The font rendering in iBooks (version 1.0.1) on my Mac (Mavericks 10.9.1) is outright horrible. The text is jagged and rough looking. I've tried changing the font but that doesn't help, it still looks bad. Does anyone have a solution to this problem, or have I just gotten too used to the smooth look of iOS iBooks?
Edit: This is on an early 2008 Mac Pro, on a 22" screen with 1680×1050 resolution, and on a 24" screen with 1920×1200 resolution. Font or font size does not matter. I've only seen the problem in iBooks, not in any other app. Notes and other UI text is fine, it's just the actual text I want to read that's jagged.
As a comparison, my mid 2011 27" iMac shows the text beautifully.
Best Answer
It seems that there is are others that report a problem with font rendering in the iBooks app when using epub files under OS X Mavericks (10.9.x). As in your experience, the problem seems isolated to Macs that don't have a Retina Display, such as your Mac Pro.
The solution is fortunately a simple one: Go to
System Preferences > Generaland uncheck the box that says Use LCD font smoothing when available.
This should clear up the jagged text you've been experiencing in iBooks on your Mac Pro.
(Note: You may need to quit and restart iBooks and/or restart your Mac for these changes to take effect.)