you change the resolution of the screen the number of actual physical pixels does not change, instead the video card and the monitor clumps a group of several pixels and treats them as a single unit.

RESOLUTION: — the number of pixels on a screen. The default resolution for a monitor is typically the maximum number of pixels and that yields the most detailed image possible.

RESOLUTION & PIXELS — If you reduce the image resolution (in System Preferences that is termed "scaling") it makes the characters on the screen appear larger but since the number of pixels in a point of text has not changed the resolution becomes lower. If you decrease the resolution or zoom the image the edges of the characters will become blocky and ugly. This is called pixelization



Look at these images of the same page in Pages. The first image is at 100% ([b]ie.[/i] not zoomed), the second zoomed 150%, and the third I am not sure, I just zoomed enough the pixelation finally showed clearly (only a higher resolution could would have prevented that. I started to send a picture of the printed image but no matter what zoom level was set on the screen the printed images were scaled at 100% and the point sizes were precisely correct.

I'm pretty sure you can get the hidden resolutions by holding down the option button while clicking on Scaled. You may not have to enter the code in Terminal that Kurt Lang sent, though I did and it worked. Or you can buy SwitchRes, which has more feature and is inexpensive.

In Tinker Tool I'm using Helvetica Neue Light 18 pt (Application) and Helvetica Neue Light 14 pt (Fixed pitch) at 1680 x 1050, one of the hidden resolutions. It's an improvement. The lighter font compensates for the jagged text. Darker, thicker fonts make it worse. It's not bad, though still small.

On Firefox I'm using Verdana 16 and Verdana 14 for everything, with Verdana 14 the minimum, where I choose the fonts for every site, not the site choosing fonts. Sometimes the type is too small, sometimes too big, but it's not bad and I'll keep playing around with it. Tried Tahoma but that works better on Windows.

I installed Windows 7 with Boot Camp. At first it didn't work because Windows couldn't find the drivers. This is a normal day in Windows. Drivers are often a problem.

Turns out the wrong drivers were installed. After some Googling, I found the solution to install an older version of Boot Camp. And so began the long journey of installing Windows, which always takes longer than installing a Mac OS because it has many more updates, though MacOS is catching up. So instead of a couple hours it's more like a couple days. But that's Windows. Boot Camp, if you have the right version, makes using Windows ridiculously easy. It even labels your mounted hard drive "Boot Camp".

The font rendering in is better in Windows 7 than on the Mac. I didn't get the jagged text, and the OS provides more options for enlarging text. Firefox also seems to run faster. I might try some old games. I haven't played a computer game since the 20th century. Did you know there are esports teams now? Nutty. Google "Kent State eports" if you're not already aware of this subject and how times have changed.

For my part, I think boys are better off spending their time playing sports outside and chasing girls. I was never very good at those shooter games that they love now, not even as a kid.

I've been watching this defect in the monitor. It looks like a vertical fold starting at the top of the screen one inch from the black border on the left side and runs down three quarters of the screen.

Imagine a bedsheet that needs to be pulled to stretch out a wrinkle. That's what it looks like against a colorful desktop picture. Against a white background it looks like a dirty smudge. The vertical fold is about a millimeter or two wide, but the area to the left of the fold is somewhat shaded, darker, dirtier looking, and is one inch wide.

The computer was sold to me in "Excellent" shape by Mac of All Trades but I'm not sure I would call it excellent anymore. The dark patch is easily visible and clearly a defect of some kind.

That sounds like grounds for a return; be sure to keep track of when your 30 days are up!

Recall his original post (#49644):
I thought I would share my experience using and evaluating my new (used) imac which I bought from Mac of All Trades for $499. I have 90 days to return it....

Surely, you're not considering paying to have a machine that was sold to you as "in excellent shape" repaired?

Or do you think Mac of All Trades will pay?

Is either the least bit likely?

