How to get an aliased (retro-style) HTML text effect

Question

I am trying to achieve a jagged text effect with HTML and CSS text. I am aware of the webkit-font-smoothing and font-smooth properties, but even with those set to "none" and "never", the text is still smoother than I would like.

Are there other css properties, or other methods I can use to force the text to be more jagged / aliased? Only caveat is it needs to be actual HTML text, not images.

Answer 1

A lot of text-shadow can approximate such effect. The more you add the more you get the bad effect:

.box {
  font-size:180px;
  display:inline-block;
  font-weight:bold;
  text-shadow:
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px,
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px, 
    0 0 0px;
}

<div class="box">a b</div>
<div class="box" style="text-shadow:none;">a b</div>

Answer 2

You can remove all the transparency created by antialiasing with SVG filters:

.box {
  font-size:180px;
  display:inline-block;
  font-weight:bold;
  filter: url(#remove-alpha);
}
.small .box {
  font-size:20px;
  font-weight:normal;
}

<svg width="0" height="0" style="position:absolute;z-index:-1;">
  <defs>
    <filter id="remove-alpha" x="0" y="0" width="100%" height="100%">
      <feComponentTransfer>
        <feFuncA type="discrete" tableValues="0 1"></feFuncA>
      </feComponentTransfer>
    </filter>
  </defs>
</svg>
<div class="box">a b</div>
<div class="box" style="filter:none;">a b</div>
<div class="small">
  <div class="box">a b</div>
  <div class="box" style="filter:none;">a b</div>
<div>

But note that on high-res monitors this won't have much visible effects on big texts. You should rather go with a web-font that has been designed this way from the beginning.