Best. Tip. Ever.
Jun 09 2005
Picked this up from Geeky, but I think it deserves as wide an audience as possible so I’m reposting it here:
- Right-click on your desktop and select Properties.
- Click on the Appearance tab.
- Click the Effects button.
- Check the box (if it’s not checked already) that says “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts”.
- In the dropdown box just below the checkbox, select ClearType (default is Standard).
The improvement is incredible! It’s like… using a Mac, I guess.
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Comments
- Matthew Pennell
- 1739 days ago
- Excellent tip, Peter – thanks!
- #2
- Patrick (All-is-Well)
- 1738 days ago
- I reposted your tip and thought you might be interested in a third facet for the power geek.
Windows has a powertoy for cleartype tuning .
It includes the tuning wizard and direct access to the advanced settings. Handy stuff. - #3
- Matthew Pennell
- 1737 days ago
- Joe Clark told us all to do exactly the same thing at @media yesterday, so hopefully there’s a ClearType revolution on the way!
- #4
- Matthew Pennell
- 1736 days ago
- Well, thanks for your valuable contribution there, Hans…
- #6
- Mike Purvis
- 1735 days ago
- Maybe I’m just too used to the harsh edges that Windows provides, but I always thought ClearType made it look… blurry. Like, not crisp enough.
And then someone told me that ClearType was specifically designed for LCDs… but that could be lie. - #7
- Matthew Pennell
- 1735 days ago
- Yeah – something to do with LCD screens having vertical stripe type RGB/BGR subpixels. Some people like it on CRT screens as well, but it won’t look as good, due to the way the subpixels are arranged.
- #8
- Hans
- 1735 days ago
- I’ve never really been able to use Windows XP on a CRT without my eyes hurting. Either the text’s blurry (“Clear”Type) or everything looks like a mutilated pixel font (no anti-aliasing).
Thankfully, I have LCDs here at home.
And for the record, is there a way to tweak text anti-aliasing in OS X? I’ve only used OS X on public computers before, and I’m planning to get a Powerbook… - #9
- Joshua Kendall
- 1730 days ago
- Wow good tip, I just installed and ran the XP PowerToy for it and it really shows a difference. It’s good and easy to read.
A real plus when you need glasses to read, even though I don’t wear them at the PC it is super crisp and clear. - #10
(either web-based or downloadable) that really gets the best out of ClearType.