news Microsoft was right! Surface's perceived resolution better than iPa

[Shane Nokes]

I doubt MS is doing ClearType on these devices, or if they are they're only doing it in certain cases (When the device is in landscape)

iOS doesn't do sub-pixel AA at all, even on the first gen devices with the 163ppi (or so), and on higher PPI devices it's not needed.

The display technology used on Surface is called ClearType.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The display technology used on Surface is called ClearType.

Yes, Microsoft ran out of names. But the post I was responding to was talking about font rendering.

[Shane Nokes]

Yes, Microsoft ran out of names. But the post I was responding to was talking about font rendering.

So was I. The term ClearType for the Surface refers to not just the screen itself, but to all the technology used to make what is presented on that screen as sharp as it is. It's a combination of both hardware & software, and that includes the sub-pixel font rendering technology. :)

BTW all this is even better in Windows 7 & Windows 8 due to the inclusion of Direct2D & DirectWrite.

Here's a bit of a primer:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/ff729481%28v=vs.85%29.aspx

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Ok, but the metro UI doesn't actually use ClearType (I was wrong when I thought they might in landscape mode), it seems they're just using greyscale AA.

And I know about DirectWrite, but I don't see what it has to do with WinRT (I'm assuming they're following the WPF route, or are re-writing their code again as they seem to do*)

* We have GDI font rendering, DirectWrite font rendering, WPF font rendering and Office uses an entirely separate renderer