When it comes to the computer world, I try to avoid assumptions. I'm not going to pay. Apple would pay. Someone would pay. Not me. I didn't break it.

I'm considering calling Mac of All Trades. I see no harm in asking them to explain why my monitor isn't in excellent shape as advertised. Let them solve the problem. I didn't cause it. Let them explain how they define excellent. I did read their site carefully. I doubt they're trying to trick me. Maybe there are problems with that particular card.

Google searching taught me that there was a repair program for models made around the same time as this one. It's not the same AMD card but it's close. The last iMac I owned I had to have the monitor repaired due to lines and dead pixels. Others complained online. Apple denied and refused. Same old story. It took a lot of effort but I got them to pay for it.

I feel I've already made compromises with this Mac, and as I've said, I doubt my long-term future is with any Apple computer unless there are dramatic changes.

RE: Recall his original post (#49644):
I thought I would share my experience using and evaluating my new (used) imac which I bought from Mac of All Trades for $499. I have 90 days to return it....

--------------------

Fine . . . but why wait out the 90 days? It doesn't seem to me that the monitor issues - Post #49769 - will "correct themselves if/when given enough time."

I was only trying to make the point that the return period was 90 days, not 30 days (as artie commented cautionarily).

A couple developments.

Well, I said I tried to avoid assumptions, but I assumed wrong about the Mac of All Trades policy. A warranty is one thing. A return policy is another.

https://www.macofalltrades.com/return-policy/

"Returns may only be requested within fourteen (14) days of delivery. The customer is responsible for return shipping. We issue a refund less original shipping upon return and inspection."

"If a repair is requested due to a hardware failure within ninety (90) days of delivery, the customer is responsible for return shipping unless an Extended Warranty is purchased...We will attempt to repair the issue; if non-repairable we will issue either an exact replacement or a store credit equaling the full price of the product at the present time."

(Note the use of "issue" as both a noun and a verb)

I conclude that this means I can't return the computer for a refund after owning it for fourteen days. If a problem arises in the next 90 days, I can ask Mac of All Trades to fix it. I would pay the shipping for this heavy computer. I'm not sure who would pay for the repair.

The second point is that the monitor flaw disappeared after I installed Macs Fan Control. I've been leaving the computer on at night to see if the flaw returns, but so far it hasn't. I had been wondering whether the problem was caused by heat. The computer seemed especially hot, but I was unsure if this was a normal result of the aluminum body, which was new to me. I don't know what else to think. If a problem arises, I'll have to fix it. Or debate whether to fix it. Same old story. Hope for the best, expect the worst.

I'm getting more comfortable with the font rendering. I don't regret my purchase. I've enjoyed seeing all the recent software that I had been missing out on. Lots to download and play with. I was reminded again of how much better Mac software is than Windows software. But I suppose that's changing as Apple continues to tighten the screws.

Hopefully, that's the bottom line.

I hope so too, because the warranty has another gotcha: "…if non-repairable we will issue either an exact replacement or a store credit equaling the full price of the product at the present time [emphasis added]."

So if the price of the item went down since the original purchase, you would not get your full purchase price credited.

The big print giveth but the small print taketh away.

And that's how you become a millionaire in Silicon Valley. You don't need an MBA (or a degree on CS) to figure that out.

A few small matters.

I can't seem to get drag and drop to work. It worked before. I'm using the latest version of USB Overdrive with a Logitech MX500 wired mouse. I dislike this mouse because I used my previous mouse's scroll wheel as a button for double clicking in addition to scrolling. The MX500's scroll wheel is so loose that when I press on it, I don't get a solid click. Essentially unusable as a button. It's loose because it's a tilt wheel that is intended (I guess) to go back and forward on the internet. For some reason I never use it for that, maybe because I used a lot of tabs in Firefox. I did use the wheel for dragging groups of files to a folder, giving my wrist a rest.

