Meet Firefox 4.0.1

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The problem with bad looking sub-pixel colours in the chrome is known about, turns out it's an issue with the gamma causing them to be greatly magnified.

If/when it's fixed properly, the colours will match with text in the content area.

[ObiWanToby]

So the Firefox nightly, pre beta 10s have better or enhanced font rendering compared to Beta 9 (on Windows) ?

Anyways, I think Firefox 4 is probably my preferred choice over Safari now. It feels much faster, less beach balls on the Mac.

[adipose]

I just installed the latest minefield, and my fonts in Chrome got terrible. I previously did not have Direct2d enabled. I enabled and it vastly improved, although I can tell the difference from GDI or whatever it used to use.

Did something happen, or did I just not notice this before. I think I'd rather stick with the old GDI style, but on this build, it seems to be worse than Direct2D.

-Dan

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

So the Firefox nightly, pre beta 10s have better or enhanced font rendering compared to Beta 9 (on Windows) ?

Anyways, I think Firefox 4 is probably my preferred choice over Safari now. It feels much faster, less beach balls on the Mac.

The difference is that now DirectWrite will keep it's sub-pixel anti-aliasing in more places, before it'd fallback to grey-scale in all but the most optimal cases (it's a deficiency of the API, it can only paint properly over fully a opaque background)

So the font rendering is the same, it's just now more consistent (and the crazy colours are a bug that'll be fixed in time)

[bogas04]

well that's impressing , back late last week we had 140 hard blockers , and now its down to 104! :D

[Gaffney]

Does anyone know how to set the fonts back to default or does anyone know what the defaults are ? I changed them, the page fonts look crap and now I need to switch back :(

[kilara1988]

Are those hard blockers blocking the next beta,rc or final?I'm little confused here.And where can i see the bugs blocking beta 10?

PS:To the post above me- mine looks like this:

[Riggers]

Defaults

[Kirkburn]

2px gap at top

click on gap or tab: browser behaviour (i.e. select tab)

double click on gap: window behaviour (i.e. restore)

double click on tab: browser behaviour (i.e. new tab, etc)

drag gap: window behaviour (i.e. aero stuff)

drag tab: browser behaviour (i.e. move tab, tear off tab, etc)

If you stand back and look at that, wouldn't you agree that it would be rather complex and confusing to educate?

You can argue that Microsoft is using Fitt's law in this case with areo snap. It's a personal preference of what a person wants to happen when they throw their mouse to the top of the screen.

People with Windows 7 will tend to want the application to function the same way all of the other programs function in windows. People with Vista, or XP ( or other) won't care.

Yes, Windows uses Fitt's Law for titlebars too, but that doesn't mean it can't be replaced with an alternative use. Switching tabs is a far more common occurrence than dragging around windows (esp. in Windows which is generally designed for leaving windows maximised).

Having a different design between Vista and Win7 is something I don't think I've ever heard before - and would be another point of confusion for users.

The current design doesn't confuse or make anything more complex - it just makes finding a draggable spot more difficult. (Which could certainly stand to be improved).

I just installed the latest minefield, and my fonts in Chrome got terrible.

Careful when typing: 'Chrome' (capitalised) is a browser, whereas 'chrome' refers to the Firefox UI.

[xankazo]

Are the unselected tabs a little more opaque than before in today's nightly? I'm not so sure, but I remember them being semi-transparent... mhmm

[Punio4]

The font rendering in the latest nightly has indeed improved.

The font outlines aren't as hazy, but there are still issues with:

• font weight - type weight isn't consistent. Both across different characters, and in the letter itself. Grotesk types like Arial and Helvetica don't have the same weight on different character parts, which is weird.
  
• kerning/tracking - The characters keep sticking together in some texts. Could be a problem with the weight mentioned in #1.
  
• hinting - Still no hinting, that is, pixel-snapping. Fonts start getting rendered at (virtual) 1/3 of a pixel, leading to an assymetrical look, and issue #2.
  

The same problems have been reported numerous times on the issue tracker. Here's hoping to it getting fixed!

[Udedenkz]

The font rendering in the latest nightly has indeed improved.

The font outlines aren't as hazy, but there are still issues with:

• font weight - type weight isn't consistent. Both across different characters, and in the letter itself. Grotesk types like Arial and Helvetica don't have the same weight on different character parts, which is weird.
  
• kerning/tracking - The characters keep sticking together in some texts. Could be a problem with the weight mentioned in #1.
  
• hinting - Still no hinting, that is, pixel-snapping. Fonts start getting rendered at (virtual) 1/3 of a pixel, leading to an assymetrical look, and issue #2.
  

The same problems have been reported numerous times on the issue tracker. Here's hoping to it getting fixed!

=> Some fonts are not drawn

=> Rainbow lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll

=> Possible performance regression

[aznkid25]

well that's impressing , back late last week we had 140 hard blockers , and now its down to 104! :D

Is that the list of blockers for beta 10? What is the difference between hard & regular blockers?

[adipose]

I just installed the latest minefield, and my fonts in Chrome got terrible. I previously did not have Direct2d enabled. I enabled and it vastly improved, although I can tell the difference from GDI or whatever it used to use.

Did something happen, or did I just not notice this before. I think I'd rather stick with the old GDI style, but on this build, it seems to be worse than Direct2D.

-Dan

My bad, I should have said "chrome," as was pointed out. Did GDI fonts in the "chrome" get worse in the latest nightly?

[Guest mattburles]

down to 100 blockers :) getting closer and closer every minute and every day!

[thealexweb]

down to 100 blockers :) getting closer and closer every minute and every day!

100 blockers just till Beta 10 or till RTM?

[The_Decryptor Veteran]

The font rendering in the latest nightly has indeed improved.

The font outlines aren't as hazy, but there are still issues with:

• font weight - type weight isn't consistent. Both across different characters, and in the letter itself. Grotesk types like Arial and Helvetica don't have the same weight on different character parts, which is weird.
  
• kerning/tracking - The characters keep sticking together in some texts. Could be a problem with the weight mentioned in #1.
  
• hinting - Still no hinting, that is, pixel-snapping. Fonts start getting rendered at (virtual) 1/3 of a pixel, leading to an assymetrical look, and issue #2.
  

The same problems have been reported numerous times on the issue tracker. Here's hoping to it getting fixed!

That's on purpose, it's one of the main benefits of DirectWrite (and IE9 does it as well) GDI did pixel snapping for backwards compatibility, it was only slightly related to the hinting (it had to force stems to whole pixels boundaries, or it simply wouldn't render anything)

I haven't seen any problems with kerning (I know there is a slight issue with the advances used, but it's nothing major), and the strange character weights (like the w in Trebuchet MS) is an issue with the font's hints that doesn't show under GDI (due to the pixel snapping) and doesn't show under OS X or Linux either (They treat hints as just a guide and render closer to the geometric shape)

[Guest mattburles]

100 blockers just till Beta 10 or till RTM?

this thread should answer your question:

http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=2074139&start=15

[Chaltalian]

We're at 101 blockers now.

[Robbie Khan Reviews]

Bah, show stoppers for me are that FireFTP and FEBE aren't supported yet. Until they can be modded to work or are updated I have to stick with FF3.6!

[Chaltalian]

We're back at 100 blockers. It feels like they're teasing us with the blockers... :laugh:

[primexx]

If you stand back and look at that, wouldn't you agree that it would be rather complex and confusing to educate?

not really, it could be simplified to this:

browser elements: always browser behaviour

title bar: always window behaviour except for single-click, which doesn't do anything normally anyways

it would take advantage of fitt's law for both tab switching and window management, and doesn't compromise any functionality whatsoever.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

Does Firefox have any sort of speed dial planned? I know there's an extension but I think it looks ugly compared to the Chrome version.

[SoapyHamHocks Member]

Does Firefox have any sort of speed dial planned? I know there's an extension but I think it looks ugly compared to the Chrome version.

There was something planned with the "Home Tab" but I think that's been scrapped.

[+Audioboxer Subscriber²]

There was something planned with the "Home Tab" but I think that's been scrapped.

Hmmm

By the way are you planning a Firefox theme to go with your Windows theme?