Turning on ClearType in Windows XP

When Internet Explorer on my system was upgraded to ver.7, I noticed a difference in the way fonts were rendered in the browser. It looked smoother and had a soft-focus quality to it. I didn’t know exactly what it was but I liked what I saw. But I like using Firefox more than the way any smooth soft-focus display appears. That’s when Ash told me that she had turned on ClearType [found via The Scian] that rendered fonts for all of Windows just as it did in Internet Explorer. It is rare that she stumbles upon tech fixes before I do but I was glad to find the tool to turn on ClearType in Windows XP. So what exactly is ClearType:

With Windows XP, ClearType delivers improved font display quality over traditional forms of font smoothing or anti-aliasing. ClearType improves readability on color LCD displays with a digital interface, such as those in laptops and high-quality flat panel displays. Readability on CRT screens can also be somewhat improved.

This comparative image should give you an idea. You can either use the online tool to turn on ClearType on your system. If the tool doesn’t work, as it was in my case, you can always download the ClearType Tuner PowerToy and do it offline. Running this program will activate and tune your ClearType settings and provide and option to customize it via the Windows Control Panel. The wizard to set it up is pretty straightforward. Enjoy your smooth fonts and better display on LCD screens.

“Turning on ClearType in Windows XP” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=1931] was published Saturday, March 10th, 2007 at 4:00 pm by Patrix, filed under Design, Technology, and tagged as Design, display, fonts, microsoft, Technology, Windows. Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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http://ckunte.com/ Chetan
You are kidding me right? About finding this now?!
Cleartype was perhaps the only reason — at least at the time — I upgraded to XP 5 years ago. Cleartype powertoy has been around for all those years hence!
I got hooked to font smoothening since my time on SGI Indy machines from the hay-days of ’96 (We used them for PDMS by Cad center). (SGIs were gut-screaming industrial strength extreme machines of those times.) The feature was awesome. And when XP released its feature list, I couldn’t believe it! coming to home PCs.
http://ckunte.com/ Chetan
And a little before XP was scheduled to be released, Steve Gibson (of GRC fame) wrote an article and a tuner that did something similar, but his tool had to be calibrated to each font. I did that too, even though it was a pain. When XP was installed on my machine, the magic finally hit the screen.
http://pikeyspeak.wordpress.com The Piker
*Off Topic*
Just wondering what World Cup package you settled on. I blogged about some of them. But not fully decided on any of them :(
http://www.ipatrix.com Patrix
Chetan, I am usually behind the curve on OS matters and even thought so that I might be blogging about stone-age stuff when I wrote this. But regardless, I remain impressed each time I look at my screen. Microsoft is not all that bad :)
Piker, haven’t settled on anything yet. Have to return to my links once again. Will check out your post too.

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Turning on ClearType in Windows XP

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