I installed the Logitech Control Center to see it it offered anything beyond USB Overdrive. It didn't. I thoroughly uninstalled everything Logitech. But when I went back to my USB Overdrive press drag and drop didn't work. Click and drag. I must have changed setting and forgotten what it was supposed to be. That's began to happen to my aging brain more often.

A related point: it's unnecessarily difficult to drag items to the dock. I drop an icon from my Applications folder to the dock and it springs right back. It works eventually but it takes several tries. So dumb.

Something else in the Finder. When I drag an icon to the desktop, the icon doesn't move. An alias is created. So dumb. Let me decide how to arrange my desktop, okay Apple?

I can't seem to get my Display prefs icon to the menu bar. There are other icons up there. Not this one.

My Users>Home>Applications folder is empty. Not sure, but I think it's because I have spotlight turned off. I see no reason to use spotlight when I can use Easy Find. Why waste the CPU indexing your files?

Apps, what we used to call programs, are downloaded from the App Store. Except for the installers. I don't get to keep the installers, right? I thought if I dug around I might find them. This Mac didn't come with an OS on disc.

I thought iChat was done. I never used it. So I tried to delete all the iChat items from my drive but the OS wouldn't let me, telling me the items were needed by the system. What for?

If you've read Kurt Lang's site, you might know that there are four fonts in El Cap that don't work unless you rename them. Font Book still doesn't get things done correctly. I had to move some fonts manually.

I see no reason to have Fonts in three folders, four if you have iWork. I have several fonts that begin with STIX.

I already commented on getting lost in full screen. Where are my "apps" ? Where are the windows I use using? I had to quit Firefox because I couldn't find the window.

I advise everyone to avoid full screen.

But only if people don’t read the small print before spending….and neither do you need an MBA (or a degree on CS) to figure that out.

Under ordinary circumstances, ~/Applications doesn't even exist until you create it...presumably because you want to populate it. If it was populated on your old iMac its contents should have migrated along with it.

How to download OS X El Capitan - Apple Support

I tried the link to the App store and when I tried to download El Cap I got the message "This version of OS 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer".

Do you get the feeling that the universe is out to get you?!

So much for technology doing our bidding. I too am ever so much closer to abandoning all tech, if only to create humongous gouts of time to deal with reading (all the materials saved up for retirement), great and not-so-great movies, sudoku in the intermissions. Banzai!

If you live long enough, you see quality going down, down, down...

My bad! The (unread, naturally ) small print has struck again, but in blatant and unashamed contravention of Apple's attempts to limit us to our recovery partitions I'd be happy to burn my archived copy of the El Cap installer to a double-layer DVD for you, and you can use it to create a bootable installer on a 16 GB flash drive and/or simply save it on your iMac.

Apropos of which, after many years of waging a valiant and pretty darn clever battle against product degradation, the makers of M & Ms have finally succumbed to the inevitable and made them practically inedible.

A 65 year staple of my diet irreplaceably down the tubes!

Please explain. I moved away from M&Ms when they (apparently) discontinued the almond variety with dark chocolate a few years back. What did Mars do now?

I started Ad astra: M&Ms to continue this discussion.

People all over the internet said that iMovie was free. They provided links.

Fewer people told the whole truth. It's free only if you have the latest OS. Those links don't lead to installers of old versions. They lead to updates to old versions. So, no, not really a great deal for everyone. According to Wikipedia, iMovie comes bundled with all new Macs and has been since the beginning. But I bought a used Mac, so it won't work for me. I suppose I can search ebay for an iLife disc.

As stated earlier, I was unable to download El Cap despite the fact that I'm running El Cap. I suppose I can search ebay for an El Cap disc, assuming they exist.

Apple has gotten quite good at forcing us to do things their way. Like the Kremlin in the 1930s.

