[1.14.4] Shrinking GUI Font Size

[JayZX535]

Hey all,

 

I'm working on the lore book for my mod, but I felt like I couldn't get enough info on its pages with Minecraft's default font size.  I did some research and figured out that you have to change the GL scale to be able to change the font size.  I finally got this working, mostly, but... it's presented me with a new problem.  On my fairly large monitor with the window full size, the text looks fine...

but when I make the window smaller...

the scaling is very uneven and reduces legibility-- which is especially a big issue at such a small size.

The code I'm using to scale the text is called through the render method of my GUI (extends Screen, since it has no inventory):

GL11.glPushMatrix();
GL11.glScalef(fontScale, fontScale, fontScale);
this.font.drawSplitString(I18n.format(pageSegments.get(i)), (int) scaleUp(xOffset), (int) scaleUp(yPos), (int) scaleUp(textWidth), this.textColorDark);
GL11.glPopMatrix();

fontScale is at 0.8F.  I'm guessing the problem is occurring because I'm scaling down and therefore losing pixels.  But the font is a pixel one to begin with, so... in theory, shouldn't it be possible to start with it at a 1pixel scale and then scale it up?  I'm just not sure how to override Minecraft's default GUI sizing for this.  I still want it to be based off the GUI scale so that people can change the sizing as they wish, but I need to do my own calculation to get it at 0.8 the normal size instead of 1.0.  Unless I'm totally wrong about that guess, which is also totally possible.  In any case, I'm hoping someone here may have a solution...

 

Thanks, and have a great day!

[Draco18s]

1 hour ago, JayZX535 said:

fontScale is at 0.8F.  I'm guessing the problem is occurring because I'm scaling down and therefore losing pixels.  But the font is a pixel one to begin with, so... in theory, shouldn't it be possible to start with it at a 1pixel scale and then scale it up?  I'm just not sure how to override Minecraft's default GUI sizing for this.

Your scale isn't a whole number, so yes, you're going to lose pixels. That's what happens when there is no interpolation. There is simply no way to smoothly scale something that is 5 pixels wide down to 4 pixels wide and still have aliased results (i.e. a given pixels is either fully transparent or fully opaque) and not look weird.

 

 

The only value less than 1 that will produce "acceptable" results is 0.5 due to the fact that Minecraft uses a 2x2 pixel square "per pixel" of detail. But this will not scale to the small UI scale (as that removes the doubling effect present at the default scale).

Edited June 5, 2020 by Draco18s

[JayZX535]

16 hours ago, Draco18s said:

Your scale isn't a whole number, so yes, you're going to lose pixels. That's what happens when there is no interpolation. There is simply no way to smoothly scale something that is 5 pixels wide down to 4 pixels wide and still have aliased results (i.e. a given pixels is either fully transparent or fully opaque) and not look weird.

 

 

The only value less than 1 that will produce "acceptable" results is 0.5 due to the fact that Minecraft uses a 2x2 pixel square "per pixel" of detail.

Ahhh, that was about what I figured the problem was.  On the smallest sized window I've been looking at, one pixel does take up a 2x2.  On the largest one it's a 5x5.  I was hoping maybe I could snag the raw 1x1 pixel data before Minecraft scales it up to the size of the rest of the GUI because if I set it to 0.5 it was weird on the large size (trying to draw 2.5x2.5) and if I did 0.8 it was weird on the small size (trying to draw 1.6x1.6), and by getting the data before it scales up I could then calculate up rather than down and more easily ensure it would never be a fraction of a pixel, but... after poking around with it some more, that's seeming to be more trouble than I think it's worth.  I'd have to worry about so many possible pixel sizes, and even when I did try the 1x1 pixel for the small window it was too small to read well, not to mention potential issues with the GUI scale, so... I guess I'll be sticking with the larger font size for now.

 

Thank you for the answer!

Edited June 6, 2020 by JayZX535