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
    2013-06-02T19:24:30+00:00

    Well, I'm not used to it and the difference between Chrome and IE10 is obvious on my computer and I don't see a reason to use IE10 in these conditions. I prefer sharp edges that are easy on my eyes than supposedly more "beautiful" fonts.

    Here are two screenshots for what it's worth if people at Microsoft ever read this thread:

    IE10: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=4D357AC4A91ABE76&id=4D357AC4A91ABE76%21336#cid=4D357AC4A91ABE76&id=4D357AC4A91ABE76%21338

    Chrome: https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=4D357AC4A91ABE76&id=4D357AC4A91ABE76%21336#cid=4D357AC4A91ABE76&id=4D357AC4A91ABE76%21337

    EDIT: Use "view original" in SkyDrive and be sure to watch the pictures in their actual size, 100%, to be able to see the pictures as intended (or dowload them and use another viewer).

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T18:07:44+00:00

    Ok, so inconsistency appears because Microsoft didn't have the time. They may have also kept ClearType for compatibility with other programs. What happens when they move completely on grayscale? Will Firefox, Chrome and the rest programs appear the same way as IE does?

     

    Now, my main question (and suggestion to Microsoft) has to do with the viewing angle that almost corrects the issue in many cases. Could Microsoft give us an option to calibrate the font rendering? Do you see any difference when viewing your monitor from different angles?

     

    I posted way earlier on this thread, and I've found my own "solution" (or way of dealing with it) in the meantime.  I purchased a 27" 2560x1440 monitor.  In addition to being AWESOME, it has an actual PPI of about 112.  This has allowed me to turn the font size to 120 dpi and still have reasonably sized fonts.  In fact, at 96 dpi, it's way too small, so turning it up is almost a requirement.  The rendering is still slightly funky, but it looks a lot better to me now.

    As far as Windows 8.1 goes, I do believe they can fix this issue and give us some options to tune it.  Grayscale antialiasing doesn't HAVE to suck... it's just that the current version does.  It's never going to look the same as RGB, but I think we can do better. 

    This issue has been noticeable to me from the beginning, but it hasn't bothered me as much as some other people.  I believe one reason for this is the fact that I've worked on a Mac a lot, and Apple's subpixel rendering can also end up looking "fuzzy" compared to ClearType in some cases.  See the following article:

    http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2007/06/12.html

    I think I'm just "used to it" because of this.  At any rate, fonts have always looked decent on my Win8 tablet, and now with the new monitor, it's at least acceptable to me.  Hopefully MS can come through with some way of making it better.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T16:22:47+00:00

    I wouldn't know, maybe.  No, I don't see any difference when viewing my monitor from different angles, but I have a laptop, so I can't change it that much.  Allowing us to calibrate the text would be a good option.  It's nice that you aren't ranting and raving like some people on these forums would be.  With 15 pages to this forum, surely the moderators and owners know about it and hopefully are talking to the Windows team behind the scenes, although it would be nice to let us know they are working on a solution.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T16:14:06+00:00

    Ok, so inconsistency appears because Microsoft didn't have the time. They may have also kept ClearType for compatibility with other programs. What happens when they move completely on grayscale? Will Firefox, Chrome and the rest programs appear the same way as IE does?

    Now, my main question (and suggestion to Microsoft) has to do with the viewing angle that almost corrects the issue in many cases. Could Microsoft give us an option to calibrate the font rendering? Do you see any difference when viewing your monitor from different angles?

    I've uploaded two photos of my monitor from a low and a high viewing angle. Actually, they don't help because they are far from real life but it's obvious that there is a difference. In my case the low viewing angle is better (not clear in picture).

    see bellow

    https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=6494BBBF4713A74!784&authkey=!ADDqUXF2LKbntR4

    https://skydrive.live.com/redir?resid=6494BBBF4713A74!783&authkey=!AGZO7L_NiDWOFSo

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-06-02T15:48:50+00:00

    I think that the gray-scale antialiasing is inconsistent because they hadn't had time to redo everything before Windows 8 was released and didn't realize it would be such a problem.  If this is the case, that would quite probably be one of the 'under-the-hood' changes in Windows 8.1 that they mentioned as they would have continued to work on switching things over.  We can only hope.

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