Tag: cleartype

Seven Tips and Tricks For Windows 7 – Part 2

May 29, 2009 by Jason

Put a “Pin Up” of the Folders You Use Most.
Windows® 7 allows you to “pin up” the folders you use most on your taskbar. Simply hold your mouse over the
favorite folder, right click, and drag it onto the taskbar. Windows 7 automatically pins itself to the Explorer Jump List. To open the folder, right click on the Explorer icon and select the folder you want.

Double-Up Your Windows.
When working within an application, sometimes you just want more of a good thing. To open another window of the same application (assuming the app can run more than one instance), simply hold
Shift and click the taskbar icon. You can also middle-click your third mouse button for the same result.

Clear, Crisp Display—It’s In Your Control.
Windows 7 makes it easy for you to adjust your display settings, making text and images easier to view in all the various locations where you work on your computer. Your laptop display may look fine at work but a little dark at home. Adjust the text and image settings easily with two snappy applets: ClearType Text Tuning and Display Color Calibration. Run cttune.exe and dccw.exe, or look them up in the Control Panel. Read More»

Windows 7 Fonts

February 16, 2009 by Jason

As an integral part of taking the graphics capabilities of Windows 7 to the next level, Microsoft has also catalyzed the evolution of text, both in relation to typography and text rendering, in the next iteration of the Windows client. According to Microsoft, over 80% of the time spent in front of a computer is related to either reading or writing text. This is why the Redmond company has poured resources into improving the quality of text in Windows 7, quality which is synonymous with typography. “As a platform, the role of Windows is to deliver great presentation of text and offering software developers great tools for creating the best presentation possible in the context of the software they develop,” revealed Worachai Chaoweeraprasit, a development lead on the Graphics feature team.

First off, Windows 7 is designed to kick ClearType up a notch. Taking advantage of the LCD pixel architecture and leveraging the human visual system, ClearType manages to spread the energy associated with a single pixel to the neighboring sub-pixels in, making text appear sharper. In Windows 7, ClearType comes with increased clarity, allowing end users to opt from a wider variety of granular choices via the ClearType Text Tuner. Read More»

Fine tune ClearType Settings

February 26, 2007 by Jason

Here are two quick reg hacks for customizing the appearance of ClearType screen font smoothing:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
FontSmoothingOrientation = 1, 2 or 3
FontSmoothingGamma = Between 1000 to 2000

FontSmoothingGamma

This setting basically adjusts the brightness. The higher you go the brighter. Read More»

Disable ClearType font smoothing

February 26, 2007 by Jason

There is no other feature that I have heard so much positive and negative feedback about than ClearType screen font smoothing. Some users think this feature is great while other complain that it makes the text blurry and hard to read. If you are one of those that do not like ClearType then this tweak is for you.

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Navigate through HKEY_CURRENT_USER, Control Panel and Desktop.
3. Set FontSmoothingType to 1.
4. Set FontSmoothing to 1.
5. Reboot.