# Disabling ClearType in Firefox 4



## ToeClaws (Mar 24, 2011)

One thing I noticed Firefox 4 has added is ClearType (that horrid technology that's supposed to make font clearer, but only ends up making it annoying blurry). Now, by default, it's off for most fonts with one exception - downloadable fonts.

Edit: I should add, this appears to only apply to the Windows versions.

When a website publisher pushes down a custom/downloadable font, Firefox defaults to showing it in ClearType. To see what I mean, check out the title in the article below ("Light House Keepers to stay at helm"):

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/lighthouse-keepers-to-stay-at-helm/article1954378/

That urge to put on old-fashioned red and blue 3D glasses means you're looking at ClearType - which is anything but clear. To change Firefox to _not_ use ClearType, you'll need to go into it's advanced configuration. You do this by entering "about:config" in the URL bar (less the quotes, of course). When there, enter the following into the filter:

gfx.font_rendering.cleartype.use_for_downloadable_fonts 

The results should scale down to just show that entry. If you double-click on it, it will change it to "false". Restart Firefox and try the URL from the article above again - notice the title looks normal now. 

If you like ClearType (and I find it hard to believe anyone could), you can easily turn it back on. In fact, if you really like it, you can even go back to the about:config page, type "cleartype" in the filter, and enable it for all content. 

Anyway, thought I'd share!


----------



## LizardKing (Mar 24, 2011)

It doesn't look too bad on mine. Though there is a slight amount on blurring, but I certainly can't make out individual colours. Still, I disabled it anyway because it looked awkward and fuzzy.


----------



## ToeClaws (Mar 24, 2011)

LizardKing said:


> It doesn't look too bad on mine. Though there is a slight amount on blurring, but I certainly can't make out individual colours. Still, I disabled it anyway because it looked awkward and fuzzy.


 
Yeah - I just helped a co-worker disable it, and on his monitor I didn't see very much colouration either - just the blur.  Must vary a little from monitor to monitor.


----------



## LizardKing (Mar 24, 2011)

ToeClaws said:


> Yeah - I just helped a co-worker disable it, and on his monitor I didn't see very much colouration either - just the blur.  Must vary a little from monitor to monitor.


 
Partially it depends on if the monitor is arranged as RGB or BGR. 
http://www.grc.com/ctwhat.htm has a nice article on it.
I would assume it depends on the physical pixel size as well, though I'm not sure how much that varies between monitors. I've never really seen an implementation that looks right, on this screen at least. I'm pretty sure it looked a lot nicer on my old one, which was a much smaller screen.


----------



## ToeClaws (Mar 24, 2011)

LizardKing said:


> Partially it depends on if the monitor is arranged as RGB or BGR.
> http://www.grc.com/ctwhat.htm has a nice article on it.
> I would assume it depends on the physical pixel size as well, though I'm not sure how much that varies between monitors. I've never really seen an implementation that looks right, on this screen at least. I'm pretty sure it looked a lot nicer on my old one, which was a much smaller screen.



True - and yeah, pixel density would factor into it.  Personally, I've never seen an implentation of it that looked good on _any_ monitor.  To me, ClearType is a bit of an oxymoron as it tends to blur and distort fonts more than anything else.  I think it was invented because of how many people run LCDs at lower-than-intended resolutions, in which case it probably makes for a small improvement to the interpolated fonts.  Seems like every other baby-boomer I've ever helped has a 1680x1200 monitor set to 1024x768 'cause "the fonts are bigger and easier to see!).  >_< Arg.


----------



## theinkfox (Mar 24, 2011)

as far as i know the bgr-rgb arrangement isn't a factor because all the monitors have comunication pins between the monitor and the pc, actually the com pins 3 & 4 do the job
and yes i totally a agree, cleartype was made for CRTs, but the CRTs that has the TCO99 technology can use the subpixel technology (blurring the surounding pixels)


----------



## LLiz (Mar 24, 2011)

Clear type is what Microsoft calls their subpixel font rendering technology, it came with Windows XP, but not enabled by default, and from Windows Vista and higher it was switched on by default. 

If you're using Firefox 4 on Windows 7, and you notice that fonts look different, its because the entire Firefox GUI is now 100% hardware accelerated on Windows Vista and 7 by Direct2D (a 2D acceleration subsystem introduced in Windows Vista). The reason fonts look different is because Firefox now renders using DirectWrite, and it has a different way of rendering fonts compared to GDI (the old Windows graphics subsystem). 

Anything that's based on WPF, or rendered using DirectWrite will also have the same style of text. This includes IE9 which also uses Direct2D for complete hardware acceleration. This is the way of the future for Windows fonts... so you better get used to it ;-)

You can download "Anti-Aliasing Tuner 11.01.11.01" and use it to tweak your font settings. This tool lets you change to GDI font rendering, or back to standard aliased font rendering without loosing hardware acceleration. 

If you don't mind loosing hardware acceleration then DirectWrite can be disabled in "about:config" by searching for the term "direct" and then setting "gfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled" to "false". After which text in Firefox will be rendered via GDI again, but you'll loose all the advantages of hardware acceleration (which makes a HUGE difference). 

Regarding your dislike of sub pixel font rendering, it is only designed to work if you're running a LCD monitor at its native resolution, if you use it on a CRT or incorrectly configured LCD then fonts don't look as good. Otherwise, subpixel font rendering looks great to my eyes.
----
EDIT: One thing I've noticed from trying the Anti-Aliasing Tuner is that the kerning on the fonts looks awful after switching to GDI classic, so I'd probably recommend sacrificing hardware acceleration if you want to keep your old style of fonts.


