Poor font rendering in Windows 8 (blurry text)

Jacob,

You don't understand the real issue here, which is: the customer is always right.

See http://gs.statcounter.com

A few years ago I was "all Microsoft" against Apple fan boys, etc. Now I stay with Windows *only because* I was able to turn ClearType off completely on my Windows 7 machines.

Guys,

Again, the issue is that Microsoft chose a certain way to do anti-aliasing, as previously explained in the quoted text below. After more digging...

I have determined a probable cause and a solution that Microsoft could implement to actually fix the problem! Keep reading...

Today I took some screenshots comparing the Microsoft.com webpage, in Firefox (which uses the old standard color sub-pixel antialiasing) versus Internet Explorer (which uses the new grayscale sub-pixel antialiasing), zoomed by using Magnifier at 600%.

The screen shots are available here:

http://sdrv.ms/1coYteJ

Look very closely at them -- Click "View Original" to look at them in the native 1920x1080 resolution.

I think what really "muddies" up the text is the fact that, with the new method, individual letters are no longer "consistent". Look at those screenshots closely. Look at all of the lower-case 'd' letters. Notice how, in Firefox, they are antialiased in a consistent manner (they all look the same, pixel for pixel). Notice how, in Internet Explorer, you have at least 3 different versions of how the 'd' was antialiased.

It's especially noticeable when two identical characters are next to each other, like the 'f' characters in the word "Office" and the 'p' characters in the 2 "support" words. This is just as evident in Modern UI apps - like when the Modern UI Store app says "App updates installed" with inconsistent 'p' and 'l' characters.

This inconsistent behavior (which I believe is fixable) is probably the big cause of the blurry/muddied text in Modern UI Apps, Internet Explorer, and Office 2013. The "old method" of antialiasing got it right, and was consistent for each character. The "new method" does not get it right, and is inconsistent.

I hope we can stay on topic here, in fixing the real issue, which is a font-rendering issue. And I think I've helped to further identify the cause - individual characters are antialiased inconsistently.

As far as the solution goes (Microsoft are you listening?):

• I know animated text needs to be supported (meaning that, as text is in motion or being resized/scaled, perhaps the exact pixel placements will be changing in order to make the motion or resize look great)
• I know you don't want moving text to flicker (a reason to stay away from color antialiasing)
• I know that you need the antialiasing to work regardless of device rotation (meaning that you need to use grayscale antialiasing instead of colored RGB antialiasing since the user may have rotated the device and RGB won't work anymore, since pixels are now "a row of Rs" and "a row of Gs" and "a row of Bs")

... but...

SOLUTION: Once the text stops being resized and stops moving, the "final placement" of the text needs to be precise and consistent, in order to look crisp and clear instead of muddy and blurry.

Regards,

Jacob Klein

Guys, this issue was completely identified, in my post on May 16, 2013, reprinted below.

So far as I know, it will not be fixed with 8.1.

If it bothers you a lot, I recommend:

• Not using Windows 8 Modern UI apps.
• Using a browser other than recent versions of Internet Explorer.
• Not using Microsoft Office 2013.

For me, it is a concern, but I don't often use the Windows 8 Modern UI apps, and never really use Internet Explorer since I use Firefox. But when I use Office 2013, I just have to "deal with it".

Regards,

Jacob

Did you guys not read my post within this thread, on April 27, 2013?

You should go back and read it, to understand what's going on.

Microsoft has moved:

• away from using COLOR sub-pixel-antialiasing
• toward now using "standard" (GREYSCALE) antialiasing

because the text needs to:

• look pretty in every shade of every color
• look pretty when rendered on top of any other color
• not flicker when moving in an animation
• look correct on rotated displays

The change is noticeable to most people, in the places Microsoft have applied the new behavior:

• Windows 8 Modern UI Start Screen and Apps
• Office 2013
• The latest versions of Internet Explorer (both Modern version and Desktop version)

I've been accustomed to the color sub-pixel-antialiasing for years now, and my eyes prefer it. So it's been difficult for me to deal with seeing text of all sizes in greyscale antialiasing.  For instance, open up the News app. If the text doesn't look right (maybe fuzzy, or just not smooth like normal), ask yourself why? Turn on Magnifier to 400% and see for yourself - it's greyscale antialiasing!

I also submit this image as proof:

http://img163.imageshack.us/img163/6264/browserfontantialiasing.png

I use Firefox, and it renders text in a way that I'm used to.

On the right, Internet Explorer looks strange and not as clear.

Start Magnifier, set to 400%, and look for yourself. The proof is in the antialiasing!

As of now, I have not heard any news about the possibility of making this a user-option.

It's likely never going to happen, and if we want to use Windows 8 or later, then we'll likely have to deal with this change.

Ironically enough, I tried to use the ClearType tuner to tell it I want all of my antialiasing to be greyscale, but I couldn't get that to work.

And if you want to really laugh at the inconsistency, open up Magnifier to 400%, and check this out:

• right-click a tray icon, like the volume icon, and notice... color antialiasing
• right-click a pinned taskbar icon, and look at the jump list... greyscale antialiasing
• right-click the far bottom left, so you get the power-user menu... color antialiasing
• Open Word 2013, and look at the template names... greyscale antialiasing
• In Word 2013, hover over a template to see the tooltip... color antialiasing
• In Word 2013, look at the suggested searches at the top... greyscale antialiasing
• In Word 2013, look at the text within that search box... color antialiasing
• Open Internet Explorer on the Desktop, and start typing a URL... color antialiasing
• In Internet Explorer, hit enter to go to that URL, and look at the URL again... greyscale antialiasing
• Even in Internet Explorer in the Modern UI, when typing the URL... color antialiasing

So, at least for me on my Desktop machine and LCD monitor, there's a TON of inconsistency.

BUT....

The content of the pages in IE, the content of the apps in the Modern UI, the content of the documents in Office 2013... have been moved toward greyscale antialiasing, and the user does not have any mechanism to choose color antialiasing. It is what it is, but at least you hopefully now KNOW why it looks/feels different.

If I'm wrong about any of this info, I apologize. But I'm trying to share the information, so that people will understand.

Regards,

Jacob Klein

Would be great if we had something like this for W8.

http://www.softwareninjas.ca/dwrite-dll-wrapper

Yep, and for W7 with IE10 too. Unfortunately it works only with IE8+9.

Would be great if we had something like this for W8.

http://www.softwareninjas.ca/dwrite-dll-wrapper

FIXED - My solution was to right click and go to the properties of individual affected apps and tick "disable scaling on higher resolution displays" or something similar. Hope this works for you guys as a temporary fix.