Poor font rendering in Windows 8 (blurry text)

Anonymous
2013-02-24T00:17:00+00:00

Apparently there is a huge problem with **** font rendering in Windows 8. Text appears very blurry. Programs affected by the new rendering are: Internet Explorer 10, the modern interface (start screen), Office 2013 and other 3rd party applications that rely on this rendering technology. There is no way to fix this problem, unless Microsoft recognizes it.

I 've gathered links bellow that refer to the same problem to highlight its importance and display the number of users that are affected:

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/windows-8-blurryfuzzy-text-and-icons-on-menu-not/ef8945ff-9920-47b2-b4ec-db1c5fbab7de

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10-windows_8/windows-8-fonts-in-metro-ui-and-ie-10-blurry/3c29c415-54fd-44c8-b290-1c01dd05beaf

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10-windows_8/font-are-blurry-in-internet-explorer-10-windows-8/95fba606-5f45-43fa-bd96-413f6d9d9ad6

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10-windows_8/after-upgrading-to-windows-8-pro-my-fonts-in/210e46c9-4d16-4de7-8b59-2a1b0a7c738a

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10-windows_8/internet-explorer-10-windows-8-font-rendering-blur/f3b33400-bb95-450c-9587-68adbf298a2f

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_cp-winapps/blurry-text-windows-8/576183c0-e5e2-4916-8283-0a193d633018

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-hardware/blurry-text-problem/d07ac513-de07-49d9-8718-7fbb6d07b634

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10-windows_8/windows-8-browsers-font-rendering-issue-blocky/86139808-9c3f-48d9-bfa8-61afebd5761c

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10_cp-windows_cp/windows-8-preview-release-blurry-font-rendering/668f454e-012f-498f-a086-b550a96d47e1

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/horrible-windows-8-font-rendering/cc263629-f4c8-4653-af36-435f4e6b7d38

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_other-desktop/will-windows-8-have-better-fonts-or-at-least/ad35ce7b-45a9-44b4-83d9-aae34df8dd97

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/fonts-are-suddenly-ugly-why/ba024dcc-c143-4ede-8f04-27930527c5be

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie10_cp-windows_cp/installation-of-windows-8-cp-causes-blurred-fonts/75352b20-cb08-4312-b7f3-6c38bb5f5f0a

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-desktop/monitor-fonts-windows-8-fuzzy-and-no-longer-crisp/052e7a57-79a7-49c5-93dc-bffb01969cbd

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/ie/forum/ie9-windows_vista/some-fonts-are-fuzzy-and-thicker-in-ie9-in/47f1846f-7817-464b-8121-d1ca02dbb71d

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/blurry-text-in-windows-8/ed053d17-b525-4e09-bdbc-de91114d975c

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_8-performance/windows-8-has-made-my-text-blurry/7e9977e0-335f-4e8b-b321-eb2d156f36c1

Microsoft MSDN/TECHNET

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/winappsuidesign/thread/4ddc57e1-de74-4044-940e-76e35a3e76b9

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-ZA/w8itprogeneral/thread/034ef255-40d5-41d5-9c58-841868326832

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/br/w8itprogeneral/thread/831ee84b-95a1-437a-b051-b7d51e13ba0f

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w8itprogeneral/thread/d9c1ce96-58aa-401f-a5f4-1c62660077ca

http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/W8ITProPreRel/thread/409d4e85-1124-4e1c-9cc0-3b2acfd519dd

External forums:

http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1120890-internet-explorer-10-fonts-fuzzy-in-windows-8/

http://www.eightforums.com/browsers-mail/5432-blurry-text-ie10-desktop.html

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f56/blurry-website-fonts-in-ie10-675564.html

http://www.techplex.net/postst78315_Text-in-Internet-Explorer-10-and-Metro-UI-is-blurry.aspx

http://superuser.com/questions/506192/disable-cleartype-blurry-fonts-in-internet-explorer-10-on-windows-7

http://bugsort.com/computer-users/computer-unclear-type-in-internet-explorer-on-windows-8/?PHPSESSID=10368ff87086c902a678043f63e39762

and there are lots of more...

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

0 comments

518 answers

Sort by: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Deleted

    This answer has been deleted due to a violation of our Code of Conduct. The answer was manually reported or identified through automated detection before action was taken. Please refer to our Code of Conduct for more information.

    Comments have been turned off. Learn more

  2. Anonymous
    2013-05-08T03:55:10+00:00

    Microsoft to reboot Windows 8 to address gripes

    http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/computers/microsoft-to-reboot-windows-8-to-address-gripes-20130508-2j6h7.html

    Perhaps there might be some movement on all the problems as mentioned in this post?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-05-06T16:15:50+00:00

    I also just noticed something... When changing vertically the viewing angle of the monitor some fonts appear a lot better (depending on their color and background). For example, on my laptop (Dell) I see considerably improved fonts on IE10 or Office 2013 when looking at the screen from a high angle. The exact opposite applies for my desktop, where the fonts seem to get better when viewing the monitor from a lower angle.

    Of course this is not a fix, just an observation! But maybe it means that this colorless rendering method could work if there was some sort of adjustment on the contrast of fonts.

    Look at the first reply on this forum http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/w8itprogeneral/thread/d9c1ce96-58aa-401f-a5f4-1c62660077ca

    You see an image comparing the classic RGB sub-pixel cleartype rendering method and the new one (grayscale) with all of its problems. I believe changing the contrast between the complete dark and the gray pixels (putting more or less black on the gray ones) could solve the problem or almost minimize it.

    Maybe I'm wrong and this would create again the "rotating screen" problem, which was the reason Microsoft moved to this new rendering method in the first place (since the classic cleartype was not functioning correctly with rotating screens). But... if the classic RGB cleartype is not working well on screens that rotate (tablets), how is Firefox or Chrome or even parts of Windows (IE10 menus , explorer, Control Panel) performing there?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2013-05-06T14:43:33+00:00

    I tried but I couldn't make it work.

    But, anyway, if I understand it right, it would mean we force IE to use the WebKit engine all the time which is what we can do by using any other browser based on WebKit instead of IE. And it also wouldn't change anything in Windows 8 outside of IE.

    Let's see what the guy who had found a solution for IE 9 will come up with...

    Agreed.  For the home computer user, you might as well install Chrome.  Sorry you couldn't get it work.  I'll try it myself and report back.

    The Chrome Frame strategy might be of benefit to an enterprise user that is forced to use IE, but the usefulness is very limited if they can't get CF to work all of the time.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2013-05-06T06:31:08+00:00

    I tried but I couldn't make it work.

    But, anyway, if I understand it right, it would mean we force IE to use the WebKit engine all the time which is what we can do by using any other browser based on WebKit instead of IE. And it also wouldn't change anything in Windows 8 outside of IE.

    Let's see what the guy who had found a solution for IE 9 will come up with...

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments