Cleartype for Windows 2000?

[psylockf]

is there something like cleartype in windows 2000?

or is it possible to port it from windows xp?

that is basically the thing i miss mostly using windows 2000 on my 2nd computer

[RadishTM Veteran]

No there isn't AFAIK ....

Radish?

[McFly]

I wish they had it for 2000 as well...supposedly it looks very good on LCD screens.

[lucky644]

I hate to bump this old thread up, but I was wondering if anyone knew if someone made cleartype available for windows 2000 yet.

Thanks.

:)

--Lucky

[grindlestone]

Have a look here:

http://grc.com/freeandclear.htm

I didn't stop to read it all though.

[lucky644]

Have a look here:

http://grc.com/freeandclear.htm

I didn't stop to read it all though.

585284018[/snapback]

By the looks of that, it's just an internal thing for the program only, and not a systemwide thing.

[Ianmac45]

cleartype is ugly on my lcd....i'd never use it

[Malisk]

Um, what you prefer to use on your LCD screen is a little beside the point of this thread. ;)

A brief discussion of this can be found on Google Answers:

http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=6245

Here's the most technical and in-depth answer I could find about this:

Well, the problem is that to implement ClearType-like rendering correctly, you'll need two different things:

A) - a way to generate LCD-optimized RGB-decimated glyph bitmaps

B) - a way to perform RGB-decimated alpha blending to the graphics surfaces  you're drawing to A) is possible using FreeType, or other font engines. However, B) is really a graphics library requirement.

A little known fact is that Windows 2000 allows pluggable font renderers, though I've never tried to wrap FreeType within one. However, this OS wouldn't be able to properly support ClearType-like output because:

- it wouldn't support or recognize the bitmap format

- it isn't capable of RGB-decimated alpha blending

Moreover, all advanced GDI operations, including the TrueType backend and anti-aliased text rendering are placed within the *kernel* in Windows 2000 and beyond. More specifically, in the large (1.6 Mb) file %WINDOWS%\system32\WIN32K.SYS which is hidden by default, and includes tons of other stuff.

There is no way a user can update this part of the system easily. You certainly won't be able to copy the Windows XP version of this file into Windows = 2000, though it may be an interesting experiment to do under VMWare; I suspect = that this would simply break the system. Moreover, it's likely to be illegal, = unlike writing a third-party plugin DLL.

In other words, this is not likely to happen without Microsoft deciding to do it.

[burkaa]

Hi,

I just wanted to say, that it's not impossible to get anti-aliased fonts in win2000, altough without subpixel RBG-blending. All of you probably know that win2000 has antialiasing of large fonts.. Well, if you install Bitsteam Vera Sans, you get anti-aliased fonts, period (for all sizes). These fonts are free and developed by linux developers.. It's really good..

You can find it here..

http://www.gnome.org/fonts/

If you want subpixel RGB-blending for free you should check out KDE running under Linux, It has pretty advanced subpixel renderingen feats..!

byees!

[Midnight Mick]

That's a great font, thanks. :)

[AQUaDeX]

Hi,

I just wanted to say, that it's not impossible to get anti-aliased fonts in win2000, altough without subpixel RBG-blending. All of you probably know that win2000 has antialiasing of large fonts.. Well, if you install Bitsteam Vera Sans, you get anti-aliased fonts, period (for all sizes). These fonts are free and developed by linux developers.. It's really good..

You can find it here..

http://www.gnome.org/fonts/

If you want subpixel RGB-blending for free you should check out KDE running under Linux, It has pretty advanced subpixel renderingen feats..!

byees!

586062764[/snapback]

Actually I made a set of antizliased fonts for Windows fonts too (Verdana / Tahoma, etc), but since license restrictions I was forced to not post them here :(

And by the way for those who didn't know, Windows XP's font rendering is bugged, if you use these fonts on Windows XP it will look quite crippled (very thin - unreadable)