why the fonts in word 2013 are blurry?

Anonymous
2013-01-31T05:32:47+00:00

rendering the fonts in word 2013 is horrible! 

Will Microsoft change it?

This is a similar problem like with Internet Explorer 9 & 10.

What is going on?

IE8 works good, Office 2010 also...

Then?

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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Doug Robbins - MVP - Office Apps and Services 323.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
2013-02-07T22:33:51+00:00

Check under File>Options>Advanced>Display and check the box for "Use subpixel positioning to smooth fonts on screen" and also try changing the setting for "Disable hardware graphics acceleration"

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  1. Anonymous
    2015-04-02T13:58:09+00:00

    "proof of software BUG in Word 2013, which nobody cares to fix!"

    They wont fix this because they designed it this way. In MSFT's eyes it is no bug, but a feature.

    Windows 8.x has exactly the same issues in all parts where the "metro gui" is used ( Startscreen,Apps and Network Connections ) and the previews of Windows 10 so far suffer also from the unreadability issue, too - even worse as loads of parts of the Desktop are now implemented using the "metro" stuff, for example the start menu, the control panel, the cortana assistant, the new browser and what not else...

    They do this intentionally so it runs on crappy graphic cards and low dpi screens alias cheap tablets.. the less the cpu/gpu has to render, the faster the screen output, the snappier the behaviour. Same reason for the flatted design and the poor icons in the latest products.. its all about speed . That's all there is to WHY this is - and why it wont change in the near future as cheap mobile hardware is the latest trend and MSFT wants to run their products on smartphones,tablets,xbox,tv sets and computers alike - one version to rule them all. So they need to take the lowest powered device as "standard", with the result that everybody with better equipment suffers .

    I have drawn my own conclusions that Windows 7 and Office 2010 were the last useable products we have seen from MSFT . Time to learn Linux or to buy a Mac if one cares to be up2date OS-wise.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-26T06:23:20+00:00

    Dear Doug,

    I have a problem with blurry text in the body of Word  3013 documents. It is curious that Word commands, toolbars etc are all clear and the same body text in Excel 2013 is clearer (see attached snip). I have used the same font and size in Excel and Word.

    I have followed many of your suggestions in this forum and have seen some minor improvements, but so far these have not solved the problem:

    ·         Checking video driver for the I5 processor trying several drivers, believe I am using the latest.

    ·         Dissable hardware graphics accelerator  on and off

    ·         Use subpixel positioning to smooth…    on and off

    ·         Playing with ClearType settings

     

    I have loaded some other software (including Abbyy Translation), but the fuzziness problem prexisted these.

     

    I use Word for most of the day and so this fuzziness is very irritating but the fact that the body text displays better in Excel gives me hope.

     

    Any suggestions would be very welcome

     


    I have an old HP Pavilion computer with a Cupertino motheboard and upgraded the Processor from an Intel I3 to an Intel I5 and 8G of ram. This worked fine with my old HDD, WIndows 7 and Office 2007.I have recently installed a new SSD and loaded new Windows 7 and new Office 2013, this is when the problem started.

    I have exactly the same problem (on a modern desktop PC).

    Text in Office 2010 on Windows 7 is perfectly clear.

    Text in Office 2013 on Windows 7 and Windows 8 is appalling. It is so unbelievably blurry I simply cannot use it. 

    I have tried every fix listed by Rohn007 and none make any noticeable difference.

    I have now given up on Office 2013 and reverted back to Office 2010.

    I have also reverted back to IE10 on Windows 7 because IE11 has the same faulty font rendering API.

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  3. Anonymous
    2013-04-06T20:24:49+00:00

    I am running Windows 8 Pro with a secondary extended monitor. The first Word 2013 documents I open I literally gasped. It is THAT bad. I haven't seen fonts this bad in 20 years. Want to work with a document at 100% zoom? Forget it. Unreadable. How the **** does something like this even make it out the door? Oh yeah, this is the same company that thought getting rid of the Start button was a good idea. I tried the hardware acceleration hack suggested here. No help at all.

    By the way, fonts in Access and Outlook look wonderful.  Did you guys forget to break those too?

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  4. Anonymous
    2013-03-05T08:25:06+00:00

    Tried your suggestions - the Office 2013 fonts still look bad !!!

    I have Windows 8 Pro.  While the system 2 years old the drivers for my graphics card pretty fresh and Win 8.

    In addition to the poor fonts the colors in the three Office Theme's are equaly poor.  Really hate it in Outlook.  Have lots of text of varying sizes on my typical screen when looking at my mail.

    Did I mention I hate it?  Guess I would like to see you you call "OK" ?

    Was showing one of my kids the package yesterday and offering her one of my 5 installs.  As soon as I showed her the Outlook 2013 she instantly declinced my offer of free (to her) upgrade for the Office package.  She would not guess there would be enough improvements to over come the boring look.

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