That’s not entirely true or fair. The fact that you bought a used Mac without the original software is not Apple’s fault, although I suppose you could blame Apple for the way it distributes its free software with new Macs, not that it’ll do you much good. However, you can be proactive (and I’d argue you should be) by downloading installers for each major new OS version as it appears, because that will herald the fact that the previous one will soon be no longer available for download; (combo)updaters remain available longer and are less of a problem. Even so, I’d keep copies of the latest versions of those as well.

AFAICT, the Kremlin didn’t have similar workarounds during most of the last century…

I was trying to be humorous. I don't even want to analyze whether there are in fact similarities.

I've only upgraded the OS once since I've had this computer. Where was the installer? I don't know. When I download programs outside the App store, I always keep the installers. I have a folder here on my hard drive marked "Installers". When I download "apps" from the App store, where are the installers?

I can fault Apple for changing the way they do things when it makes life harder for the customer and when no explanation is given. I can fault Apple for selling products and services that don't work. If there were competition, criticisms would be easier to dismiss. As it is, with little to no competition, Silicon Valley has people by the throat, and I have no qualms telling it like it is, even if that means exaggerating to reveal an inconvenient truth. The fact that I use this forum so often should indicate that I'm interested in solutions, too, not simply judging and complaining. I'm over the hill, now, and I don't have to rely on newspapers to tell me how it is. I have enough experience to see things change for the worse.

Windows users knew this before we did: "Free" on Planet Computer usually means there are strings attached. You can find games on Steam that advertise as "free" but really aren't. Don't cry umbrage at me for disliking deception. Let's also refrain from assuming that these changes come about naturally like changes in the weather. Someone caused them. They had reasons. During my recent years of using Windows, I've learned to be wary of freeware because it comes with the equivalent of a homing device which lets the mothership know what's on your hard drive and how you spend your time. It's not like buying a car or a book where it becomes your property to do with as you please. You don't get the software. You get a license to use the software.

To quote an old song, you're running to stand still. It doesn't take an MBA or a CS degree to figure out the path to wealth that's been used. Devise a system in which to function at its peak you are required to have the latest thing. Next, charge people for getting the latest thing. Then release the latest thing frequently while obsoleting yesterday's thing.

I digress...

I booted into the recovery partition to reinstall the OS. I never tried that before. You are taken to the App store, which has to approve you. I entered my Apple ID and password. Then when I tried to install, I got the message "That item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later."

This is a long shot, but have you looked in your purchase tab in the App Store for iMovie?

I deleted it from my MBP, but the App Store knows I should have it and offers it to me, so perhaps you'll get lucky.

As for that El Cap d/l, it's apparently yours for the asking if you follow the link I posted while booted into OS X 10.6.8; it will look like you want to upgrade, and that should satisfy the App Store's d/l requirement. (I don't know if it's necessary, but I suggest that you first unmount any other bootable volumes so the App Store hasn't got access to info that might put the kibosh on the process.)

And finally, you can consider a Command-Option-R boot which will install the macOS that came with your Mac, or the version closest to it that is still available. (How to reinstall macOS - Apple Support)

Note: Apple never issued El Cap discs, but you'll probably find any number of bootleg installers on Ebay.

Right, no El Cap discs on ebay. I did read the Apple article. I did look under Purchased. No iMovie, but my purchased copy of Leopard is listed.

So there is a Mac OS under my Apple ID. Google will show you opinions about the "item not available" problem when trying to use the recovery partition. It has to do with a connection between your computer, your (purchased) OS, and your Apple ID.

I'll experiment.

I tried Command-R. There's no difference between that and holding down the option key to choose the recovery partition or any other partition. Both take me to the App store for "verification" and give me the "unavailable" message. Another failure.

More Google searching.

The boot key combo I posted is command-option-R

That took me to internet recovery. I was given the option to install High Sierra (or Sierra, I forget) which I don't want to do.

Huh? I don't get it!


I'm totally surprised that they didn't offer you an older OS; I certainly didn't expect Snowy, but I equally certainly expected El Cap at the least.

Are you sure you got that key combo right?

