Poor font rendering in Windows 8 (blurry text)

I guess that, yes, we have different eyesights.

I worked a few years all day long with an IBM AS/400 system running in Windows and if this system had used forced Cleartype, I would have searched for another job as it would have been unbearable.

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-

Full ack that those 4 options could help a lot to stop the font rendering arguments as more people could get the rendering *they* want, not the one any other person or majority of persons might prefer.

The reading person using a (or multiple, different) reading device with specific display characteristics and preferred color scheme and different eye sight abilities should be given the chance to try the above four options to chose on their own. One might argue about a good default, which should be majority based - but if I could choose, I could live with any default, I think ;-)

I see the rising problem with web fonts which force smoothing on Chrome as well. IE could win me back so easily by adding those options and if unsmoothed is chosen, then even those problematic fonts should be displayed unsmoothed. If that option would sit in the tools menu (Alt+X) one could easily switch temporarily to a smoothing method if a font is really too bad without smoothing, just like you use zooming if the size does not fit your reading needs.

I understand the desire to minimize options to prevent or lower code complexity and to not confuse people, especially if the choice seems irrelevant to most users. But this missing font rendering options seem to produce quite some web noise, that seems sufficient for rethinking a once made decision.

I have been using Windows on a desktop PC for many years.

I don't remember the XP install I did, but when I installed Vista, 7, 8 and 8.1 ClearType was enabled by default.

Irrespective of arguments about ClearType vs DirectWrite, the disturbing fact is Microsoft don't care, and that apathy is an absolute disgrace.  It reflects very badly on Steve Ballmer.

I hope the new CEO, whoever that may be, has the intelligence and initiative to do something about it.

This is actually two problems: some users are referring to the DPI virtualization, but another problem seems to be caused by a bad gamma calibration in the new grayscale antialiased renderer, for the particular display in question. In my case, if I take an image of, say a Word 2013 window, and process it increasing the gamma of the text area to about 1,75 - 2,2, the text appears much better than before. Otherwise it appears too contrasty/spikey and dark. The subpixel TrueType renderer settings do not change this.

As a workaround I increased somewhat the gamma of my display (Control Panel - Color Management - Advanced - Calibrate display) but this also affects other display areas, so it's only a workaround.

I believe we should have a way to calibrate the gamma (or curves - even better) of the grayscale renderer. All displays are obviously not equal and the gamma setting will be different. This explains why some users, do not experience the problem.

This is where I concluded too. Putting aside the DPI problem some people are experiencing, which is not the subject of this thread, I think that the blurry font issue is not grayscale (or single-color) rendering itself, but the lack of an option to calibrate the renderer for different monitors. I'm not sure if the optimization has to do with gamma settings or just the contrast between gray pixels - I've noticed though that my fonts become better or worse when viewing my screen from a lower or higher angle.