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: Most helpful
Most helpful Newest Oldest
  1. Anonymous
    2013-04-29T19:44:45+00:00

    While this is good news and I'll probably buy it if it comes out, I do not agree. First, we had to patch Microsoft's idea of the Start button/menu to make Windows 8 usable, and now this? Microsoft will continue to release software unfriendly to desktop users and we will have to use and maintain third-party software for such basic elements of the OS? Linux is getting closer and closer for me. It's MS's job to fix this and I have a tiny hope "Blue" will do it.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  2. Anonymous
    2013-04-29T18:51:15+00:00

    Great news! Let's hope he can do it. $20 it's little to much for companies ($9 will be good to buy in bulk >20 lic), but it will not stop individual customers.

    Please keep us informed here

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  3. Anonymous
    2013-04-29T17:17:07+00:00

    It looks as though there may be a solution on the horizon, and it may have nothing to do with Microsoft. Someone is developing a solution that can intercept DirectWrite requests and modify them. 

    https://sites.google.com/a/softwareninjas.ca/www/home?pli=1

    He's using it to turn off ClearType completely, but he got the idea from Firefox's Anti-Aliasing Tuner, which let's you customize any aspect of it you want, including changing directwrite requests to RGB ClearType rendering, enhancing gamma, contrast, etc. He's currently working on a solution that will work with IE 10, he had one that worked on IE 9 and any app that relied on IE9's rendering engine.

    So I tweeted him with a link to this thread and said he could make a killing for a $20 modified version of his program that could intercept ClearType requests from other apps, in particular Office 2013, and customize the Cleartype style. He re-tweeted it later that day. I can only hope that means he agrees and is working in that direction.

    Now this sounds like progress! Fantastic!!

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  4. Anonymous
    2013-04-28T11:45:38+00:00

    If switching video mediums solved your problem, then your problem was different than this thread's problem.

    From what I know and understand, based on reading the thread and doing my own research, the cause of this thread's problem is Microsoft's insistent move away from RGB sub-pixel-antialiasing without providing the user any option to continue using it.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments
  5. Anonymous
    2013-04-28T11:29:10+00:00

    I totally agree Microsoft needs to address this issue. This is a highly technical issue for which I found a solution that worked for me totally by luck. After having a day to try everything out, however, I can definitely say that switching from HDMI to DVI solved my blurry font problem.

    According to the Wikipedia article on Digital Visual Interface, DVI, unlike HDMI, has an analog component. Perhaps this fact is relevant to the problem. I am not by any means an expert on video display interfaces but Microsoft should have these experts to figure this out.

    Was this answer helpful?

    0 comments