How do I replace Cleartype with OS X's lookalike?

[jtherrien]

Does anyone have a great gdi++.ini they'd like to share?

Here's mine (I think it's alright, but could probably use a bit more tweaking):

[General]
HookChildProcesses=1
HintingMode=1
AntiAliasMode=1
MaxHeight=0
FontLoader=1
GammaMode=0
GammaValue=1.2
Contrast=1
RenderWeight=1.2
NormalWeight=1
BoldWeight=1
ItalicSlant=1
LcdFilter=0
LoadOnDemand=1
CacheMaxFaces=32
CacheMaxSizes=32
CacheMaxBytes=4194304
BolderMode=0
TextTuning=-1

[Individual]
Arial=RenderWeight,1

[Exclude]
Marlett
Segoe UI
Consolas

[ExcludeModule]
fontview.exe
msdev.exe
devenv.exe
gditray.exe
explorer.exe


[GdiTray]
MultiINISelector=0
RedrawDelay=50
CoolMenu=1

[virgo89]

http://localhostr.com/files/f4e58a/Picture%202.png

Your comparing it to a real mac though, they are two different styles of font smoothing. Not even GDI++ will give you the exact same font rendering as a Mac :p

[Wakers]

The newer version looks better - I'm a little concerned though that applying it always makes the Windows Live Contact manager crash, saying that DEP has prevented it from running..anyone else get this? always happens when I apply changed to the .ini

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Your comparing it to a real mac though, they are two different styles of font smoothing. Not even GDI++ will give you the exact same font rendering as a Mac :p

FreeType can get really close, if not better.

What I don't understand is that it seems to render badly in GDI++ though, exact same settings on my old Linux installation gave me nice, thick looking bolds, etc. in GDI++ they're too thin.

[hjf288]

Thanks :)

Wrong. GDI would make it bold, hence far from mac fonts.

Depends on settings INI

You can get it real close without making it "Bold"

[Julius Caro]

I'm wondering.. I think the freetype thing that is bundled with linux systems is compiled without certain options that apple do use?

http://freetype.sourceforge.net/patents.html#licensing

However, the source code for the bytecode interpreter is still available and can be toggled on at compile time, for those that want to use it anyway (because they purchased a license from Apple, or because they are in a country where the patents do not apply, etc.). For details please check the documentation that comes with your FreeType source package (it normally involves changing one configuration macro).

I want sexy mac os x fonts on linux too. I was close to getting them yesterday, the problem is as always... if you set the settings based on a certain fonts, there will be fonts that will look like crap anyway,it's not "uniform".

But I'm kinda off topic since we're talking about windows

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

the patented bytecode interpreter is worse IMO than the auto-hinter. Especially with the MS fonts for some reason.

Apple and MS ignore most of the hints anyway, so it doesn't give that much of a benefit.

[lubes]

GDI only looks good on default windows fonts. The fonts I use are pre-smoothed, so if I use GDI over them it will look messed up.

where do you get the pre-smoothed fonts??

[rainyguy]

jtherrien's configuration is great. Thanks. by the way, have anyone tried on Firefox 3? I tried and the words seem jumbled up whereas if i use opera / IE, no such issues.

Firefox 2 seem fine though.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

GDI only looks good on default windows fonts. The fonts I use are pre-smoothed, so if I use GDI over them it will look messed up.

What does that even mean?

Got any examples?

[Jamushroom Veteran]

He means he's using anti-aliased fonts. Default fonts that are modified to make them look like fonts on OSX.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

anti-aliasing has nothing to do with the fonts though, that's the renderer's job.

bitmaps fonts are 1 bit, unless it's some odd format.

[Jamushroom Veteran]

I meant that the fonts are moddified to look anti-aliased without using any render feature in Windows. Like when you use Bitstream Vera on Windows. Without using any type of render it still looks anti-aliased. With anti-aliased I mean that the font has smooth edges.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

If it's not a Bitmap font, it's a Vector font, if it's a Vector font and it doesn't have smooth edges it was because it was designed that way.

anti-aliasing has nothing to do with the font (apart from the font can say at what sizes it should be anti-aliased, which can be overridden by the renderer anyway), it's entirely in the realm of the renderer.

[rainyguy]

Hi all,

This is what I meant.

Please advise.

Thanks.

[ObiWanToby]

This makes Windows look like Gnome rendering. I only wish this worked on x64 :(

[Jamushroom Veteran]

@The_Decryptor: Ah, alright. I always thought that those fonts where being smoothed without any renderer.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

This makes Windows look like Gnome rendering. I only wish this worked on x64 :(

Same :(

If the source code is available, surely someone with the knowledge can create a 64 bit compatible version, no?

