Warning - Windows Update for IE9 Fonts

By Roger H.
in Microsoft (Windows)

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I guess this update is why my fonts on Firefox look so terrible. I noticed it immediately after I restarted- all the fonts on Facebook looked much different than they did before. Smaller, taller, and blurrier. Looks the same in IE9. Chrome looks the way it does before. Check out this animated gif I just made. Which one do you think looks better?

The IE9 / Firefox one.

The Chrome one looks sharper but once you get used to the IE9 / Firefox one the improved readability far outweights the crispness of the old method. It doesn't take long at all to adjust!

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The_Decryptor Veteran

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The IE9 / Firefox one.

The Chrome one looks sharper but once you get used to the IE9 / Firefox one the improved readability far outweights the crispness of the old method. It doesn't take long at all to adjust!

+1

People are just used to GDI since it's been around since Windows 3. If the situation was reversed people would hate it.

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dr_crabman

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Which one do you think looks better?

Chrome by a mile. Just look at the "l"s. In IE9 they have a shadow on the right and look blurry. Other letters like "m" are much harder to read too. Don't know what's better about that and imo it's not more natural or better readable, my newspapers don't look like this mess.

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Roger H. Veteran

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Maybe neowin should change fonts :D

I came to work this morning and installed them on my work system (ATI graphics here) and it looks "blurry" because of thinness and shadows as someone pointed out in the GIF earlier. That gif definitely shows the difference that I saw. I guess it's all down to preference but I can't believe this is how they were intended to look.

Even the change from IE8 to IE9 had some changes which took me a while to get used to as well so I can definitely say the "shock of change" is still going on. I will leave it on my work machine and see how it goes for the week while my laptop still still be the old way. By then i'll see which i hate more :D

Side note - Internet Options works just fine here at work with them installed as well. That update just doesn't like my laptop at all!

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+Frank B. Subscriber²

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Happened to me as well, but it seems to affect Firefox 5 as well (in NewsCP) wherever fonts aren't set as a preference.

It affects all apps using DirectWrite - Steam being another example. What the update does is change some of the core fonts themselves (Arial/Tahoma/Verdana) to tweak the way they're rendered using DW.

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Steven P. Administrators

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It affects all apps using DirectWrite - Steam being another example. What the update does is change some of the core fonts themselves (Arial/Tahoma/Verdana) to tweak the way they're rendered using DW.

Thanks for clearing that up :) (Y)

Edit: It seemed to reset my font preference in Neowin as well after I rebooted (completing Windows Update).

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Chrome by a mile. Just look at the "l"s. In IE9 they have a shadow on the right and look blurry. Other letters like "m" are much harder to read too. Don't know what's better about that and imo it's not more natural or better readable, my newspapers don't look like this mess.

That's because your newspaper isn't restricted by the low resolution of your computer screen.

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The_Decryptor Veteran

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That's because your newspaper isn't restricted by the low resolution of your computer screen.

Firefox actually had a bug a while back (like 3.0 or so) where it would use the screen metrics for print, the result with GDI was terrible (the random spaces that GDI gives you was much more apparent in print)

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Calum Veteran

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While it looks quite different, I think it looks much better. Mine looks the same as your second image, SHoTTa35, but I think it looks better :p

Chrome by a mile. Just look at the "l"s. In IE9 they have a shadow on the right and look blurry. Other letters like "m" are much harder to read too. Don't know what's better about that and imo it's not more natural or better readable, my newspapers don't look like this mess.

I don't see what you see with the 'i' and 'm' :s They all look perfectly fine to me, and much better.

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Wakers

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I thought the update looked much better to be honest. Less colouration of letters.

The fonts in Firefox are a whole other story. I don't know why, but that browser has the worst looking fonts of the lot, despite everyone supposedly using the same font rendering techniques.

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Kronir

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I noticed my fonts in certain websites (like Facebook) looked smaller when using IE9 (haven't checked in Opera yet, and I don't even bother keeping Chrome or FF installed anymore unless I'm having to test something. I just find them both inferior to IE9 & Opera 11).

Anyways, once i got used to it after a couple of minutes, I like it more than how the fonts used to look. :)

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Roger H. Veteran

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I'm just glad it isn't just me who had the change of font rendering.

To me, they all just got a little smaller, but they look clearer.

Ok quick question - what font size does neowin use? Arial 9 or 10? It seems even the reply box is different than the below which is different than just the normal thread view?

post-698-0-16107600-1310135663.png

Seems this uses Arial 9

post-698-0-83357900-1310135256.png

And here we use Arial 10

Ooh Timan! :D

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ZakO

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Ok quick question - what font size does neowin use? Arial 9 or 10? It seems even the reply box is different than the below which is different than just the normal thread view?

*snip*

Seems this uses Arial 9

*snip*

And here we use Arial 10

Ooh Timan! :D

posts in thread are 13px Tahoma, reply box is 12px Tahoma.

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JonathanMarston

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Looks like they added more hinting to reduce accuracy for the sake of sharpness.

I really wish there was an option to disable hinting in DirectWrite system-wide. I know most people would disagree with me, but I'd rather sacrifice some sharpness to have the fonts look how they're meant to...

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