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

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  1. Anonymous
    2013-12-12T17:49:21+00:00

    Newer versions of Visual Studio have trouble with IE 8.

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-12T17:56:53+00:00

    Newer versions of Visual Studio have trouble with IE 8.

    Isn't (a developer's) life funny...

    PS: no offense, just grinning how many version-interop-permutation-possibilities sum up and make our jobs harder, but keep the brain up and running while looking for solutions ;-)

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-12-17T16:55:12+00:00

    Also having font rendering problem on Windows 8.1, I found MacType as a Google Code Project : https://code.google.com/p/mactype/

    And I'm really satisfied of the rendering after installation.

    I don't have any screenshot, and I know it's not a long term solution but I really recommend this little software.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-12-30T02:11:44+00:00

    That's not a solution but a tedious workaround to a problem that exists solely because MS switched Windows to grey-scale anti-aliasing. Much easier to just use nonwindows progs.

    Much confusion in this thread...

    The problem does *not* arise from switching to grayscale anti-aliasing, but from switching to hardware rendering (directwrite) and from not giving us an option to disable it.

    In fact, I love grayscale font smoothing, always liked it.

    And I don't remember people complaing about blurry fonts in the olden times when there was just the choice between a) "unsmoothed" font rendering and b) the socalled "standard font smoothing" (=grayscale).

    We had these options (if I recall correctly) since Windows 95 (with plus pack), and of course in Windows 2000 and XP. And fortunately, this traditional way of font smoothing can still be used instead of headache-inducing Cleartype until today in Windows 7 and 8.

    Nothing beats crispness in grayscale smoothing in all kinds of Windows (as compared to Linux which only comes close but not enough for me to enjoy reading long texts - all fontconfig settings tried, nothing helps to get the same degree of sharpness). Standard font smoothing (grayscale) is still the best for my eyes, while Cleartype is completely useless (for me) giving me hurting eyes and headaches.

    I understand that some (many?) people in this very long thread miss RGB font rendering (coloured Cleartype subpixel rendering). That's okay, if you like it that way.

    Nevertheless, I still claim that this is not the root of the Windows 8 font rendering issue.

    As I said, it is the switch to hardware rendering and the lack of an option to disable it or to even use coloured rendering.

    If there were such an option, people would be free to use any of those 3 (or 4) options:

    • unsmoothed
    • grayscale
    • Cleartype
    • directwrite

    What is so hard to offer these various options?

    -egman-

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-12-30T10:14:37+00:00

    That's not a solution but a tedious workaround to a problem that exists solely because MS switched Windows to grey-scale anti-aliasing. Much easier to just use nonwindows progs.

    Much confusion in this thread...

    The problem does *not* arise from switching to grayscale anti-aliasing, but from switching to hardware rendering (directwrite) and from not giving us an option to disable it.

    In fact, I love grayscale font smoothing, always liked it.

    And I don't remember people complaing about blurry fonts in the olden times when there was just the choice between a) "unsmoothed" font rendering and b) the socalled "standard font smoothing" (=grayscale).

    We had these options (if I recall correctly) since Windows 95 (with plus pack), and of course in Windows 2000 and XP. And fortunately, this traditional way of font smoothing can still be used instead of headache-inducing Cleartype until today in Windows 7 and 8.

    Nothing beats crispness in grayscale smoothing in all kinds of Windows (as compared to Linux which only comes close but not enough for me to enjoy reading long texts - all fontconfig settings tried, nothing helps to get the same degree of sharpness). Standard font smoothing (grayscale) is still the best for my eyes, while Cleartype is completely useless (for me) giving me hurting eyes and headaches.

    I understand that some (many?) people in this very long thread miss RGB font rendering (coloured Cleartype subpixel rendering). That's okay, if you like it that way.

    Nevertheless, I still claim that this is not the root of the Windows 8 font rendering issue.

    As I said, it is the switch to hardware rendering and the lack of an option to disable it or to even use coloured rendering.

    If there were such an option, people would be free to use any of those 3 (or 4) options:

    • unsmoothed
    • grayscale
    • Cleartype
    • directwrite

    What is so hard to offer these various options?

    -egman-

    No, you're wrong, the problem DOES arise from switching to grayscale antialiasing and not due to hardware rendering.. It's the coloured antialiasing that made the font (in IE for instance) much more readable.. Hardware rendering already been part of font rendering in windows for some time, but only with Windows 8 they switched from 'coloured' antialiasing to grayscale..

    The simple point is: Font rendering (for IE-based rendering) is fubar in Windows 8 compared to Windows 7 and earlier, no matter what the real reason is.. The problem has already been acknowledged by the developmentteam with a message that it will not be changed (at least at the time of the answer, but then again, they are comming back on a lot of poor decissions made in Windows 8)..

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