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The Chatterbox => Computing => Topic started by: Bobbias on November 20, 2007, 05:25:57 PM
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I guess this is only directed at people who have any idea what ClearType is, but anyone here use it? I've just turned it on, and the text looks kinda fuzzy and stuff, but It does seem a little more readable. I actually sorta like how things look with ClearType. anyone else use this, or have any thoughts on it?
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I use and love ClearType. When I first discovered it, I didn't like it because I liked how smaller Verdana font sizes looked. But now I think it makes text look a lot more "modern" for lack of a better term.
If anyone is curious what ClearType is, it's a setting you can turn on and off in Windows which can make all the text on your computer become anti-aliased and smoother.
Also, Bobbias, have you used the ClearType Tuner (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx)? You mentioned it looks kinda fuzzy, so maybe it just needs to be adjusted.
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I thought ClearType looked okay on CRTs but it looks damn fine on LCDs, especially high resolution ones. I've been using it for as long as I've used XP, mainly because the standard anti-aliasing only activates for large/bold fonts for whatever reason.
Also, seconding sq3r's recommendation of the ClearType Tuner. It's a shame that didn't come out soon enough to be included with the XP (I think it is included with Vista) because it is insanely useful.
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edit: er nm what the hell is cleartype exactly? :)
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In short, it makes all text on the screen less pixelated and smoother.
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In long: Instead of simply figuring out if a pixel is black, or white, it will manually adjust each color of the pixel to make it better fit the font.
http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypeInfo.mspx
I looked at the Tuner, but the options weren't that great, I mean, the text looks good the way it is, it's just that after looking at normal anti-aliased text for so long, the ClearType text looked kinda fuzzy and stuff. Not to mention you can see the slight coloration of the sub-pixels if you look closely. Everything has a faint green glow on the right side of the letter, because of how ClearType works.
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Do you have a CRT? If so, the reason you're most likely seeing obvious color fringing is because the pixels are arranged in a triangle shape rather than straight in a line. LCDs use vertical subpixels, either in RGB order (very common) or BGR order (not very common). ClearType was mainly designed for, and generally looks better with, LCDs.
One notable exception with the whole CRT thing are Trinitron and DiamondTron displays. I looked at my Dell Ultrascan (which is based on that technology) through a magnifying lens found that it uses the same subpixel layout as LCDs do.
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I'm using an Acer AL1916W widescreen LCD display.
The fringing isn't enough to be a problem, but I do see it. I still think ClearType looks better though. I have to hand it to microsoft for this one, this is a cool technology.
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I used to use ClearType, but when I turned it off everything seemed to look better. Just a personal preference, really.
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Oh, cleartype is the crap that modifies the subpixels. Never used it, mainly because I don't have a laptop *stabily* running on Windows XP. I do have Trinitron monitors, though, so I may check it out sometime. I don't see what much it would do, though, because I run at a very small resolution (1280x960/1024, depending on computer).
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I'm running at 1440x900, and I like it. It's certainly different. But after getting past the original awkwardness, I really like it. It gives things a softer edge, and makes things seem that much rounder.
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Hey, I just grabbed the installer that lets you screw around with ClearType on your computer... this is funky! I might like :D
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I think the reason I liked my text without ClearType before was because it was much easier to distinguish between actual text and graphical text. But the need for that so rarely occurs, and I've gotten computer savvy enough to be able to tell the difference so now I like it just for it's aesthetic appeal. Plus, text of very very small size is easier to read, I think.
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I think I'll try this out when I get back to my dorm. You guys said it was icluded in Vista? I just skimmed the posts after the first few.
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Yeah, it's included with XP and Vista.
Edit: Correction: ClearType is included in both. The tuner utility is available for download for XP and *might* be included in Vista. You don't need the tuner to use the rendering engine.
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I may or may not have this enabled. But it looks all clear to me. I don't like anti-aliased text that much. I LIKE MY SMALL TEXT PIXEY SO I CAN READ IT AND NOT HAVING TO FUCK WITH GRAY PIXELS THAT BLUR WHAT IM TRYING TO READ. So yeah, idk. looks good to me stock. xD
same monitor as bobbias', and even on my other one, a 1024x768 HP. Phuck ya.
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Well, I didn't mind the normal stuff, which, by the way, was anti-aliased to begin with. However, they just upped the accuracy of anti-aliasing to sub-pixels, which does actually improve how it looks. It does seem to be "blurry" when you're not adjusted to seeing it that way, but I actually much prefer ClearType, now that I have it on. It does in fact improve the readability for me. Sadly(?) enough, ClearType doe not affect other language fonts, like japanese, which means that you can see a clear difference between them.
Here's an example of my music folder, which happens to have a LOT of folders with japanese in them.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v227/Bobbias/example.png)
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I actually like not having cleartype. The shading looks like blur almost, meh. I've seen the windows install screen talk about it, but what I thought it did was the opposite, instead of just displaying text willy-nilly over pixels, it would pick the right pixels to show as black to make it clear. This makes a hell of a lot more sense to me. Contrast is clear, antialiasing and shading isnt.
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Anti-aliasing is meant to smooth over edges, and simulate a higher resolution. If you haven't noticed, some of those kanji over there are kind hard to read. I found that after getting used to the appearance of blur, the text was actually more readable, and more pleasant to the eyes. ClearType is designed to make things follow the "hinting" of the letter even more clearly, so that the letter looks as close as it can get to the original design specifications. When you scrunch a letter up really small, sometimes parts of the letter become obscure due to the lack of pixels in which to define the letter, ClearType was designed to help get around this issue by allowing partial pixels to be manipulated to make the letters slightly more clear on extremely low resolution screens, like PDAs and such. However, it also looks better on any LCD monitor, generally, because it follows the design specifications for the font better. It's effect is lessened at higher resolution, but I find that because of the softer "blur" effect that it gives the letters, large portions of text are actually easier to read. Contrast is definitely part of it, but too much contrast and things are harder on the eyes. LCD screens are higher contrast than CRT displays anyway.
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The effect really isn't lessened at all on high resolution displays, actually.
My laptop has a high resolution screen (17" widescreen, 1920x1200) and turning off ClearType actually degrades readability. The lack of hinting makes each individual letter harder to make out due to the perceived horizontal resolution being lower. For example, in the Appearance tab in the Display control panel applet, the "Effects" was borderline hard to read without ClearType -- the 'f' characters in particular had the appearance of running together. With ClearType enabled, they don't. The main reason they do so without ClearType is likely due to the width of the character. With the default font, it's 2 pixels wide. With ClearType enabled, the 'f' characters appear to be 3 pixels wide, giving them a bolder, more distinct look thanks to the simulated, tripled horizontal resolution.
Now on my system at home (19" LCD at 1280x1024 and a 17" Trinitron CRT at 1280x960) it doesn't make as much of a difference. On my lappy, subpixel hinting makes such a high resolution on such a small screen viable.
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Wow, 1920x1200, intense.
Yeah, I have come to really enjoy ClearType.