[MC-2488] The Unicode font is hard to read from a bit of distance Created: 08/Nov/12  Updated: 27/Oct/24

Status: Reopened
Project: Minecraft: Java Edition
Component/s: None
Affects Version/s: Minecraft 1.4.2, Minecraft 1.5.1, Minecraft 1.5.2, Minecraft 1.6, Minecraft 1.6.1, Minecraft 1.6.2, Minecraft 1.6.4, Minecraft 1.7.1, Minecraft 1.7.2, Minecraft 13w47e, Minecraft 13w48a, Minecraft 13w48b, Minecraft 1.7.10, Minecraft 14w28b, Minecraft 1.8.9, Minecraft 16w05b, Minecraft 16w06a, Minecraft 16w07a, Minecraft 16w07b, Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 1, Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 2, Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 3, Minecraft 1.9 Pre-Release 4, Minecraft 1.9, Minecraft 1.9.1 Pre-Release 1, Minecraft 1.9.1 Pre-Release 2, Minecraft 1.9.1, Minecraft 1.9.2, Minecraft 16w14a, Minecraft 16w15a, Minecraft 16w15b, Minecraft 1.9.3 Pre-Release 1, Minecraft 1.9.3 Pre-Release 3, Minecraft 1.9.4, Minecraft 16w20a, Minecraft 1.10 Pre-Release 2, Minecraft 1.10, Minecraft 1.10.1, Minecraft 1.10.2, Minecraft 16w32a, Minecraft 16w32b, Minecraft 16w33a, Minecraft 16w35a, Minecraft 1.11.2, Minecraft 17w06a, Minecraft 1.12, Minecraft 1.12.1 Pre-Release 1, Minecraft 1.12.1, Minecraft 1.12.2, Minecraft 17w43a, Minecraft 17w43b, Minecraft 18w19b, Minecraft 1.13.1, 1.15.1, 1.16 Pre-release 2, 1.16 Pre-release 7, 1.16.2 Pre-release 1, 1.16.2, 1.16.3 Release Candidate 1, 1.16.3, 1.16.4 Pre-release 2, 1.16.4, 20w46a, 20w49a, 21w05b, 21w07a, 1.17.1, 21w39a, 21w40a, 21w42a, 1.18 Pre-release 1, 1.18, 1.18.1 Pre-release 1, 1.18.1, 1.18.2, 22w18a, 1.19 Pre-release 3, 1.19.3, 1.20.2, 23w45a, 23w46a, 1.20.3 Pre-Release 1, 1.20.3 Pre-Release 2, 1.20.3, 1.20.4 Release Candidate 1, 1.20.4, 1.20.5, 1.20.6, 1.21, 1.21.3
Fix Version/s: Minecraft 1.7.3

Type: Bug
Reporter: [Mod] turbo Assignee: Unassigned
Resolution: Unresolved Votes: 88
Labels: distance, font, sign, unicode, unreadable

Attachments: PNG File 2016-02-17_20.39.26.png     PNG File 2016-02-17_20.39.32.png     Zip Archive DF4E.zip     GIF File MC-2488 GUI 1 and 2.gif     PNG File chinesefont-ascii.png     PNG File chinesefont-unicode.png     PNG File chinesefont.png     PNG File debug_pie_example.png     PNG File frenchfont.PNG     PNG File minecraft-menu-font.png     PNG File unicode_page_04.png     PNG File vote-for-translation.png    
Issue Links:
Duplicate
is duplicated by MC-9968 Some languages have thinner fonts tha... Resolved
is duplicated by MC-15512 Gui Scale: Small is very small in Tu... Resolved
is duplicated by MC-19351 GUIs illegible with "Small" size sett... Resolved
is duplicated by MC-19723 Font becomes distorted when using a c... Resolved
is duplicated by MC-28004 Danish text uses the very pixelated t... Resolved
is duplicated by MC-28014 Text messes up after playing 1.2.5 Resolved
is duplicated by MC-29164 Font glitch Resolved
is duplicated by MC-56651 size of button Resolved
is duplicated by MC-60535 Grapic size Resolved
is duplicated by MC-61863 Russian Language Resolved
is duplicated by MC-61904 Change already size Russian font Resolved
is duplicated by MC-63898 GUI and unicode font Resolved
is duplicated by MC-65261 Problem in the Arabic language Resolved
is duplicated by MC-91478 Font of the Russian language Resolved
is duplicated by MC-99474 The Unicode font is hard to read from... Resolved
is duplicated by MC-121440 The arabic language Resolved
is duplicated by MC-129106 Pie chart is unreadable with "force u... Resolved
is duplicated by MC-133021 Bad font Resolved
is duplicated by MC-152955 Signs are hard to read from a distance Resolved
is duplicated by MC-208218 Chinese & Japanese Character Renderin... Resolved
Relates
relates to MCPE-15191 The Unicode font is hard to read from... Reopened
relates to MC-101117 Some supported languages doesn't have... Resolved
relates to MC-133435 GUI scale sizes 1 and 3 display as 2 ... Open
relates to MC-8197 Profiler of the debug screen too small Resolved
relates to MC-10500 Unicode defined font in texture pack ... Resolved
relates to MC-11129 Unicode font text shadow in fullscree... Resolved
relates to MC-76356 Bold unicode characters appear doubled Resolved
relates to MC-94397 Debug pie chart doesn't scale with GU... Resolved
relates to MC-132579 Inconsistent font Resolved
relates to MC-149457 Updating "Force Unicode" setting rese... Resolved
relates to MC-122 Unicode font text shadow misaligned Resolved
CHK:
Confirmation Status: Confirmed
Category:
Accessibility, UI
Mojang Priority: Normal
Area: Platform

 Description   

The bug

The Unicode font is very thin and unreadable.
Examples:

  • Gui scale small.
  • Signs from 2-3 blocks distance.
  • Scaling chat lower then 60 % (gui scale normal).

The Default Font for Everything, v0.0 for Minecraft 1.8.4 (DF4E.zip) by kapos fixes this issue.

Poll by fromgate about translation:
21% did not use Russian translation because they don't like "unicode" font.

Original blog post.



 Comments   
Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 07/Nov/23 ]

Old versions are no longer supported, testing in those is of no use. Especially since later versions are already marked as affected.
The only old version of use to a bug report is the first version an issue appeared in.

Comment by ismeavirus [ 07/Nov/23 ]

Can confirm in 1.18.2.

Comment by Brain81505 [ 01/Feb/23 ]

Can confirm in 23w06a and 1.19.3

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 04/May/22 ]

Can confirm in 22w18a.

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 01/Mar/22 ]

Can confirm in 1.18.2.

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 18/Dec/21 ]

Can confirm in 1.18.1.

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 03/Dec/21 ]

Can confirm in 1.18 and 1.18.1 Pre-release 1.

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 11/Nov/21 ]

Can confirm in 1.18 Pre-release 1.

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 20/Oct/21 ]

Can confirm in 21w42a.

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 11/Oct/21 ]

Can confirm in 21w40a.

Relates to MC-193663.

Comment by Solo Alguien [ 04/Oct/21 ]

Can confirm in 21w39a.

Comment by full name [ 05/Sep/21 ]

Can confirm in 1.17.1. Also some characters appear as "□" with the unicode font.

Comment by Baron Samedi [ 12/Aug/21 ]

Problem is explained in sufficient deail there, so I'll simply delete the above.  Thank you.

Comment by Fabian Röling [ 11/Aug/21 ]

1.17.30.20 is not a version that ever existed for Minecraft Java edition. If you're talking about Minecraft Bedrock edition, then you should go here instead: MCPE-15191

Comment by [Mod] Avoma [ 18/Feb/21 ]

Can confirm in 21w07a.

Comment by [Mod] Avoma [ 05/Feb/21 ]

Can confirm in 21w05b.

Comment by Conem [ 17/Jun/20 ]

Confirmed in 1.16-pre7.

Comment by Conem [ 12/Jun/20 ]

Confirmed in 1.16-pre5.

Comment by Conem [ 12/Jun/20 ]

Confirmed in 1.16-pre4.

Comment by Conem [ 07/Jun/20 ]

Confirmed for 1.16 Pre-release 2.

Comment by Hayden [ 12/May/19 ]

This is still an issue, mostly prevalent with the pie menu.

1440p, GUI scale 1, Unicode font ON

Comment by Kraif [ 28/Aug/18 ]

Confirmed for 1.13.1.

I'm not sure if I should ask to be the reporter of this issue as it's PostPoned, I'll update it accordingly.

Comment by HalfOfAKebab [ 06/Jul/18 ]

@FVbico: Some languages were ridden of the unicode font, but lots of others still have it (e.g. Arabic and similar-looking languages).

Comment by Yui [ 05/Jul/18 ]

I think unicode-font is better in Chinese.

ascii:

unicode:

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 04/Jul/18 ]

Don’t some languages still enforce unicode, or was it removed altogether?

Comment by [Mod] bemoty [ 04/Jul/18 ]

The "force unicode font" button has been removed from the language menu so there isn't really a way for me to reproduce this anymore.

Comment by [Mod] Michael Wobst [ 04/Jul/18 ]

Can someone else confirm that this is fixed in 1.13-pre6?

Comment by Astra3 [ 04/Jul/18 ]

This issue has been resolved today in 1.13-pre6.

So I'd say despite some issues, this can be flagged as resolved.

Comment by fromgate [ 18/Nov/16 ]

Now you can try to use alternative resource pack.
This one is based on Kapo's mod and works fine without modding:
https://minecraft.curseforge.com/projects/minecraft-font-pc

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 17/Sep/16 ]

Not needed. A fix won't be attempted for now anyway.
It's not disallowed either.

Comment by Fabian Röling [ 17/Sep/16 ]

Should I still confirm it for every snapshot, for every major release or not at all?

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 16/Sep/16 ]

Set to postponed, as it won't be fixed soon.

Comment by Vyacheslav Makhonin [ 23/Jun/16 ]

Confirmed for 1.10.1.

Comment by Fabian Röling [ 08/Jun/16 ]

Confirmed for 1.10.


I just tried some resize algorymths in paint.net (http://www.getpaint.net).
"Next neighbor" produces a similar result to what happens with Unicode in Minecraft.
"Bicubic" and "bilinear" give a really good result with grey scales.
"Best quality" probably chooses between the three.
If it's possible without affecting performance much, an algorythm might be considered that keeps the important points of letters always connected. Meaning that instead of having a picture of the letter, there are certain points saved that have to be connected either by a line or a quarter circle. A bit like a vector graphic. That would of course remove the functionality of custom fonts through texture packs, except if they use vector graphics. Would have to be discussed if the bug fix is worth that.
I've also seen a report once about an algorythm of scaling up/down letters in black/white, but I don't remember where. But I don't think it was for small scales, more for small details in big fonts.
I don't know if it's helpful in any way, but I'll just leave this here: http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html

Comment by Pyotr Shelkin [ 20/Apr/16 ]

Thanks. Is the new name ok? Or you insist on your title?

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 20/Apr/16 ]

Like I said before, it's the font in general that doesn't function properly, and any user, english or not, can enable and disable the font at will. that it doesn't match the rest of the game's text stile is because it's a different text style, there's a difference between the default font and unicode font, that a number of characters aren't supported in default font is a separate issue, but when selecting a language that has such characters, unicode font gets enabled automatically, and turning it off is your choice.

The issue in this ticket is that it makes part of the game unreadable when enabled:

  • Gui scale small.
  • Signs from 2-3 blocks distance.
  • Scaling chat lower then 60 % (gui scale normal).

I'll reopen MC-101117, if you change the report to "some characters have unicode variant, but not default font".

Comment by Pyotr Shelkin [ 20/Apr/16 ]

Main issue isn't about "oh, I can't see it from large distance". It's about style compatibility of different languages. Unicode wasn't meant to fit Minecraft font style. This ruins game esthetics for non-English players. And the sad thing that they can't report it for obvious reasons: most of the players affected by this issue don't speak Enlgish and surely don't know about this bug tracker.

This is why this issue should have higher priority despite amount of votes.

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 20/Apr/16 ]

The font is a toggle-able option, and every language can have it enabled, for example I like the font a lot, and I just have minecraft on english, but it's just unreadable at smaller scale, so how is the title misleading? As for the bold, I saw a report about that before, but can't seem to find it anymore.
Edit: found it: MC-76356.

Comment by Pyotr Shelkin [ 20/Apr/16 ]

This issue title is misleading: it doesn't cover how much it affects non-English speaking players. Info about bold (§l) is also missing.

Comment by fromgate [ 12/Apr/16 ]

I made a poll in my blog about translation.

And 21% did not use Russian translation because they don't like "unicode" font

Original blog post is here: http://minecraftmain.ru/2016/04/kazhdyj-25-j-igrok-v-majnkraft-1-9-x-govorit-po-russki/

P.S. Image with poll result uploaded too

Comment by Samuel Lembas [ 11/Apr/16 ]

Comon! It must be fixed, I can't switch to my native language because it's unreadable.

Comment by Icarus with Parachute [ 07/Mar/16 ]

If I may suggest a community fix (for 1.8.X)?

Comment by fromgate [ 26/Feb/16 ]

@FVbico
I wrote in my blog about your hard work with updating this ticket
I hope it will add few votes

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 24/Feb/16 ]

Votes

Comment by vSkyD1 [ 24/Feb/16 ]

FVbico, then what should happen to the developers tried to make the fix once again?

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 24/Feb/16 ]

As you may notice, a fix was already attempted in 1.7.3, and grum is assigned.

Comment by vSkyD1 [ 24/Feb/16 ]

FVbico, It's all what I can.
The more activity the more likely that developers will notice.

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 24/Feb/16 ]

vSkyD1 easy, complaining, or telling somebody what to do/how to do something, never helps

Comment by Samuel Lembas [ 18/Feb/16 ]

Yes, it's the main problem I suffer from for couple of years.