----------



## Runefox (Mar 24, 2011)

Personally, I find that properly tuned ClearType looks decent, but you need to be sure to adjust it for each monitor, because otherwise it really does look like a random mess.

Now, what really sucks is DirectWrite font rendering, which is what Firefox 4 added support for (ClearType support has existed since forever). It's great for designers because you get subpixel-accurate font kerning and so on, but it looks absolutely horrible, with characters running into each other and generally looking blurred. The Steam 2010 update is a great example of this.

EDIT: With my ClearType configured for high contrast, DirectWrite enabled + AA Tuner set to rendering mode "Natural Symmetric" / ClearType level to 40% looks pretty decent to me. Then again, I prefer the heavier font rendering/smoothing that Gnome / OS X use.


----------



## LizardKing (Mar 24, 2011)

Runefox said:


> The Steam 2010 update is a great example of this.


 
Is that meant so be a series of capital "I"s or something? Augh. Terrible.


----------



## Runefox (Mar 24, 2011)

LizardKing said:


> Is that meant so be a series of capital "I"s or something? Augh. Terrible.


 Lower-case L's.


----------



## ToeClaws (Mar 24, 2011)

Personally, I hate any form of font-smoothing.  I don't have a problem with a font that occupies exact pixels - it's 100% clear.  I have it turned off on all my systems, all OS's.  No amount of tweaking can make 12 point ClearType as clear as 12 point Arial with no cleartype, smoothing or anything.


----------



## Runefox (Mar 24, 2011)

ToeClaws said:


> Personally, I hate any form of font-smoothing.  I don't have a problem with a font that occupies exact pixels - it's 100% clear.  I have it turned off on all my systems, all OS's.  No amount of tweaking can make 12 point ClearType as clear as 12 point Arial with no cleartype, smoothing or anything.


  I hate aliased fonts (and aliasing in general actually). Unless I'm using a command line. Then anti-aliasing looks... Unsettling.


----------



## ToeClaws (Mar 24, 2011)

Runefox said:


> I hate aliased fonts (and aliasing in general actually). Unless I'm using a command line. Then anti-aliasing looks... Unsettling.


 
*shakes cane at you* Darn'd youngin's!  But agreed on the command-line thing.   I installed the Terminus-X series fonts for Linux - beautiful font for use in CLI.


----------



## LizardKing (Mar 24, 2011)

I just noticed the text in the add-on manager looks absolutely *awful.*

Yes, the "F" in "FoxySpider" is a backwards 7. Tried turning it back on, but it still looks the same, even after restarting Firefox.

Any ideas?


----------



## ToeClaws (Mar 24, 2011)

LizardKing said:


> I just noticed the text in the add-on manager looks absolutely *awful.*
> 
> Yes, the "F" in "FoxySpider" is a backwards 7. Tried turning it back on, but it still looks the same, even after restarting Firefox.
> 
> Any ideas?


 
Odd, mine seems to be fine.  Nothing like your picture. :/


----------



## CyberFoxx (Mar 24, 2011)

Maybe it's just my LCD panel, but I can't stand having ClearType off. Either the font look insanely pixelated, is missing portions of the characters, or looks like somebody went a bit too heavy with the "virtual" ink and created blobs. Now, if I could just figure out where the font smoothing options are in Firefox 4 on my Linux/PPC box. Need to toggle it to see what looks good on it's CRT.


----------



## LLiz (Mar 24, 2011)

LizardKing said:


> I just noticed the text in the add-on manager looks absolutely *awful.*
> 
> Yes, the "F" in "FoxySpider" is a backwards 7. Tried turning it back on, but it still looks the same, even after restarting Firefox.
> 
> Any ideas?


 
If worst comes to worst you could create a new Firefox profile, and use Firefox Sync to transfer your bookmarks and cookies, etc from one profile to the other. 

* First set up Firefox Sync (don't worry its an encrypted service)
** Click the Firefox button and select "Set up sync"
* Now that Sync is set up, press [Windows Key] + [R]
* Type "firefox --profilemanager" into the run box and hit enter
* Create a new profile, switch to it and use Firefox sync to restore your settings

Don't worry, you can go back to your old profile at any time by running "firefox --profilemanager" again.


----------



## LLiz (Mar 24, 2011)

ToeClaws said:


> Odd, mine seems to be fine.  Nothing like your picture. :/


 
Can I just say, TowClaws seems to be a fan of the Linux console, those people generally like microscopic sized fonts at like 3px in size.


----------



## ToeClaws (Mar 24, 2011)

LLiz said:


> Can I just say, TowClaws seems to be a fan of the Linux console, those people generally like microscopic sized fonts at like 3px in size.


 
4px - I'm getting old.  Hehe, and no, I was saying that my Windows one was fine - fonts were normal size, and nothing looked odd like the screenshot of LizardKing's. :/  I'm not sure what's going on with his.


----------



## LLiz (Mar 25, 2011)

ToeClaws said:


> 4px - I'm getting old.  Hehe, and no, I was saying that my Windows one was fine - fonts were normal size, and nothing looked odd like the screenshot of LizardKing's. :/  I'm not sure what's going on with his.


 
You broke his computer by proxy... that's whats going on... well done!


----------



## ToeClaws (Mar 25, 2011)

LLiz said:


> You broke his computer by proxy... that's whats going on... well done!



Bah - if I had that as my superpower, I'd use it on all the student's systems here at work. :-|


----------