If you're really boxed out of Apple, though, you've still got three options (of which I'm aware) if you want that El Cap installer:

1. Visit the App Store from a 10.6.8 installation.
2. Take me up on my offer.
3. Make a connection on Ebay.

It's not urgent. I may not need it all.

In a post above I mistyped. It should read "Lion". At the App store, "Lion" is listed under "Purchased" because I wanted to try upgrading to Snow Leopard on my Core 2 Duo but it was too slow. So I have copy of Lion that I never used. I have Snow Leopard 10.6.3 on disc and all the installers for upgrading to 10.6.8.

When I migrated from my Core 2 Duo, I made a disk image of the user account that I started on this i7. I got the Mac, was eager to play with it, and had some problems with migrating, so I delayed it. Then when I migrated, I used the migrated account as my default account, and that's one I'm using now. I had some doubts later about what to bring from my old computer. I didn't want to create software conflicts. Migration Assistant is a nice program but it ought to have more options and filters for transferring files. I should have put more thought into that, though I haven't noticed any conflicts. I know there are OS files from the old computer that I don't need, such as kexts, and I can also look at the modification dates of the files. I assume the OS knows what to activate and what to deactivate.

I tried going to the App store from my old computer using 10.6.8. I got a message that my computer can't run El Cap., so no download.

That makes sense.

If you boot your old iMac into FireWire target disk mode, cable it up to your new iMac, and do an option boot so your new iMac is booted from it, i.e. Snowy, I think the App Store will give you the d/l, because your new iMac can run El Cap whereas your old one couldn't (I hope, anyhow. I don't remember which one it was.).

Thank you, Apple!

Can you clarify that?

Sure, but first, which exact model is you old iMac?

Sorry if this is overkill.

The link to the App Store in How to download OS X El Capitan is good only for Macs that are running either Snowy or Lion and support El Cap, and since your old iMac can't be upgraded past Lion, you were unable to d/l El Cap.

In order for you to get the El Cap d/l you've got to visit the App Store from your new, upgradeable iMac, but booted into either Snowy or Lion.

The easiest way for you to do that is to boot your old iMac running Snowy into FireWire target disk mode and cable it up to and option boot your new iMac from the Snowy volume (which will be identified as OS X 10.6.8).

I'm not sure if it's necessary, but after you've booted into Snowy I suggest that you go to /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility.app and UNmount all volumes with any OS other than Snowy installed so the App Store can't learn anything from them that might prevent your d/l.

Under those circumstances, if Apple is to be believed, you should be able to d/l the El Cap installer, because it will appear to the App Store that you're running an upgradeable Mac with a pertinent version of OS X installed.

Hope that helps.

(I suggest that you take a look at Mactracker if you haven't already done so. I find its presentation considerably easier to follow than that of EveryMac, although I can't say which of them, if either, has got more, less, or better content.)

That worked.

!!!

A cruel irony occurred while running 10.6.8 on my new Mac via Target mode. I didn't have the font jaggies that I had when running 10.6.8 on my Duo or when running 10.11 on my new Quad. Can't win, right?

I'm still tweaking fonts, looking for ways to improve the system font, considering buying one except that when you buy fonts you don't get the whole family. You have to buy each member individually. Regardless, I'm inclined to think that Apple fonts will work better on the Mac than any third party font. At the moment I set Tinker Tool to Avenir Light, a change from Helvetica Neue Light. I plan to continue experimenting. The trick is to find one thin enough to avoid the jaggies but thick enough to be readable.

I don't know anything about buying fonts. Maybe someone here could advise me on that. Or on free fonts, which I find usually to be crap.

Well, in that case, why don't you install Snowy 10.6.8 on your new iMac and be where you've wanted to be all along.

I don't know it it addresses your font issues or not but when I saw this OS X Daily article a few minutes ago I thought of you and thought I would pass it on to you.

Thanks. I'll experiment with it.