Is Google Chrome Font Smoothing Possible?

[Beau Bridges]

The ONLY reason that I do not use Google Chrome is for one reason and one reason only. The font smoothing, it's is horrid. Even when I run GDI++ in the background (software that makes fonts very smooth) the fonts are still sharp and choppy. Is there any way I can get Google Chrome's fonts smoother? Like in FireFox or Safari?

It seems like the 3rd party software only helps Firefox and Safari a little, seeing how Safari already has a built in font smoother. You can see what I mean below.

Google Chrome:

Firefox:

Safari:

Any and all help will be greatly appreciated!

[Antaris Veteran]

Unlike Safari (which uses its own Text renderer [which itself is ported from Mac OSX]), and Firefox (which again, now uses Cairo I believe to handle Text rendering), Chrome uses the native OS's Text renderer. Check to see if you have ClearType enabled and see if that makes a difference.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

Firefox uses GDI to render text, same method Chrome (and Safari with a config option) uses.

So, Chrome should "just work", I wonder why it isn't.

[Beau Bridges]

Unlike Safari (which uses its own Text renderer [which itself is ported from Mac OSX]), and Firefox (which again, now uses Cairo I believe to handle Text rendering), Chrome uses the native OS's Text renderer. Check to see if you have ClearType enabled and see if that makes a difference.

Yeah I got ClearType, I even downloaded the power toy from Microsoft's website to even make the ClearType more noticable. Google Chrome still has problems with font smoothing.

[eDenE]

I feel like the font rendering in Chrome looks so much better than the others (from the screenshot at least).

What you see on Chrome is the expected result with ClearType enabled. You will notice the difference if you disable ClearType. I think you must have done something to Firefox to change its default font rendering (the font is shorter as well).

[Astrophizz]

The latest versions of GDI++ work with Chrome natively. Before then you had to set Chrome to run as a single process with some commandline option that I can't remember. Just get a newer version from http://free.flop.jp/gdi++/ (I'm using gdi0885.7z which has the nifty gditray.exe) and you should be good to go.

[soumyasch]

How did you get Firefox to use the horrid headache-inducing font renderer that Safari 3 uses?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

GDI++

I played around with it for a bit last time and it worked well (bold fonts looked much better), but it always managed to break in some way (like font metrics being mis-reported so text drew at half width)

[phot0nic]

This thread confuses me.

1) I'm on Firefox right now. My fonts look nothing like the ones in your screenshot. My font rendering looks like your Google Chrome screenshot. Are you sure that's a screenshot from Firefox? If so, what version?

2) I'm a little confused by what your request is. Do you WANT those bold, blurry fonts from your Firefox and Safari screenshots? They look absolutely terrible, so I'm assuming that this isn't the case. I'm guessing that your fonts are blurry for some reason, and you're trying to fix it? I dunno.

So, did you get your screenshots mixed up or something? Nothing about the OP makes sense to me.

[i_was_here]

1. I think the OP is using GDI++ to make Firefox fonts look like that.

2. Some people like the OSX style font smoothing believe it or not.

Anyways I would try Astrophizz's advice and update GDI++.

[-KJ]

@ Hitchhiker427

Quartz renders text truer to the font at the cost of looking blurrier than Cleartype.

There are people who like it this way and some that don't. It's all a matter of personal preference.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

The latest versions of GDI++ work with Chrome natively. Before then you had to set Chrome to run as a single process with some commandline option that I can't remember. Just get a newer version from http://free.flop.jp/gdi++/ (I'm using gdi0885.7z which has the nifty gditray.exe) and you should be good to go.

Do you know if there's anyway to get GDI++ working with a 64bit operating system?

32 bit applications work fine, but things like windows explorer and what not obviously don't.

Thanks

[phot0nic]

@ Hitchhiker427

Quartz renders text truer to the font at the cost of looking blurrier than Cleartype.

There are people who like it this way and some that don't. It's all a matter of personal preference.

Yeah, I've known that OSX has blurrier fonts, but I didn't know that the screenshot was showing the OSX rendering. I didn't remember the OSX fonts being THAT blurry, so I was thrown off, thinking something was unintentional with the font rendering. Additionally, I've never seen a side-by-side shot before. It's quite a stark difference.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

That's a certain configuration for Freetype that makes them fairly blurry.

[TonyLock]

Actually, based on your example, the Font Smoothing is 100% perfect for Chrome. That the way it should be, chrisp, clear and legible.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

If he was aiming for Windows style smoothing, then yes it would be correct, but he's not.

Even then, we're talking about the wrong thing really, the screenshots show the same style of smoothing but different kinds of hinting (Windows hinting, some Freetype configuration and then OS X hinting).

The hinting people prefer is subjective, I prefer OS X's since it keeps the letter forms more accurate while not being overly fuzzy (i.e. no hinting), but then again at the distance I'm sitting from my monitor the glyphs still look "crisp".

[spitphire]

I have the same problem. I have clear type enabled and my font settings are identical in firefox & chrome. I use winxp. Here are some screenshots which you can clearly see the difference in, you will have to click on the images to view them full size otherwise you won't see the differences...

Any suggestions?

[Kirkburn]

I have the same problem. I have clear type enabled and my font settings are identical in firefox & chrome. I use winxp. Here are some screenshots which you can clearly see the difference in, you will have to click on the images to view them full size otherwise you won't see the differences...

Any suggestions?

Looks like Chrome is using the old Windows font smoothing technique, and Firefox is using ClearType.

[Orien]

Looks like Chrome is using the old Windows font smoothing technique, and Firefox is using ClearType.

Yeah, Chrome isn't using ClearType in that screenshot.

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The only browser in those screenshots that is actually using ClearType is Chrome (that's the whole point of the thread, he doesn't want Chrome to use GDI font rendering and instead use GDI++)

Firefox is using GDI++, and Safari is using it's own font rendering system.

[tool++]

New versions of GDI++ work with Chrome!

http://free.flop.jp/gdi++/

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

New versions of GDI++ work with Chrome!

http://free.flop.jp/gdi++/

How on earth do you download it? :p

Thanks

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Found another program that supports 32/64 bit :)

http://code.google.com/p/gdipp/

[tool++]

How on earth do you download it? :p

Thanks

The zip file:

http://free.flop.jp/gdi++/src/gdi0909.zip

I use this config, though - the ones with it are a bit weird:

http://gist.github.com/328005

In main gdi++.ini put this in general section

[General]
HookChildProcesses=1
AlternativeFile=.\ini\blah.ini

After putting blah.ini (From gist) into the ini folder.

HTH

Found another program that supports 32/64 bit

http://code.google.com/p/gdipp/

I have high hopes for that project but at present it doesn't seem to hook anywhere near as many apps as gdi0909 :(

[Megalev]

Any update on this? I'm in the same boat as the OP, 64bit Chrome, I have GDIPP running, only works on ~50% of pages....