Text displayed in some core fonts appears blurred in Internet Explorer 9 on a computer that is running Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2
Posted by jpluimers on 2011/08/02
Right now there are so many ways to display text, that – depending on your physical display (CRT, LCD, etc) – all behave differently.
Even Microsoft has released a patch (see the below quote from KB 2545698 that got released last month).
This issue occurs because of a design change to how Internet Explorer 9 renders text. By default, Internet Explorer 9 uses sub-pixel positioned ClearType to render text by using DirectWrite, whereas Internet Explorer 8 uses whole-pixel positioned ClearType to render text by using the Microsoft Windows graphics device interface (GDI).
I’m wondering if there is a way to make it work ‘right’ on every type of display combination.
Do you know any?
–jeroen
The Wiert Corner - irregular stream of stuff 
Petr Vones said
No success on Windows Server 2008 32 bit Service Pack 2. The first problem is that the KB patch is from LDR brach (see http://blogs.technet.com/b/mrsnrub/archive/2009/05/14/gdr-qfe-ldr-wth.aspx for details). I managed to tweak it using following steps http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/136644-help-cmd-line-to-install-ldrqfe-branch-of-a-msu-hotfix/ The installation went without errors but IE 9 fonts are still blurry and unreadable :-/ Is it that complicated to introduce a global option to turn it off ? There are reports that some advanced nVidia drivers can do it.
nospam said
Something Orwellian about something called ClearType that in fact renders text fuzzy.
Petr Vones said
It is the same story as eariler WPF version (the issue is finally fixed in 4.0 final release, otherwise VS 2010 would be useless for me) or Silverlight. There are people who can not stand the ugly unreadable blurry fonts all these “cleartype” technologies produces. I still use IE8 just because this issue, I don’t think there is currently any solution.
The same problem persists in Windows 7, even with classic theme there are still some ugly blurry fonts displayed in various windows locations. I just want an option “Turn off all blurry fonts in all applications and use the nice readable GDI font rendering all the time only”.
IL said
Does it make any noticable difference? Isn’t it like antialiasing works in games – picture is smoothed by blurring the edges.
jpluimers said
I’m blessed with a very good eyesight, which makes me really sensitive to the colour-based antialising.
That’s why I still ove Windows XP: it allows you to turn on ClearType completely.