Author Topic: ClearType or no ClearType?  (Read 10756 times)

Bobbias

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ClearType or no ClearType?
« on: November 20, 2007, 05:25:57 PM »
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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Sqthreer!

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2007, 07:09:01 PM »
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? You mentioned it looks kinda fuzzy, so maybe it just needs to be adjusted.
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Spectere

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2007, 09:08:06 PM »
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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Alice

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2007, 10:17:58 PM »
edit: er nm what the hell is cleartype exactly? :)

Sqthreer!

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #4 on: November 21, 2007, 04:53:08 AM »
In short, it makes all text on the screen less pixelated and smoother.
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Bobbias

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #5 on: November 21, 2007, 03:48:08 PM »
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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Spectere

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #6 on: November 21, 2007, 04:41:39 PM »
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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Bobbias

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #7 on: November 21, 2007, 04:52:30 PM »
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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淫蟲

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #8 on: November 21, 2007, 06:41:05 PM »
I used to use ClearType, but when I turned it off everything seemed to look better.  Just a personal preference, really.

Alice

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #9 on: November 21, 2007, 07:54:38 PM »
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).
« Last Edit: November 21, 2007, 07:57:43 PM by Kuroneko »

Bobbias

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #10 on: November 21, 2007, 11:26:13 PM »
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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Alice

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #11 on: November 22, 2007, 02:09:18 AM »
Hey, I just grabbed the installer that lets you screw around with ClearType on your computer...  this is funky!  I might like :D

Sqthreer!

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #12 on: November 22, 2007, 03:14:53 PM »
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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Ulti

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #13 on: November 22, 2007, 06:40:32 PM »
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.

Spectere

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Re: ClearType or no ClearType?
« Reply #14 on: November 22, 2007, 07:51:56 PM »
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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