Poor font rendering in Windows 8 (blurry text)

While there *was* a switch to grayscale antialiasing, it is not the the fact that it is grayscale antialiasing now that is making people complain (something people have been using for decades without any serious issues for many years in former versions of Windows), it is rather like that:

Antialiasing is implemented differently now, and it is tied to hardware rendering (something many many people have been complaining about even in Windows 7), and hardware rendering, obviously, cannot be disabled any longer (in Internet Explorer etc.). The pixel grid is no longer respected (rendering across pixel boundaries).

I remember when Firefox started hardware based rendering lots of people were dissatified because of that blurry type rendering. It was not a question of Cleartype or not, but a question of directwrite or not.

As I said before, many here might regret the loss of Cleartype (of coloured subpixel rendering), but looking at this same thread I saw quite a few screenshots posted where people did not even use Cleartype! So consequently, many did not even use Cleartype in Windows before W8 (I always hated it) - even those who did not use Cleartype in Vista or 7 are now complaining!

Ergo:

The absence of Cleartype rendering now is not the real issue.

It is the loss of pixel grid rendering and the loss of options to tell Internet Explorer etc. to use the rendering I want (like in Windows 7 where I could still use good old grayscale smoothing).

Personally, I never knew a single person who actually preferred Cleartype to standard (grayscale) font smoothing on normal TFT screens.

-egman-

A bold and probably untrue statement. Maybe you didn't know they preferred it, but you undoubtedly came across one or two.

egman said "Personally, I never knew a single person who actually preferred Cleartype to standard (grayscale) font smoothing on normal TFT screens."

No, it is neither bold nor untrue.

Read what I said:

"I never knew a single person who actually preferred Cleartype"...

That I never knew such a person is correct. What others that I did not know preferred, is unknown to me, of course. But those that I asked about it did not like Cleartype or switched from Cleartype to standard font smoothing when I showed them the difference.

I never understood what was so great about Cleartype anyway:

My eyes are able to see the red, blue and green subpixels shimmer around the letters - always!

So this does not only look extremely ugly but it also causes severe eyestrain and headaches.

I am glad, Cleartype will disappear - but I am, like others in this very thread, not impressed about modern and future rendering across pixel boundaries (as an option: yes, but not as something forced upon us).

-egman-

/edit/

Yes, sure:

I may have met people who really liked (or preferred) Cleartype  - without knowing it.

Okay. I'm not trying to pick a fight. Just seemed pretty incredible, rather sweeping statement. If it's limited just to people with whom you are familiar, that's narrows it down a bit. Still rather a broad statement but to each her own clarion -- or his own.

I started getting confused here.

Isn't ClearType enabled by default in all versions of Windows? At least since XP and newer versions?

When searching for Cleartype in the Control Panel of every version of Windows, I remember the ClearType wizard launching with ClearType already enabled. When unclicking the default enabled option, fonts on the desktop become fuzzy instantly.

I bet 90% of Windows users have never heard of the term "Cleartype", which as I remember was default until Windows 8. So how can they hate it? Where was the option for gray-scale (or actually single-color) rendering in Windows XP, Vista, 7? Just by disabling Cleartype?

Also, Cleartype is used everywhere on Windows 8 desktop, except IE webpages! Everything else is Cleartype, even IE menus.

Look at the picture bellow. It is Windows 8.1 with and without Cleartype enabled. Download it and view it at 100% zoom (actual size). Do you really prefer the image where ClearType is disabled? Can you see colored pixels around fonts when Cleartype is enabled, unless you zoom 200-300%?

Even if single-color antialiasing is better for some reasons, it's not done the proper way in Windows 8.

If you're complaining about seeing colored pixels around words, most users are complaining here about seeing double width gray letters. For example, as I'm typing, the letter "I" is viewed as two gray vertical lines instead of one solid black one.