Comment by [Mod] redstonehelper [ 17/Feb/16 ]

Not greedy at all, everybody reasonably active should request to adopt inactive tickets if they find themselves doing a lot of upkeep for them anyway.

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 17/Feb/16 ]

not wanting to sound greedy, but may I be changed to reported to keeps the affected versions up to date?

Comment by fromgate [ 17/Feb/16 ]

1.9 pre-release 1 release and this ticket was ignored
Again

Comment by user-f2760 (Inactive) [ 16/Feb/16 ]

signs are not readable with unicode font on from a distance further then 2 blocks from the head in 16w07b

Comment by Jumpin Carrot [ 11/Nov/15 ]

It would be great if custom bitmap fonts where allowed via resource packs. But it's not quite possible because of the MC-23952 and MC-27912

Comment by fromgate [ 11/Nov/15 ]

Jumping Carrot, because there's a 68 languages included into Minecraft and there is no chance that developers will paint bitmap for every language.
Changing the default unicode font or allowing players to configure it is a really verisimilar solution.

Comment by Jumpin Carrot [ 07/Nov/15 ]

Why not just make a good looking bitmap fonts for every language?

Comment by fromgate [ 07/Nov/15 ]

I think good idea is to add support for Google fonts, https://www.google.com/fonts
Use one of this fonts as default. And additionally add option to allow select another fonts from Google Font collections

Comment by fromgate [ 07/Nov/15 ]

Jumpin Carrot you added a bitmap font. But we need a good looking unicode font, that supports all languages, emojis and other special symbols.

Comment by Jumpin Carrot [ 07/Nov/15 ]

Normal cyrillic font

Comment by Kumasasa [ 27/Oct/15 ]

Reopened.

Comment by fromgate [ 14/Oct/15 ]

15w41b - unicode font is still very thin and looks ugly.
Minecraft: Story mode uses same font but it's bold version - and it looks much better.

Comment by Jumpin Carrot [ 04/May/15 ]

Maybe, it's not a bug,
but why not just fix that?

Comment by Sealbudsman [ 30/Jul/14 ]

For what version was this resolved fixed?

Comment by ShadedPL [ 29/Nov/13 ]

I agree! The unicode font really needs getting bigger, it should look like the good old english font but it doesn't

Comment by Itouch2 [ 26/Nov/13 ]

Yes, this problem also affects the latest versions!

Comment by Talven81 [ 26/Nov/13 ]

Is this still a concern in the current Minecraft version 1.7.2 / Launcher version 1.3.4 ? If so, please update the affected versions in order to best aid Mojang ensuring bugs are still valid in the latest releases/pre-releases.

Comment by Itouch2 [ 27/Jul/13 ]

Yes I have this feeling but it's very important ...

Comment by Jumpin Carrot [ 26/Jul/13 ]

Nobody cares :'(

Comment by [Mod] Ezekiel (ezfe) [ 10/Jul/13 ]

Is this still a concern in the current Minecraft version? If so, please update the affected versions in order to best aid Mojang ensuring bugs are still valid in the latest releases/pre-releases.

Comment by Kumasasa [ 29/Jun/13 ]

Reopened, since the font renders parts of the game quite unreadable.

Comment by fromgate [ 15/May/13 ]

I'm going to agree with this complain. This font is really ugly. Russian players prefers to patch (or mod) Minecraft to return back original font.

This font is not noticeable at signs. If you use a colors at sign it's 99% that players with this font will no be able to read this text.
Dimensions of chat, books and signs are bounded to normal font size, so with this UTF-font interface looks really ugly.

I understand that "it's not a bug, but feature". But it's bad feature, may be badder than some bugs.

And I think it's a good idea to change font (font size) or allow players to choose TTF font manually.

Comment by Itouch2 [ 08/Nov/12 ]

agree but most people complain about it; and it is possible, by performing some manipulations, back to the original font

Comment by Anon Ymus [ 08/Nov/12 ]

There are many fonts like this. Bug literally means incorrect functionality. This is an annoyance.

Comment by Itouch2 [ 08/Nov/12 ]

If I disable Unicode, the French font still works. So why not do otherwise? ^^

Comment by [Mojang] Grum (Erik Broes) [ 08/Nov/12 ]

You turned on unicode because you picked french.

Comment by Itouch2 [ 08/Nov/12 ]

But why enable Unicode?

Accents work anyway, no?

Comment by Itouch2 [ 08/Nov/12 ]

Why do some mods can return to the original font?

Comment by Cloudy (Aaron Mills) [ 08/Nov/12 ]

I'm guessing it is because it is using the unicode font. However, this place is only for bug reports - sorry!

Comment by Itouch2 [ 08/Nov/12 ]

Why is it like that?

Comment by Cloudy (Aaron Mills) [ 08/Nov/12 ]

The font being "ugly" is not a bug.

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