I can’t say I love ClearType – it makes things a little to bury for my taste. If you are a user of Internet Explorer 7, then you can enable ClearType for the web. What about Firefox users?!
Well there is a little feature in Windows XP that enables ClearType on your computer. The downside – or upside, depending on your tastes – is that the entire computer, not just Firefox, will use ClearType.
ClearWha?!?
ClearType is a technology from Microsoft so I’ll let them explain:
ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.
You can read more on how the technology works here.
To use ClearType, simply right-click on the desktop and click “Properties”. Click the Appearance tab, then the “Effects” button.
In the Effects dialog, make sure the “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” check box is checked and select ClearType from the drop down list.
Click OK in all of the windows and ClearType will be enabled!
But Wait, There’s More
Microsoft has relesed a PowerToy called ClearType Tuner that will help you tweak the ClearType settings, you can download it from Microsoft.
After you install ClearType Tuner, head over to the Control Panel. If you are using Category View, click “Appearance And Themes”, then ClearType Tunning.
If you are using Classic View, click ClearType Tunning.
I won’t post any screen captures because the tuner is pretty self explanatory!
I love ClearType, it has refreshed text not just in explorer, but in Windows overall. IE7 is awesome, make sure you keep it up to date with Automatic Windows Updates.
For some reason, I get headaches after using ClearType for longer then an hour….
Also, if you love IE7 you should really give FireFox a chance! IE7 copied all of it’s new features from FF but doesn’t do as good a job as FF!
Yeah, and Firefox also copied other browsers. IE is better than Firefox.
Anybody supporting IE needs to be shot on sight. Do us web developers a favor and use a browser that actually complies to web standards..
If IE never existed, do you know how much farther the web could progress?? We’d probably be at like CSS 5 by now.
ClearType is always the first thing I activate whenever I reformat! I can’t stand it when I see friends’ computers with Cleartype turned off haha
I can’t deal with the Clear Type.. it hurts my eyes after awhile
thank you. so much.. pretty usefull post..
It just means your colour vision is weaker than your intensity perception. A lot of us get major headaches because of ClearType’s colour fringing.
I don’t know Saman, there used to be a good reason to use Firefox, but now with IE7, what’s the incentive for non-techies to use it? Your average user just wants to surf the net, they don’t need all those flashy FF extensions for that.
I see what you are saying, but you don’t need to install anything if you don’t want to!
So why would you use IE7? All of the new features have been copied from FF, but aren’t implemented as well!!
I have Firefox, but always reach for the IE icon… old habit I guess.
People in general use IE because it’s all they know. Outside these tech circles, there are still so many people who have never heard of Firefox. When they eventually get a new computer, they’ll use IE7 because it’s already there. They won’t notice if something’s not been implemented well, because they won’t care enough to download Firefox to compare.
That’s a great point, but that’s why I spread the word whenever I can!!
Spread the word whenever you can seems to me like an Evil plan
lol… enjoy your article
Never heard of this one.
Will have to try it first.
Got it!
My desktop display is now the envy of all my officemates! HA!
Is there a way to use ClearType for Firefox only? I’d love it for Firefox, but it just looks weird to me when it’s on the Desktop.
Not that I have seen but I’m sure someone is working on it!
I’ve tried clear type for a brief while on my Viewsonic LCD and personally I don’t see how it improves the readability of my text at all. I get much sharper text with clear type turned off. I also get the weirdness with my desktop text like Fertro mentioned.
I agree with you Saman that it’s definitely blurry.
Anyone who doesn’t use Firefox and comes up with some lame ass excuse as to why they still use IE needs to be shot.
But it’s okay, you keep using the IE kludge.
I’ll just sit here with Firefox and watch my web pages load faster and properly.
Never would of known! Thanks for saving my eyes. Trying to become a full time blogger and I still got a day job.
I read somewhere about the Japanese developing a flatpanel ebook reader with resolution so high that if was life like. Imagine all the trees we can save… Textbooks being easily updated and the costs saved. I think we are only about 5 years away from this!
Sweet. Thanks very much for this – I can’t believe how easy it was. I’ve been looking for a FIrefox plug-in to enable ClearType, now I got it system-wide thanks to this information.
Hi, Thanks for the tip on enabling ClearType for Firefox! Thanks to MS for creating this technology!!
ADF
wow, thanks! i dealt with briky fonts on firefox for so long, now i see the light!
Its good to see the text in awesome beauty while surfing. But is there a way which can be implemented to use clear type for Firefox only.This way, we can decrease more excuses for using IE. IE cannot support the awesome extensions that Firefox offer. For example, you don’t have to see the flashy ads which consumes lots of bandwidth and time using Ad block Plus. Good thing is that these are completely free.
I have clear-type enabled on my machine, and I think you can really notice a difference, its much sharper, whats the point in not doing it?!
hi!! Great tip you leave here!!! Thnx a lot!
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It doesn’t make any text blurry.
I’m so happy to have come across this! Now Microsoft Word and Firefox aren’t ugly pieces of garbage. I might actually use them now. Hah.
Actually, you’re right. I’ve tweaked my settings and the screen looks great!
hey there.. i’ve thought of switching to IE7 from FF, jz for the sake of the Clear Type font.. Now that i know how to apply Clear Type in FF (it gets better, to any word on the desktop !), seems like i’ll stick to FF.. lol, thx alot for the info.
By the way, i’ve used XP for years and never realised there is an ‘Effect’ button under Appearance..
Your post makes one think! Great article. Thanks for allowing me to comment!
I did it I make it
This must be a joke ?
I installed this “Clear Type” exactly as described.
With the aid of the famous toy, M$ managed to make it a
“Catastrophic Type” after all adjustments were made.
But in practical use in real world …
- Text has become less to my taste
- It is almost grey instead of black
- Which means less contrast
- Background became less white but a bit yellish (like old paper)
I don’t see the point. Maybe there is something wrong.
I will give it some trial period to see what happens in more situations.
I had the same experience, at first. Play around with the settings and tweak them so the text is more to your liking.
I must admit that my first impression was not enthousiastic at all but that after some trial period and other personal settings, the trial period was very worth it.
Now I run Clear Type most of the time with great satisfaction in almost all circumstances. But again : one might like to change fonts settings or general Windows appearances to more personal taste before results become much better as without using Clear Type.
The problem which I encounterd most was when two “ll” were very badly displayed, as being too close to one another.
Thank you very much for this. I was also looking under Firefox options to enable Clear Type. I didn’t know the only way for Clear Type to work on my FF is to enable it from WinXP. You saved my day!
Ugh. I hate ClearType.
What an intriguing option that I’d never seen before. Good find!
Hi
Your article is outstanding. I was searching for a better font for firefox after seeing IE7. Yours’ is very helpful. Thanks a lot