Disable ClearType (blurry fonts) in Internet Explorer 10 on windows 7

I've installed recently the latest Internet Explorer 10 and found out again what was my issue with the previous upgrade -- blurry fonts aka ClearType! Unfortunately there are some apps that use IE engine and thus all content there is blurry too :/

I know about DWrite.dll wrapper but unfortunately it seems that it is only for IE9. Is there any other solution to disable CT in IE10?

(and for clarity - I don't like CT, I've tried tweaking it but for me it's just blurry and case pain in my eyes no matter what I do... it's probably related to the low dpi of my monitor)

Wojtek

Posted 2012-11-15T17:53:53.327

Reputation: 367

I have been in contact with Microsoft on this. They are refusing to provide any solution at any price. – Joshua – 2013-02-11T20:16:20.380

I'm pretty sure there's no official solution. The problem is that, for stupid reasons, they use grayscale smoothing, which looks extremely ugly. The only workaround I can imagine is writing a DLL like DWrite.dll wrapper which would hook the function call, but hooking function calls like this isn't easy... – user541686 – 2013-02-18T06:56:41.733

@Mehrdad actually you are mistaken. ClearType doe NOT use greyscale smoothing. Regular anti-aliasing does. ClearType uses color subpixels to achieve its results. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ClearType#How_ClearType_works.

– Mxx – 2013-02-18T08:30:05.707

@Mxx: IE uses ClearType? I thought it just uses grayscale smoothing, and that's why it's so blurry (I know for a fact Metro does). – user541686 – 2013-02-18T08:32:41.713

@Mehrdad IE9 and below use ClearType. IE10 on Win8 seems to use regular antialiasing. I don't know about IE10 on Win7. – Mxx – 2013-02-18T08:35:02.083

@Mxx: Oh shoot, I thought this was about Windows 8. I don't know about Windows 7 either, but my guess is that it's also regular AA. Didn't mean to imply ClearType is grayscale though. :) – user541686 – 2013-02-18T08:36:55.423

well, currently this issue can be filed under "ie 10 on win8" as I have migrated recently. Nevertheless DWrite doesn't seem to work – Wojtek – 2013-02-18T11:27:40.203

when I try to replace C:\Windows\SysWOW64\DWrite.dll it basically renders all HTML components unusable...

< – Wojtek – 2013-02-18T11:36:26.717

The difference is clear.

– Karan – 2013-02-22T00:02:02.957

I updated the tags to reflect Windows 8 my jusitification is one simple fact. Back on Nov 15 2012 IE10 didn't exist on Windows 7 even in a preview state. – Ramhound – 2013-02-26T13:54:27.760

Answers

In IE10, full sub-pixel anti-aliasing is removed and what remains is greyscale anti-aliasing, although they still call it "ClearType".

This is by design, as described in ClearType takes a back seat for Windows 8 Metro.

This affects the Metro UI, Metro style apps including IE, as well as desktop IE, and nothing can be done to fix it. Font-rendering on Windows 8 is optimized rather for tablets and small laptops than for PC.

Unless Microsoft returns this option in the future to IE10, and if you cannot live with ClearType, then your only option at the moment is to to turn it off for the desktop and use another non-IE browser as the default browser.

harrymc

Posted 2012-11-15T17:53:53.327

Reputation: 306 093

I'm doing such but still - some applications use IE rendering thus I cannot get away. As mentioned earlier - option wasn't here in IE9 neither but there was a workaround like DSWrite.dll – Wojtek – 2013-02-19T16:32:56.290

For IE10 desktop you can try enabling the compatibility view. I don't know of a solution for embedded ActiveX (except down-grading to Windows 7 and blocking the installation of IE10). – harrymc – 2013-02-19T16:58:53.120

I use the workaround to set the browser mode to IE8 by default. This disables HW acceleration ,but I don't care about this. Now I have the IE8 rendering back which doesn't hurt my eyes.

magicandre1981

Posted 2012-11-15T17:53:53.327

Reputation: 86 560

Doesn't work for IE11 on W8.1. – Joshua – 2014-07-10T18:33:40.080

Can you elaborate how to, using this information, set compatibility mode for all applications using IE component? – Wojtek – 2013-02-22T06:23:40.693

the link explains it. Create a DWORD with the name of the Exe (like iexplore.exe) and set the correct value. – magicandre1981 – 2013-02-22T19:32:59.333

ok, I've done that - fonts are still blurry (in IE and miranda IM) – Wojtek – 2013-02-22T19:55:46.497

which value do you use? 8000 or 8888? – magicandre1981 – 2013-02-22T19:56:18.123

I have used 8000, but reading the description 8888 will probably work better – Wojtek – 2013-02-22T20:31:08.070

Does 8888 not work either? – None – 2013-02-24T22:49:44.643

try it out. Btw, the Final of IE10 for win7 is now out. Maybe it has better font rendering. – magicandre1981 – 2013-02-26T19:44:28.517