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
    2013-06-02T05:35:04+00:00

    I am interested in the fact that you did have clear images for the first 4 days.

    Most of us here have more of a problem with text, which for us has not been clear from day one in IE10 nor Office 2013 on Windows 8.

    I was able to get Firefox to render text clearly in Windows 8 by deselecting "use hardware acceleration" in the Firefox > Options > General > General tab > Browsing section.

    Is your screen now blurry in every application?

    If not, which applications are blurry?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T08:11:34+00:00

    @ Ulysees , hosch250

    I don't think Windows 8.1 will fix it. The automatic desktop scaling feature sounds useful but doesn't seem to be the solution to the issue.

    @ Jacob W. Klein

    I've read your post, I understand Microsoft's reasons. But...  (read the following)

    My post on May 6 2013:

    << I also just noticed something... When changing vertically the viewing angle of the monitor some fonts appear a lot better (depending on their color and background). For example, on my laptop (Dell) I see considerably improved fonts on IE10 or Office 2013 when looking at the screen from a high angle. The exact opposite applies for my desktop, where the fonts seem to get better when viewing the monitor from a lower angle.  >>

    • I still don't understand why Microsoft hasn't replied. This is the No1 unresolved issue in "me too" votes on this forum. Isn't this concerning them?
    • I think (based on my observation on the May 6 post) that grayscale antialiasing can be greatly improved and continue to be grayscale... Microsoft should just correct the tones of gray or black it uses in each pixel to make fonts appear better (adjust the contrast) OR give as an option to "tune" the grayscale antialiasing the same way we did with ClearType.
    • If grayscale antialiasing is better, why is there so much inconsistency in its use? (as you describe in your post)

    Question to all users: Do you see any improvement when changing your vertical viewing angle to the monitor? Aren't fonts appearing better when viewed by a lower or higher angle?

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T10:10:06+00:00

    All noted, thank you.  Even before the blur issue occurred I tried and tried to download an old version of Google, which I preferred to use on my old desktop, but all I kept getting was the desktop version of Google Chrome.  If you can help me with a link that will work I shall be very grateful to you.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T10:12:49+00:00

    Thank you, and I am very pleased that you picked up on the point I made about everything being great when I first set the computer up.  In respect of what you have asked me, I need to take closer note and will get back to you in due course.  It might, however, help you to know that the blurring was immediately apparent to me just from the icons on my desktop which look slightly smudged.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T15:48:50+00:00

    I think that the gray-scale antialiasing is inconsistent because they hadn't had time to redo everything before Windows 8 was released and didn't realize it would be such a problem.  If this is the case, that would quite probably be one of the 'under-the-hood' changes in Windows 8.1 that they mentioned as they would have continued to work on switching things over.  We can only hope.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments