[DiabloD3]

The reason fringing exists is because they're rendered as multi-colored fonts. As in, instead of 1 pixel for each pixel, its rendered in a 3x1 (or 1x3 for vert) 'greyscale', and then just striped across the subpixels, using the subpixels for their spacial locations.

With DirectWrite and Freetype, subpixel rendering isn't done for colored rendering. On OSX, due to lack of subpixel with Core Text, it also isn't done.

I suspect what you're really asking is "why does high color contrast look weird at the edges?" Because some monitors are "exceptionally clear and sharp", and people have been selecting monitors for this trait for over a decade.

On LCDs, "good" polarizers make it hard to make out individual subpixels (which also makes subpixel rendering kinda moot on them; you'll see the fringing but the text won't look any sharper than greyscale, and noticeably less sharper than aliased); instead of "clear and sharp" they're more "natural".

OLEDs and MicroLEDs do not have polarizers, and they're the sharpest monitors I've ever seen. However, good news (at least for me): I can see subpixels on a 1080p 24" during high color contrast (ie, fringing fonts), I _cannot_ see them on a 4k 24".

Even if I integer-scaled 1080p to 4k, I would be using an array that looks like...

R G B R G B

R G B R G B

.. to represent pixels. I can't see subpixels during situations like this. So, the only way to avoid the problem is just use HiDPI monitors. 32" 4k seems to be a very common size for Mac users; it causes it to do Retina scaling correctly, while also being about 150% the DPI of a 24" 1080p, or about 125% of the DPI of a 27" 1440p (the two most common sizes).

My recommendation also is: never use below 4k on OSX. OSX's handling of sub-4k monitors is broken, and usually leads to in-compositor scaling instead of letting apps natively render at LoDPI.

[c0nsumer]

...yet at 4K native on macOS (OS X) I could see fringing. And it was worse than using a slightly lower resolution, scaled up by the OS.

And it's particularly bad on solid color lines and high contrast borders (not fonts). So... that doesn't work for me. Which was the point of the post; I don't like how this particular subpixel pattern OLED monitor looks and it's not for me.

[DiabloD3]

Which applications? Are they ones using non-native text rendering?

Chrome, for example, do not use Core Text. Chrome (and all Electron apps) are habitual offenders for bad text rendering on all OSes, not just OSX.

[c0nsumer]

Numbers.app, Autodesk Fusion, Adobe Illustrator, and Terminal.app were the first places I noticed it. And in Fusion and Illustrator it's not text that's the issue but lines/graphics.

And high contrast edges in photos in Apple Photos looked wonky.

[DiabloD3]

Oof, at least two of those apps should not do that. I wonder how Fusion and Illustrator do lines, because last time I touched Illustrator (CS6 era), its line drawing was pretty good.

I'd like to see screenshots of these showing off the weirdness, if you don't mind.

[c0nsumer]

I would send them, but I've already returned the OLED to Costco. Sorry. :\

On the upside, I should have a shiny new U3225QE IPS LCD later this week.

(I just sidestepped the problem.)

EDIT: I should add that the screenshot in my post of a cell from a spreadsheet was Numbers.app.

[DiabloD3]

I did mean screenshot, not photo.

I wanted to see what it looked like on my 24" 1080p IPS monitors (two Dell U2414H IPS, and a rebranded LG FastIPS from Monoprice). I don't own a Mac, so I can't replicate it.