Poor font rendering in Windows 8 (blurry text)

Noticed that SP1 for Office 2013 has this note:-

"Improves compatibility with modern hardware, such as high-DPI devices and the precision touchpad"

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2817430/en-us

Wondering if any of the improvements will help with this issue- be interested to here of experiences as I'm still sticking with Windows 7!!!

Some progress reported here, affects IE as well!:-

http://www.connectingup.org/blog/microsoft-releases-service-pack-1-sp1-office-2013-sharepoint-2013-and-exchange-2013

Not only does the Service Pack roll the previous updates into one package, it also includes updates to improve compatability with **Windows 8.1**, Internet Explorer 11 and compatability with users using high DPI settings on their screens where toolbars and elements looked blurry (one of my personal bug bears)

I'm flabbergasted by the lack of any response by Microsoft and still running Windows 7 because of it!!!

I have a copy of Windows 8 Pro which I just can't risk using because it sounds like it will make Windows unusable because I need to use large fonts on my Dell U3014.

Are we ever likely to get a formal statement???

Tzon, this is an excellent observation!

Here is another set of tests that show this phenomenon. FYI, Word 2013 uses the grayscale antialiasing method (the one that cannot be turned off neither be tuned). Wordpad uses the ClearType antialiasing method (so here, depending on your settings, my tests might appear different on your wordpad, but not the png's I posted).

The text is a series of capital i's, in Calibri, in increments of 0.5 points until the right edges appear aligned in Word. The text is copied/pasted in wordpad. It is interesting how much the right edge is jagged in Wordpad and it is obvious that Word does a much better positioning..

Notice the change in the right edge alignment and the repeating (moiré?) patterns that are more visible in small point sizes.

Also, view the images at 100% scale and try to change the vertical viewing angle. On my monitor, the grayscale text, appears, less or more contrasty when the vertical angle changes, without color bleeding. Also, with grayscale, edge effects (whiter or darker edges) are more apparent when the vertical angle changes. The ClearType text periodically shows color effects (green/magenta bleeding) at increasing point sizes, which are inverted when viewed with the opposite vertical angle. At the optimal viewing angle (perpendicular to the center of the screen), the color bleeding is apparent when viewing the text at the top or bottom of my 18" Sony LCD screen. The non-ClearType text in Wordpad, shows no difference when changing the vertical angle. Although in this case, ClearType is turned off, some grayscale anti-aliasing appears in Wordpad, which I don't know where it comes from.

IMHO, the best rendering method is the grayscale method used in Word, but only if it can be tuned to the specific monitor/viewing angle used. Otherwise, ClearType has very good results, if you do not deviate much from the optimal vertical angle.

Word 2013 Grayscale with subpixel positioning on and optimized for readability (Options/Advanced/Display):

Word 2013 with subpixel positioning  on and optimized for readability:

Word with subpixel positioning off and optimized for layout:

Word with subpixel positioning off and optimized for readability:

Wordpad + ClearType:

Wordpad, with ClearType off:

and, btw, this is the subpixel layout of my monitor:

So, Microsoft engineers now understand that some people in the USA speak Spanish. Woohoo!

Guess they will eventually wake up and realise that 75% of their customers don't live in the USA and shock-horror, speak other languages. 

If that sort of parochial narrow-mindedness is the norm at Microsoft, then this font rendering problem will never get fixed.

I would like to add a second observation after creating this post -- the first was that blurriness  increases and decreases by viewing the monitor from a different angle, higher or lower.

Look at the image bellow (download and view at 100%). With the same single-color rendering, same letters appear better or worse at different parts of the monitor. See how the letter "h" and the Greek letter "τ" appear periodically well rendered when typed on a Facebook chat window. Why can't they appear correctly all the time?

This could give a hint to the software engineers on what's going wrong with this rendering method and finally give us an option to calibrate the rendering engine for our monitors.

Tzon:

This is a PERFECT demonstration of the RENDERING PROBLEM.

I hope MICROSOFT is listening!

Thanks,

Jacob