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: Oldest
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2015-09-14T07:46:39+00:00

    Sorry to disappoint, but the only way to avoid this horrible font rendering is to change the OS. Microsoft has been adamant since the Windows 8/8.1 release so I wouldn't expect any seconds thoughts after all this time. Unless I'm mistaken, the soon to be released Office 2016 deploys the same, stubborn decision so there you have it. Heavily text-based software with blurry, unreadable fonts.

    I can't f*****g believe that the Edge Browser and Modern Apps use greyscale antialiasing and not Cleartype anymore. But I see it with my own eyes on my brand new §2.000 fullHD 15" laptop.

    Please tell me that it is not true that the people responsible for font display at Microsoft are THAT f*****g moronic.

    PLEASE tell me that there is a fix, or a hack.

    PLEASE.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2015-09-14T08:52:16+00:00

    "Office 2016 "

    Sadly, Office 2013 has the same ugly fonts.

    Gray scale antialiasing does not works well on 22" or larger, but FullHD resolution screen.

    I have 23" FullHD at home, 27" FullHD at work.

    Some people recommend a 4K display, and set the scaling 150%. Why? Why sould I have to buy a new display, to reach the same text qualitiy, which way 10 years before?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2015-09-14T10:07:16+00:00

    I have simillar issue with windows 10 if i keep the default 100% scale the text, menus, and icons became very small and hard to read and when i scale to 125% i face the blurry issue.

    I need a solution i have reinstalled the latest nvidia display driver and it did not reslove the issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2015-09-14T10:22:03+00:00

    What you are describing is indeed a fairly serious Windows 10 DPI issue, but a different one from what this thread is about. To fix your problem, the best current solution is Windows 10 DPI Fix which will solve it. Make sure to read all info there.

    I have simillar issue with windows 10 if i keep the default 100% scale the text, menus, and icons became very small and hard to read and when i scale to 125% i face the blurry issue.

    I need a solution i have reinstalled the latest nvidia display driver and it did not reslove the issue.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2015-09-14T11:07:59+00:00

    You cannot do anything against it :(

    In Windows XP, Vista, 7, the fonts were rendered with Cleartype, which means, colored pixeld were used to smoothen the font edges. It took me some time to get used to it, but since Wista, I must say, it looks good.

    But, somewhere between IE8, and IE9, Microsoft decided to drop Cleartype, and they are using grayscale antialiasing, which isn't as good as cleartype.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments