Ugly fonts

[Bill Marriott]

Signe Marie Sanne,

> Now I wonder: When a new computer is delivered to a private user,  will 
> the box with Clear type be default setting, or is it just  Standard that 
> is the default? Is the resolution 1280x1024 now used as  default?

It all depends on the particular OEM.

ClearType was specifically developed for LCD displays, and some people do 
not find it helpful when using a CRT-style display. As LCDs have fallen in 
price and improved in quality, almost all new systems ship with LCDs. And of 
course notebooks use LCDs as well. So, the smart OEM will probably ship with 
ClearType on by default.

The last time I purchased a retail standalone copy of XP Professional, the 
Standard method was enabled by default. This could easily be different now, 
as Microsoft tweaks things over time.

The standard resolutions also depend on the display shipped with the system. 
Usually its set to whatever the native resolution of the LCD happens to be.

Having said all of that, I tried distributing a standalone some time ago 
that looked much better with ClearType activated. I found that most users 
did NOT have this option turned on. I tried to use a registry hack to turn 
it on for them, but either I didn't know what I was doing, or some 
additional step was needed besides updating the registry. So I ended up just 
providing instructions for people to do this on their own.

Even with ClearType turned on, Windows fonts appear thinner, overall, than 
Mac ones. This is partly due to font metrics on the two systems, and partly 
because Macs use a "darker" smoothing algorithm than PCs.

- Bill