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Chat text blurs while scrolling, then sharpens when scroll stops #1315
Description
Description
While scrolling a chat, interface text (especially Chinese) looks faint and blurry. The moment scrolling stops, the same text snaps back to crisp. This is not a permanent DPI blur.
Steps to reproduce
- Open a chat with Chinese body text on Linux (X11), 1920×1080 at 100% scale.
- Scroll the transcript with the mouse wheel or trackpad.
- Stop scrolling and look at the same glyphs.
Expected behavior
Glyphs stay as sharp while scrolling as they are when idle.
Actual behavior
During scroll, strokes look gray and soft, as if they are being scaled on a composited layer. After scroll ends they re-rasterize and look sharp again.
The installed web bundle sets this on body:
-webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased-moz-osx-font-smoothing: grayscale
Interface font is Geist Variable, with a non-integer UI weight (button weight computes to 470). Grayscale antialiasing plus a fractional device/layer transform during scroll is a likely cause. There is no setting to turn antialiased off.
Related but different: #440 (static DPI blur on Windows) and #1059 (CJK weight rounding on macOS).
Environment
- OS: Deepin 25 (Linux 6.18), X11, eDP 1920×1080 @ 60Hz, 100% scale
- ThinkRail: 0.3.2 stable, hash 3d3xuqvzex269, desktop app
ai.thinkrail.app - Node: v24.18.0
- Bun: not used (installed desktop build)
Activity
danyaberezun commentedon Nov 12, 2026
Could you check whether this still happens on the current release, v0.4.0, and also try starting the desktop app from a terminal with
WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1set? On Linux the desktop app renders through WebKitGTK, and blur that shows only while scrolling more likely comes from its compositing than from our CSS (-webkit-font-smoothingonly takes effect on macOS). If it's still reproducible, please tell us whether that variable changes anything and whether the same chat scrolls crisply in a regular browser via thethinkrailCLI; otherwise we'll close this.a-drop-of-tears commentedon Nov 13, 2026
WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 fixes it on v0.4.0.
OS: Deepin 25 (Crimson), X11
Client: ThinkRail desktop app 0.4.0 (stable, hash 25klkb0x7q6br), WebKitGTK
Without the variable, text blurs while scrolling. With it set and the app fully restarted, scrolling is sharp.
I set it on the desktop launcher (Exec=env WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 …/launcher) and confirmed the new process has the variable. I have not tried the same chat in a regular browser via the thinkrail CLI. danyaberezun