Poor font rendering in Windows 8 (blurry text)

Correct, Cleartype was NOT the default in Windows XP.

If I recall correctly, it wasn't "unsmoothed" either, but - indeed - "standard font smoothing".

I am in Linux right now, so I don't see the settings dialogue of Windows XP.

But it is something like this:

Open the display properties dialogue, go to "effects" (if that is the right term), you will find a setting with a check mark; if you remove the check mark, unsmoothed rendering will be the result.

If you leave the check mark, the stock setting is "standard font smoothing" (or whatever it is called precisely), you may, however, change this to "Cleartype" - which is not the default in (at least) XP (don't know about Vista, 7 etc.).

I am aware (from hearing about it on the Internet and also in this thread, for sure) that there are users who like or want Cleartype.

Our eyes must be different, though, because I absolutely can't stand it (whatever settings in the tuner) - seeing coloured  subpixels is just unbearable to me. In Linux, it is even worse for me: I cannot stand subpixel rendering and I cannot stand grayscale there - so I am forced to use jaggy unsmoothed rendering.

Of course, one can use hardware based rendering in Firefox (for instance in Windows 7), but whether I use it with Cleartype or with standard font smoothing, any directwrite rendering is too blurry for me.

Partly, all this may be a matter of preference and taste, but for some it is more than that:

a matter of doing harm to one's eyes and health or not.

-egman-

Well, pictures posted in this forum are resized when they are too wide so unless you got the size right before posting them, people won't be able to see what you mean (max width is around 450 px if I remember right).

But, no, cleartype has never been enabled by default on Windows XP, Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 on my laptops.

Cleartype has always made my fonts look fuzzy without any doubt, not the other way around, and I have always had an usual laptop screen with a pixel density of around 100 PPI.

fyi.  ClearType setting was never a default (never enabled) in Windows XP.    Only from Windows 7

egman,

I'm really surprised, you say this:

"I never knew a single person who actually preferred Cleartype"

I cannot look at any windows screen, without this "ClearType" set.    Whenever, I visit any of my collegues' desks, I can instantaneously recognize, if they don't set "clearType".    Being application support person, first thing, I do is to set the ClearType.  Some people immediately say, it's better and sharp and some others would say, don't see any difference.   May be my eyes are different and I simply cannot live without ClearType.   I can can clearly see the breaks in the letters (digital dots spread apart) unless clearType is set.

I started getting confused here.

Isn't ClearType enabled by default in all versions of Windows? At least since XP and newer versions?

When searching for Cleartype in the Control Panel of every version of Windows, I remember the ClearType wizard launching with ClearType already enabled. When unclicking the default enabled option, fonts on the desktop become fuzzy instantly.

I bet 90% of Windows users have never heard of the term "Cleartype", which as I remember was default until Windows 8. So how can they hate it? Where was the option for gray-scale (or actually single-color) rendering in Windows XP, Vista, 7? Just by disabling Cleartype?

Also, Cleartype is used everywhere on Windows 8 desktop, except IE webpages! Everything else is Cleartype, even IE menus.

Look at the picture bellow. It is Windows 8.1 with and without Cleartype enabled. Download it and view it at 100% zoom (actual size). Do you really prefer the image where ClearType is disabled? Can you see colored pixels around fonts when Cleartype is enabled, unless you zoom 200-300%?

Even if single-color antialiasing is better for some reasons, it's not done the proper way in Windows 8.

If you're complaining about seeing colored pixels around words, most users are complaining here about seeing double width gray letters. For example, as I'm typing, the letter "I" is viewed as two gray vertical lines instead of one solid black one.