What makes some of the latex appear smoother than other?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the visual differences in LaTeX rendering between posts by two users, hellfire and Tipi, on a forum. Participants explore the reasons behind the perceived smoothness of hellfire's LaTeX compared to Tipi's, considering factors such as browser settings and rendering engines.

Discussion Character

  • Debate/contested
  • Technical explanation

Main Points Raised

  • Some participants note that hellfire's LaTeX appears smoother than Tipi's, but the reasons for this difference are unclear.
  • Tipi's equations are centered, while hellfire's are not, leading to questions about whether this affects perceived smoothness.
  • One participant suggests that hellfire's LaTeX may have anti-aliasing, which they have not observed in other posts.
  • Another participant speculates that the difference could be due to varying internal rendering settings, possibly related to ghostscript.
  • A participant mentions that the LaTeX generator used for hellfire's post was different and more resource-intensive than the current one, which could explain the visual differences.
  • There is a mention of a "schroedinbug," where initial perceptions of the LaTeX rendering changed after discussion, indicating subjective interpretations may vary.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the cause of the differences in LaTeX rendering. Multiple competing views and hypotheses are presented, and the discussion remains unresolved.

Contextual Notes

Limitations include the lack of clarity on the specific rendering settings used for each post and the subjective nature of visual perception in LaTeX rendering.

jostpuur
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Tipi centered his equations. hellfire did not. Other than that, I don't see any difference (Safari and Firefox).
 
I didn't pay attention to that. But that must be a different thing. Usually all latex appears like the Tipi's one (but on the left), and not as smooth as the hellfire's latex. Is hellfire doing something differently, or is that some special feature for only some members?
 
What do mean by "smooth", and what browser are you using? Other than the fact that one is centered and one is not I don't see any qualitative difference.
 
Sorry, I didn't understand. I'm using Firefox on Ubuntu linux, and I checked that with Opera I see the same thing. The hellfire's latex has some kind of anti-aliasing, that I haven't seen elsewhere.
 
jostpuur said:
I'm using Firefox on Ubuntu linux

Same here. Hellfire's appears "softer" and Tipi's more "ragged/jagged." Maybe a screenshot could help.
 
I don't think its a special feature for select members. The difference is minimal as far as I can see. As for why it is like that, I do not know. I think if anyone would know it would be chroot.
 
The older post has anti-aliased graphics.
My guess is that there was a difference in the internal rendering settings [for ghostscript, probably] at the time of each post.
 
Can we make it the default -- I think it looks rather nice...
 
  • #10
It's a schroedinbug! I swear the integral signs in hellfire's and Tipi' s posts appeared to be identical the first time I looked at this thread. Now that jostpuur saw a difference, everyone can (incuding me).
 
  • #11
hellfire's post is from 02-08-2005, when there was a different (and more resource-hungry) LaTeX generator used on this site. The engine currently in use is MimeTeX; I don't remember what the old one was called.

The same change happened to MathWorld a year or so ago, too.
 

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