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From what I remember, that is actually supposed to "smooth" text in some browsers. Text used to look too sharp in Chrome (haven't had this problem in a while) s

From what I remember, that is actually supposed to "smooth" text in some browsers. Text used to look too sharp in Chrome (haven't had this problem in a while) sometimes. I believe that was one of the "fixes!"

XaspR8d 10y ago
I think that family of ClearType bugs persisted for like 5 years on Chrome for Windows (I only noticed it fixed last fall?) so I'm not surprised people were attempting extreme fixes. The text looked really bad. EDIT: Sibling post suggests it was fixed in 2014. I wonder what was wrong with my home laptop then, haha...
nxc18 10y ago
Until about 2014, Chrome didn't support ClearType on Windows, which is why text looked so awful compared to other browsers. Mac's renderer happens to err on the side of drawing more pixels in case of ambiguity (e.g. calculation yields fractions of a pixel); this is why everything on a mac looks like its in bold with the default settings. Windows tends to err on the side of not rendering those pixels but this is configurable with ClearType. If you choose non-ClearType (what Google did in the early days), you have chosen to have ugly text that will not look good on anything other than a CRT in the 90s. Now, somewhat ironically, Google's text actually looks somewhat better than Edge's; Microsoft stopped using subpixel rendering (i.e. the best part of ClearType) in Metro/Windows Store Style/Modern/UWP apps years ago, while Chrome is still taking advantage of the feature.
- odonnellryan 10y ago
  What's the reason for this? Why wouldn't you just use ClearType all the time?
  - nxc18 10y ago
    As for why Chrome didn't implement it early on, they likely just hadn't bothered to use the newer APIs/use the APIs properly. The reason why subpixel rendering is disabled in modern/WinRT/UWP apps, as I understand it, is likely to do with rotation. Modern apps are designed for tablet use, where the display may be oriented in any particular direction. Subpixel rendering depends on knowing the layout of the pixel elements themselves (the position of the R, G, & B elements relative to the greater pixel). When rotated, the layout changes and subpixel rendering makes things look worse. In an ideal world, subpixel rendering would be turned off only in situations where the display is rotated. It appears that at least the rendering surface for Edge does use subpixel rendering, just not UI elements, which is an improvement over no use at all.

XaspR8d 10y ago

I think that family of ClearType bugs persisted for like 5 years on Chrome for Windows (I only noticed it fixed last fall?) so I'm not surprised people were attempting extreme fixes. The text looked really bad. EDIT: Sibling post suggests it was fixed in 2014. I wonder what was wrong with my home laptop then, haha...

nxc18 10y ago

Until about 2014, Chrome didn't support ClearType on Windows, which is why text looked so awful compared to other browsers. Mac's renderer happens to err on the side of drawing more pixels in case of ambiguity (e.g. calculation yields fractions of a pixel); this is why everything on a mac looks like its in bold with the default settings. Windows tends to err on the side of not rendering those pixels but this is configurable with ClearType. If you choose non-ClearType (what Google did in the early days), you have chosen to have ugly text that will not look good on anything other than a CRT in the 90s. Now, somewhat ironically, Google's text actually looks somewhat better than Edge's; Microsoft stopped using subpixel rendering (i.e. the best part of ClearType) in Metro/Windows Store Style/Modern/UWP apps years ago, while Chrome is still taking advantage of the feature.

odonnellryan 10y ago
What's the reason for this? Why wouldn't you just use ClearType all the time?
- nxc18 10y ago
  As for why Chrome didn't implement it early on, they likely just hadn't bothered to use the newer APIs/use the APIs properly. The reason why subpixel rendering is disabled in modern/WinRT/UWP apps, as I understand it, is likely to do with rotation. Modern apps are designed for tablet use, where the display may be oriented in any particular direction. Subpixel rendering depends on knowing the layout of the pixel elements themselves (the position of the R, G, & B elements relative to the greater pixel). When rotated, the layout changes and subpixel rendering makes things look worse. In an ideal world, subpixel rendering would be turned off only in situations where the display is rotated. It appears that at least the rendering surface for Edge does use subpixel rendering, just not UI elements, which is an improvement over no use at all.