While I personally like font smoothing in Internet Explorer, I know of at least one user who does not like it at all.

Enter DWrite.dll wrapper, two dynamic link libraries that turn off blurry fonts, in fact all font smoothing, in 32-bit versions of Internet Explorer 9.

The following two screenshots show part of Ghack’s frontpage with and without font smoothing in Internet Explorer 9.

font smoothing enabled

font smoothing disabled

Please note that you need to click on both screenshots for a full sized image to assess the quality of both images.

Lets say you would like to disable font smoothing in Internet Explorer 9, either because you are experiencing blurry fonts or because you do not like to work with font smoothing.

For that, you need to head over to the website of the developer of DWrite.dll Wrapper. The libraries are a port of the Firefox Anti-Aliasing Tuner that I have linked in the first paragraph of the article. It is basically the same deal but without the sliders and options to customize the output.

The libraries are offered in a zip file. You need to download the zip file to your computer and extract it afterwards. Move or copy the two libraries to your Internet Explorer 9 directory. This is located under C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\ on 32-bit systems and C:\Program Files (x86)\Internet Explorer\ on 64-bit systems. Please note that you need administrative privileges to copy or move the two libraries to the Internet Explorer folder.

The changes take effect immediately. Just close and restart Internet Explorer 9. You should see a visible difference on all pages, since font smoothing, anti-aliasing and ClearType have been disabled.

You can at anytime delete the two libraries if you want to enable font smoothing again in the browser.

The very same files can also be used for other programs that use Internet Explorer. This includes the Google Talk desktop client for instance. Just copy or move the libraries to the folder containing the program executable and it will be used automatically on the next start of the program.

Lastly, another file is offered to disable ClearType in HTML Help (CHM Viewer). Again, visit the developers website for detailed instructions on how to do that. The libraries are updated regularly, make sure you check back often to always work with the latest version of them. (via)

The developer of ClearType Switch decided to create an application to give users a quick option to enable or disable ClearType and related features.

Users who start the application can enable or disable text aliasing (which is called smooth edges for screen fonts in the Windows options) and ClearType with the click of the mouse instead of having to navigate through menus or finishing a wizard before they can do the same.

ClearType Switcher links to the internal ClearType Tuner and Windows and Color Appearance control panel applet giving users the option to configure settings offered in those modules as well.

Windows users who are looking for the manual options can follow the guide by the developer of the application:

• In Windows XP all these options are accessible via “Display properties” -> “Appearance” -> “Effects”. Quite logical, isn’t it?
• In Windows Vista, if you have Aero enabled, you’ll have to click on “Open classic appearance properties for more color options” in “Window Color and Appearance” Control Panel applet. A little bit strange…
• Windows 7 went even further! You cannot turn off ClearType without completing a useless wizard :) I’ve wasted about 15 minutes looking for the “smooth font edges” option but wasn’t able to find it at all! Only googling helped to solve this quest. The option was separated from ClearType settings and moved to “Control Panel” -> “All Control Panel Items” -> “Performance Information and Tools” -> “Adjust Visual Effects”, in a huge list of checkboxes there is a “Smooth edges of screen fonts” item

ClearType Tuner is compatible with 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows operating system. Downloads are provided at the developer homepage.

the Gdipp project has been designed as a replacement of the standard Windows text renderer to bring text rendering in Windows closer to how text is rendered in Mac OS and Linux distributions.

Take a look at the two screenshots below to see the difference in text rendering quality.

Cleartype text rendering example:

Gdipp text rendering example:

Cleartype:

Gdipp:

Gdipp text rendering is offered as a 32-bit and 64-bit version most suitable for installation on computers running Windows 7 or Windows Vista. The developers say that it might also run on Windows 2003 and Windows XP but state that the default installation mode might cause system stability problems.

Gdipp can be installed in three different modes. It can be installed a s service which is the recommended mode combining the best compatibility with system wide rendering. The Registry mode is not as stable but provides the best text rendering while the program mode will only switch the text renderer for programs that are dropped onto the program shortcut.

Users will notice that text flickers after it is loaded into applications like notepad or Word which is something the developer’s should work on.

The gdipp project is the relaunch of the suspended gdi++.dll project with the following superior features:

* Seamless support for 32/64-bit Windows. The main reason that gdi++ does support 64-bit Windows is the Detours hooking library, which is free only for its 32-bit version. gdimm instead uses the open-source EasyHook library, and support 64-bit Windows from scratch.
* DirectWrite support.
* Vertical text in programs like PowerPoint are correctly rendered. There is no color glitch in PowerPoint presentation.
* Subtitles in various media players (SPlayer，KMPlayer，PotPlayer …) are rendered without problem, no matter which video renderer is selected. On the contrary, subtitles are displayed only with the Overlay Mixer in gdi++ case.
* Aero window title can be rendered correctly (by default rendered with ClearTyep).
* No glitch after changing the wallpaper in Windows 7 when Aero is enabled.
* Rotated text are displayed correctly.
* Numerous compatibility enhancement (e.g. the control character in the Date/Time window in Windows 7).
* So on and so forth…

Windows users who want to test the text rendering capabilities of Gdipp can download the 32-bit or 64-bit client from the Google Code project website. The website contains several additional comparison screenshots and detailed documentation of advanced features and configuration options.

Lifehacker have an article up on their website detailing the process of switching from the default fonts used by most websites and the computer system to the Vista fonts. This is easier done than one would think. A user who wants to enable those fonts in the Firefox web browser needs to have a working installation of Microsoft PowerPoint 2007, Microsoft Office 2007 or the free Microsoft PowerPoint Viewer 2007. This ensures that the Vista fonts are installed on the computer system. Vista users do not need to perform this operation since their operating system ships with those fonts.

The next step involves switching to ClearType if the computer is connected to an LCD monitor. This can be done with a powertoy from Microsoft.

It is then time to configure Firefox to use the Vista fonts instead of the default fonts after installation of the fonts and enabling ClearType. This is done in the Tools > Options > Content menu. A click on the advanced button under Fonts & Colors will display the following configuration menu. Just switch to the same fonts and settings that are shown in the following image:

It is important to uncheck the checkbox at the bottom to prevent pages from selecting the fonts. The result can be a better readability and is something worth to try.