IE 7 Display problem

Jamez · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 05.15

Take a look at this. Depending on how good your monitor is (viewing with a CRT is like viewing through clingfilm compared to LCD) you should be able to spot the differences below.

The text is very anti-aliased, to the extent it's almost blurred. I hate this effect, which has only occured once before with me when I misconfigured a CRT monitor.

The displays above are from different browers on the same machine. The problem doesn't lie with my graphics/LCD monitor set-up, so what can be the cause of this blurry text and image display in IE 7?

Is there a way I can configure IE 7 to display correctly? It seems a very strange anomaly for this to occur, especially in a second version of a Beta Microsoft product.

Pete · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 08.27

it's displaying perfectly.

ClearType is on by default in IE7 whether or not you have it on in windows.

Personally I find ClearType lovely, so I won't tell you how to fix it, but instead i shall tell you how to turn it on for *everything else*.

Display Properties

Appearance

Effects

Change "Font Smoothing" to ClearType.

And I thought only freaky deaky geek tards tested beta software?

cdd · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 09.32

I'm funny with Cleartype, sometimes I like it on and sometimes I like it off. At the moment I'm in an "off" mood, but it's roughly 50-50. I don't like the way it uses red pixels on the left and blue pixels on the right, taking advantage of lcd layouts (thus tripling resolution), to do anti-aliasing, and sometimes I actually find non-antialiased text clearer! I'm hardly an apple enthusiast but I much prefer the apple font rendering engine.

eoin · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 17.19

http://blogs.msdn.com/ie/archive/2006/02/03/524367.aspx

Pete · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 17.24

who the hell are you?

how DARE you spoil my fun. Twat.

eoin · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 17.26

I am sorry, but I'm with James on this one. ClearType is evil. And in answer to your question, a bit of a lurker. I mainly post over on TVF.

DAS · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 18.01

As a direct result of this thread I've turned on ClearType. And it's... well... odd. It's good and bad at the same time. I suppose it looks clearer but it feels as though I have cataracts.

Jamez · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 18.09

DAS wrote:As a direct result of this thread I've turned on ClearType. And it's... well... odd. It's good and bad at the same time. I suppose it looks clearer but it feels as though I have cataracts.

Well I've kept ClearType, but have tuned it up via the MS website. It looks better now.

Arial looks narrower now, though. It's odd, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Jamez · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 18.11

Hymagumba wrote:
And I thought only freaky deaky geek tards tested beta software?

I got fed up with IE 6, so I fancied a change. Does that make me a geek?

Pete · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 18.24

yes, yes it does

DAS wrote:As a direct result of this thread I've turned on ClearType. And it's... well... odd. It's good and bad at the same time. I suppose it looks clearer but it feels as though I have cataracts.

as Jamez has done, have you tried tuning at at the MS website? I've had it on since day one with XP, even on my CRT i found it much nicer to look at.

I think though if you don't have an LCD screen it could be an acquired taste.

Jamez · Thu 15 Jun, 2006 18.27

Beware, though. The MS website tuning thingy turns on ClearType for ALL of Windows XP. Folders, desktop, start menu's etc are all now ClearType.

I've just turned CT off for XP, and kept it only in IE7. I really can't get used to it. It doesn't feel right.