ie Blurry fonts on IE10 or 11 solution! \o/

[Gorilambo]

Hey, guys!

 

I'm a huge fan of Internet Explorer since Microsoft launched its 9th version on 2010 (or 2011, can't remember). Just loved the way they used DirectWrite to render fonts.
Recently, I've seen a lot of people complaining about blurry fonts when they use IE 10 or 11. I couldn't see those blurry fonts back then because I had a 1366x768-resolution laptop.

I started noticing such annoyance when I bought a 1920x1080-resolution laptop. GOSH, things on IE and Office 2013 where BAD AS HELL. So I started doing some research and saw that some people were upset about it and some people didn't even notice. Got into some Microsoft discussion threads and MS engineers kept telling people they couldn't see any difference between screenshots costumers posted.


And then I came by one MS staff saying on a thread that people should calibrate their video. And I thought: "well, since IE uses grayscaling rendering, it has to do with the way my monitor shows brightness and stuff". And then I found the solution: I had my GAMMA set too low. This way, my grayscaled fonts looked bad rendered because I could see black parts of the font that should be displayed gray ou almost white.

So, you guys just have to adjust your GAMMA SETTINGS a little higher and you're gonna have font rendering as smooth as Firefox!

Hope I helped you here!

[Wakers]

While you're correct that this has an effect on how the font is rendered in IE10/11 / Modern UI / Office 2013, it's not a workable solution.

 

1)  You have to turn the gamma up so high in order to eliminate the crappy greyscale effects that you just end up washing out the colours on the display.

 

2) It doesn't really improve the rendering, it just makes it bad in another way.  Instead of having fat, blocky fonts you're now left with thin, jagged fonts.

 

This was tested on two top of the line IPS panels.

[Rohdekill]

So you want us to have all other apps and the OS look like crap just so IE looks better?  Or do you expect people to adjust gamma settings all day?

[Gorilambo]

So you want us to have all other apps and the OS look like crap just so IE looks better?  Or do you expect people to adjust gamma settings all day?

 

No. Gamma settings are adjusted once. And I said to make it just a little higher so other apps don't have to look like crap. Something around 5% of your actual settings.  And I was trying to help, dude. No need here to be rude.

[Gorilambo]

While you're correct that this has an effect on how the font is rendered in IE10/11 / Modern UI / Office 2013, it's not a workable solution.

 

1)  You have to turn the gamma up so high in order to eliminate the crappy greyscale effects that you just end up washing out the colours on the display.

 

2) It doesn't really improve the rendering, it just makes it bad in another way.  Instead of having fat, blocky fonts you're now left with thin, jagged fonts.

 

This was tested on two top of the line IPS panels.

 

Man, you don't have to do it so high. Not really. I did it and my colours don't look washed away. I didn't even need to change saturation settings.

And fonts don't end up being thin as you say. I said it looks just like DirectWrite rendering on Firefox.

But once again, do it A LITTLE HIGHER, around 5% of your current settings.

 

And about the test, can you give me the source so I can see it?

[+therealDamien Subscriber¹]

I dont know how they could not see any difference in the screenshots. I seen these screenshots and could tell lefty from lefty.

 

 

they must be blind or using monitors from the 90s.

 

 

using windows 7 here with chrome and IE next to each other, both showing this post at the same time. and I can see the difference side by side.

 

 

I 

[Gorilambo]

I dont know how they could not see any difference in the screenshots. I seen these screenshots and could tell lefty from lefty.

 

 

they must be blind or using monitors from the 90s.

 

 

using windows 7 here with chrome and IE next to each other, both showing this post at the same time. and I can see the difference side by side.

 

 

I 

 

Yup, they are different. But IE shouldn't be looking so crappy.

Have you tested my workaround?

[+therealDamien Subscriber¹]

sure you can increase gamma. but that change will be noticeable in other programs in a way that is not desired

[Gorilambo]

Well, I thought of what you guys said about gamma adjustment and it REALLY didn't solve the problem at all, but there is one thing I just found out today and it seems to tune the fonts on IE 10 or 11 as you desire.

 

Earlier today, I was messing around the clear type tune-up app and I got to discover something: there are five steps to tune your fonts system-wide. The first two steps change the way fonts look on normal Windows applications, like Control Panel or File Explorer. I noticed that the last three steps would not change anything about my fonts, so I just set it up to look as thinner as possible. Then I opened IE and realized that the last three steps adjust Windows DirectWrite fonts.

 

So if you feel your fonts looks blurry on IE 10 or 11, just go to Clear Type settings and set the last three steps the way you desire.

 

I'll post the difference right here for you guys to see:

 

BEFORE:

 

AFTER

 

Now I hope I helped you here.