Ran this on Vista x64, works within firefox, but obviously not within Vista itself.

[adsadsads]

Ok, I've had a quick look at the code. To my surprise, the code is actually rather good and the hooks are done using Microsoft's own detour hooking library, now here's the good news; Microsoft Detours is x64 compliant, so simply compiling under x64 should suffice. There is bad news however, only the professional copy of the Detours library will compile under x64. So unless somebody who has a copy of the library it's highly unlikely we'll get a x64 copy any time soon.

Edited July 23, 2008 by x0r

[Vincent-C]

I think I got mine quite close to OS X, but the title bar goes weird:

Any idea how to fix that? I'll stay with this even it can't be fixed, since I don't look at the title bar much :p

[Vincent-C]

Sorry for double posting, but does anyone knows how to make the GDI++ to start automatically at Windows startup? I did make it the program to start as I login to Windows, but it is not active when the program is started. I will need to right click the icon and activate it from there. Or there is a time delay before the thing works after being launched?

[imsobored17]

Sorry for double posting, but does anyone knows how to make the GDI++ to start automatically at Windows startup? I did make it the program to start as I login to Windows, but it is not active when the program is started. I will need to right click the icon and activate it from there. Or there is a time delay before the thing works after being launched?

i found out how

right click on the shortcut u have in the start up folder and go to the target tab

it should say

X:\GDI++\gditray.exe "-on"

it automaticlly skins the fonts on login

[Pon]

Ok, I've had a quick look at the code. To my surprise, the code is actually rather good and the hooks are done using Microsoft's own detour hooking library, now here's the good news; Microsoft Detours is x64 compliant, so simply compiling under x64 should suffice. There is bad news however, only the professional copy of the Detours library will compile under x64. So unless somebody who has a copy of the library it's highly unlikely we'll get a x64 copy any time soon.

I wonder if this might be useful? http://ntcore.com/Files/nthookengine.htm

[kimatg]

Hi all,

This is what I meant.

Please advise.

Thanks.

I've been getting the same sort of problems when I'm trying to substitute fonts.

But it's strange, cause the [FontSubstitutes] works fine for settings like Segoe UI=Lucida Grande

but not Arial=Helvetica 55 Roman, which makes all the arial text jumbled like the screenshot above.

same thing when trying to replace my ugly system korean fonts,

any of these eng/kor fontname variations

굴림=맑은 고딕/ 굴림=Malgun Gothic/ Gulim=Malgun Gothic/ Gulim=맑은 고딕

would make the text get scrambled.

Some other korean people on the web seem to get it work correctly, but i don't know why it's not working for me :(

I wonder if this might be useful? http://ntcore.com/Files/nthookengine.htm

And about GDI++ on 64-bit..

yea after reading some of the previous posts It looks like the assumption that only 32-bit apps are hooked is correct.

I'm using Vista x64, and IE 32-bit gets smooth fonts all right but not the 64-bit IE.

windows shell and Sidebar doesn't get smooth fonts either.

Strange thing is, apps like Notepad sometimes gets hooked and sometimes not.

And I noticed that when more than one notepads are open, only one of em is font-smoothed.

a single explorer window very randomly seems to get hooked but not all of them again.

@_@ My heads hurt..

PS: my current setting:

[General]
Name=H1/A2/L2/OD1-Kimatg20081018
Icon=%systemroot%\system32\shell32.dll,-155

HookChildProcesses=1
HintingMode=1
AntiAliasMode=2
MaxHeight=0
WidthMode=0
FontLoader=0
GammaMode=0
GammaValue=1.3
RenderWeight=1.0
Contrast=1.0
TextTuning=0
TextTuningR=-1
TextTuningG=-1
TextTuningB=-1
NormalWeight=6
BoldWeight=6
ItalicSlant=0
LcdFilter=2
LoadOnDemand=1
CacheMaxFaces=16
CacheMaxSizes=16
CacheMaxBytes=5242880
FontSubstitutes=2
UseMapping=1
FontLink=0
BolderMode=0

[Individual]

[Exclude]
Marlett


[ExcludeModule]
photoshop.exe
gom.exe
gomencmain.exe
msnmsgr.exe

[FontSubstitutes]
"Segoe UI"="Lucida Grande"

+and screenshot

[Saint Shiv]

Could someone allow me to be lazy and PM me a link to a precompiled packaged for this font rendering style?