I took my solution one step further. The macOS system fonts are located under /System/Library/Fonts, copying them over to Windows was no problem. I now have an interface that is that one step closer to looking like the Mac version. These macOS system fonts look surprisingly good without MacType, but really shine if you use MacType to render even more smoothly.
This solution only works if you own a Mac and a PC, while the freely available SF Pro OTF is a pretty good copy of the macOS system font and could be a nice upgrade for those who want a more readable UI.
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Iāve been trying to find a font which works well on MacOS, Windows (under Parallels) and Linux (under Wine).
The only ones I find so far which survive the transition between all three platforms (for Scrivener projects, at least) are Source Code Pro and Courier Prime.
Mac <-> Windows is relatively easy (as you say, just copy the fonts from ~/Library/Fonts (most fonts) or /Library/Fonts (Appleās own fonts ā SF Mono, SF Pro and New York) and install them in Windows and they work and look good.
Unfortunately, the same process doesnāt work in Wine on Linux ā they either look awful (New York) or they only display in one variant (SF Mono / Pro both only display their Black variant).
I can get Source Code Pro and Courier Prime to look relatively good (this is a 2014 ThinkPad T440, with a 1600x800 screen which wasnāt anything special back in 2014), by tweaking the thousand or so settings which affect font display in wine on Linux, but most other fonts arenāt recognised properly, or look dreadful. No doubt if I sacrificed the right sort cockerel at midnight under a blood moon, Iād get it working, but so far, it doesnāt.
Still, Courier Prime and Source Code Pro are acceptable enough that happily playing with settings to put off writing anything further investigation is probably unnecessary.
While I used to use Linux for work, I donāt use it at home, beyond using Windows Subsystem for Linux (such a backwards name for it).
There may be a project similar to MacType to aid in overriding how fonts are rendered under Linux, though I have put no research into this. Linux is unfortunately such a no manās land at the desktop, yet great on the server side. This is why I tend to be on my Mac most of the time, I need that quality fit and finish, the care into how things look AND operate.
If I come across anything that can help font rendering under Linux, I will send it your way @brookter!
That would be appreciated ā thank you!