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LCD Monitors and ClearType

XP does a nice job of enabling ClearType automatically if you have a laptop, but it doesn't know if you have an LCD display, so many people don't benefit from it.

Here's a page that helps you turn it on and tune it.

Published Tuesday, October 12, 2004 9:18 AM by ericgu

Comments

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 10:10 AM by Anuj Agarwal

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

It doesn't seem like there's a way to enable ClearType on only the LCD monitor if you have two monitors connected to your computer and only one of them happens to be LCD.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 11:07 AM by Jeremy Brayton

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

There's a ClearType powertoy that puts the wizard in the Control Panel. It's on Microsoft's site here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx. Much easier than remembering to go to a website every time you want to tune it up.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 11:13 AM by Matthew W. Jackson

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

Well, I don't care what people say--I like how ClearType looks on CRTs. That being said, ClearType certainly does look much better on an LCD, especially after fine-tuning the output.

Perhaps if the Standard anti-aliasing would kick in at smaller font sizes I'd be happy using it. I simply *hate* seeing fonts kicks in to bitmap-hinted mode, which is why I stick with ClearType on any display.

As for ClearType on one monitor and not the other...I see the desire/need but I can't imagine any good way to implement it. Programs behave oddly enough when moving an overlay between monitors, or when one screen is in 8-bit and the other is in 32-bit...although having both displays on one card helps in both of those cases. (God bless two- and three- headed display adapters!)

I suppose forcing a repaint when dragging from one monitor to another might work, but that could potentially ruin any DoubleBuffering implementations. And I forsee almost all Windows GUI applications being double- (or triple-) buffered in the future. I can only assume that Avalon is built from the ground up on buffered graphics.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 11:24 AM by Kris

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

Is it me or is ClearType not really much of an improvement? It seems to actually look blurrier. I'm going to give it one more try, but I remember feeling a big "Huh?" when I first did on my LCD monitor.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 11:26 AM by Ken

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

Cleartype would be swell, but I have three monitors on my computer, one is a CRT, the other two are LCDs, but one is RGB and the other is BGR.

No matter what Cleartype setting I use, two of the monitors will look like crap.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 2:36 PM by The World According to CK

# LCD Monitors and ClearType

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 2:40 PM by Fanzoo's Blog of Knowledge

# Eric Gunnerson Links to a WindowsXP ClearType Tuning Wizard

Tuesday, October 12, 2004 12:05 PM by Jeff

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

I agree with Kris. When I turn it on with my LCD's it just makes things look blurrier or like everything is in bold.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 4:49 PM by Chris Lundie

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

I love Cleartype. It makes fonts look the same on-screen as they do on the printed page. Having said that, it all depends on your particular display and your own perception.
Tuesday, October 12, 2004 7:27 PM by dinmo

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

:)
Wednesday, October 13, 2004 8:37 AM by Heath Stewart

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

On the LCDs I've either used or have seen (mostly ViewSonics), ClearType makes the text worse, IMO, on higher resolutions. Even on newer laptops where higher resolutions are possible, ClearType just seems to make text fuzzy while the monitor does a nice job of displaying text.

Maybe there are some LCDs out there that would benefit from ClearType, but I still haven't seen one. Older laptops with lower screen resolutions definitely do, though, and then ClearType is quiet impressive.
Wednesday, October 13, 2004 1:59 PM by Doug

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

I'm with Matthew W. Jackson:

I also like how ClearType looks on CRTs, perverse though that may be.
Thursday, October 14, 2004 6:46 PM by Sukit A.

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

Thanks for sharing the tips! Lookin' for this for some time.
Sunday, October 17, 2004 1:13 AM by hernan

# re: LCD Monitors and ClearType

Maybe Microsoft will include a not-fuzzy font smoothing technique like the one that appears on XFree86 and Mac OS X interfaces.

Cleartype makes so blurry CRTs!
Sunday, May 31, 2009 6:16 PM by Eric Gunnerson s C Compendium LCD Monitors and ClearType | Wood TV Stand

# Eric Gunnerson s C Compendium LCD Monitors and ClearType | Wood TV Stand

PingBack from http://woodtvstand.info/story.php?id=7873

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