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
    2013-06-01T17:30:53+00:00

    I can honestly say the thing that is preventing me from switching permanently to Windows 8 is this blurry font rendering. I keep trying to give the OS a chance, and no matter how many features I find that I like, whenever I boot back into Windows 7 the clarity of the text compared to 8 just stands out so much and I wind up going back to it. It's a disgrace that we are subject to a ridiculous problem like this in the year 2013.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. 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

  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-01T17:52:23+00:00

    There will be an automatic desktop scaling feature, which may fix this: http://www.windowsblue.com/2013/05/windows-8-1-may-bring-automatic-desktop-display-scaling/.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2013-06-01T21:13:11+00:00

    Thank you to everyone who replied to my post.  With luck then, all of us who are affected just need a little patience until 8.1 is released, and hopefully the problem will be fixed.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2013-06-01T22:39:54+00:00

    "Thank you to everyone who replied to my post.  With luck then, all of us who are affected just need a little patience until 8.1 is released, and hopefully the problem will be fixed. "

    ....

    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

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments