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
    2013-10-04T07:02:34+00:00

    That response from Microsoft is truly appalling and contemptuous.

    As Fred771 stated, "the experience with a pc starts with watching a screen".

    It just defies belief that Microsoft don't get that fundamental part of the Windows experience.

    What hardware are Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer using to access Windows? Are they both blind or have MS staff just been very careful to give Bill, Steve other senior execs hardware that disguises this terrible font rendering?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-10-03T22:04:54+00:00

    A response from Microsoft here on blurry text in Internet Explorer 10 - http://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/803978/blurry-text (as quoted below).

    Posted by Microsoft on 03/10/2013 at 06:57 Thank you for your feedback.At this time we do not plan on making this change.In Windows 8 Internet Explorer switched to using greyscale anti-aliasing across the Windows Platform.Your feedback is helping us see the needs of our users so we can improve the quality of Internet Explorer. We continue to welcome more feedback and look forward to hearing from you again soon.Best regards,The Internet Explorer Team

    Looks like they are aware of the issue, and have no plans to do anything about it.

    Is this an f'ing joke? "We do not plan on making this change." What a bunch of arrogant pr*cks. No wonder no one buys your stuff anymore.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-10-03T21:07:05+00:00

    It's a shame for Microsoft, I'm really disappointed by this answer because the experience with a pc starts with watching a screen and if the display is bad no matter how powerful the pc can be you ruin the experience with it.

    I remember when i read the reviews with the Acer Iconia W3... A perfect example you can ruin all the experience with a device with a bad display.

    The problem... i could use IE 10 or 11 for my daily browser but it's impossible because of these blurry fonts (the same problem with the mail app in Windows 8) That's why i use Firefox a little slower and less smooth but perfectly readable.

    The thing is really simple to fix let the choice for Windows to use the same font settings like in Windows 7. I'm sure it would not be too hard to implement.

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-10-03T19:48:41+00:00

    A response from Microsoft here on blurry text in Internet Explorer 10 - http://connect.microsoft.com/IE/feedback/details/803978/blurry-text (as quoted below).

    Posted by Microsoft on 03/10/2013 at 06:57 Thank you for your feedback.At this time we do not plan on making this change.In Windows 8 Internet Explorer switched to using greyscale anti-aliasing across the Windows Platform.Your feedback is helping us see the needs of our users so we can improve the quality of Internet Explorer. We continue to welcome more feedback and look forward to hearing from you again soon.Best regards,The Internet Explorer Team

    Looks like they are aware of the issue, and have no plans to do anything about it.

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  5. Anonymous
    2013-09-30T18:59:59+00:00

    Hmmm, just switched back to my old samsung syncmaster 226BW which is a crappy TN-screen compared to the Samsung Syncmaster S24A850DW, and I notice it seems less ugly (so I guess the desginers/developers at microsoft just use very sucky monitors), and is less visible.

    As I said, if the original Windows 7 cleartype rendering is still available, please give us the registry settings which are used, so I can just 'copy/paste' the settings to Windows 8..

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