Distorted fonts in browsers

2

0

My computer seems to have problms with rendering fonts. At first, they are often looking good. And I found out that if I cltr-a everything and deselect it, they get rendered OK for a while. But, after scrolling or inputting something, they get distorted again.

Even now, as I am writing this question, the text area and the preview below get distorted and un-distorted again.

Here is a screenshot of how the distortion looks. I wasn't sure if printscreen would be able to capture the distortion at all, but it did.

I am using Radeon HD 4850 graphics card. I have up-to-date drivers. The problem exists at both of my monitors. I have tried turning ClearType off and on again. Notepad++ or libre office do not seem to have the problem. I encouter it in the browsers mostly - I have tested Chrome and Firefox, both of which have the same problem. Interestingly, Internet Explorer works OK (but it's IE, I'm not going to use it)

The problem started occuring at one point, but I can't seem to be able to determine what caused it in the first place.

distortion example

Dariusz

Posted 2013-10-23T10:51:48.603

Reputation: 133

1What browser is it? And what about other browsers? – Der Hochstapler – 2013-10-23T10:54:45.553

I have tested it under Chrome and Firefox, both act the same way. IE seems to work OK though. – Dariusz – 2013-10-23T10:56:34.973

1Could you try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox. Tools > Options > Advanced > General > Browsing Use hardware acceleration when available and see if that helps? – Rik – 2013-10-23T11:21:45.253

@Rik tried it right now, didn't help – Dariusz – 2013-10-23T11:31:59.423

2

Copying from here. Try to set the gfx.content.azure.enabled pref to false or if this didn't help disable Direct2D by setting the gfx.direct2d.disabled pref to true on the about:config page and leave hardware acceleration otherwise enabled.

– Rik – 2013-10-23T11:39:02.643

@Rik thanks, the gfx.content... did the trick. Add an answer please. A Chrome solution would also be nice, though. – Dariusz – 2013-10-23T11:59:01.607

Answers

2

There is a solution for Firefox here. (see below)

Apparently setting the gfx.content.azure.enabled to false works here. It disable the use of the "(Mozilla) Azure API" by Firefox. So there is something wrong there.

Azure is a new stateless 2D graphics API that Mozilla has been working on to eventually replace Cairo.

I think Azure makes use of "Hardware acceleration" in it's own way (without looking at the setting in the dialogs) so for Chrome you could also try disabling "Hardware acceleration". You can do this as follows:

You can type the following direct in the addressbar:

chrome://flags/#force-compositing-mode-2

Set it to disabled. Click the Relaunch now at the bottom.

If that solves it for Chrome there is definitively something wrong with the hardware acceleration and ultimately this needs to be addressed (if wanting hardware acceleration of course :).

Try to disable hardware acceleration in Firefox.

Try to set the gfx.content.azure.enabled pref to false or if this didn't help disable Direct2D by setting the gfx.direct2d.disabled pref to true on the about:config page and leave hardware acceleration otherwise enabled.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/about:config

Rik

Posted 2013-10-23T10:51:48.603

Reputation: 11 800

Asked: 2013-10-23T10:51:48.603

Viewed: 1 704 times

Active: 2013-10-23T12:27:28.110