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
    2013-02-27T01:46:19+00:00

    Well, I have a 22 inch screen with the same high resolution as yours and the 100% DPI setting seems fine for me. There are so many users complaining about this issue, it's not just me. Perhaps the final display result is different on different monitors, that's maybe why we didn't agree on the image you posted - I thought Chrome rendered fonts ok while IE not.

     You're right about IE grabbing Window's settings, but: (a) 150% is not the default setting in Windows (b) it does not explain the blurriness, since text of the same size appears fine on the competitive browser and on IE's own menus.

    Anyway, I'll live with it! ;-) Probably going to stick to Chrome until further notice...

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-02-26T23:46:17+00:00

    lol I just noticed this while looking at IE but the default is at 150% zoom

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-02-26T23:17:26+00:00

    DPI means Dot Per Inch. I'm saying the lower ur DPI is the less pixels ur computer grabs to form text and this is why its blurry. Chrome goes by its own rules and fits them to ur computer but IE follows whats happening to the computer.

    and Omg my desktop was a mess. little tiny icons all over the place. My text look like size 2. I have 24 inch screen. so with a high res everything looks super tiny at DPI 100%

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-02-26T21:01:40+00:00

    The default DPI is 100% (named "smaller" in the control panel). You are supposed to keep that setting (100%), unless you want to enlarge objects and text on screen, therefore select a higher one (125% or 150% or custom). You could also enlarge objects and text on screen by lowering the resolution through screen settings, but this is completely wrong as it would cause blurriness or the "pixeling" effect (same thing as zooming in a picture more than its original resolution).

    I have a 1920x1080 monitor and DPI set to 100%. The image you just posted is excellent (sharp) with Chrome, blurry or fuzzy with Internet Explorer (same behavior with my PC). It is not awful everywhere, unless you personally dislike smaller letters or your eyes get tired easily. 

    Maybe you are a little bit confused with the DPI settings, unless I misunderstood what you were trying to explain above. See this image I made, it may clear things up. Thanks again!

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-02-26T13:25:20+00:00

    ugh everything looks awful at 100% DPI.

    I figured out the problem. With the screen resolution so big and having it at the default DPI (which is meant for 15 inch screens with low resolutions) its basically at a magnification. Just to be clear, since my resolution is at 1920 x 1200 and I set it at 100% DPI the computer is going to group an image in small amounts of pixels to form the picture requested where if I was at 150% DPI it would grab on to more pixels to form that same picture. Say you had a resolution of 800 x 600, this would give you 480,000 pixels on ur screen while at 1920 x 1200 there are 2,304,000 pixels to grab onto. This gives you an idea of what I mean, scroll down to pixel resolution.

    Its like in photoshop, if an image can grab more pixels it can become sharper, crisp and even smooth in some areas.

    If you don't want ur font so big just use the "Change only Text Size".

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