Is the ClearType Tuner Working For You?

[NoelC]

Interestingly, I seem to be able to affect the contrast/darkness of fonts smoothed with ClearType, but not the use of color.  I'm wondering if you have tried the ClearType Tuner and see the same thing...

 

Note that to test this thoroughly you should run the ClearType Tuner first, then log off/on, then look at GDI-rendered fonts.  I am running the ClearType Tuner a second time in this image to capture the entire effect in one image:

 

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

I am not understanding.

 

The second "magnifier lens" seems to me like using a scale of grays, while the first uses colours. 

 

What is the point/question/doubt/relevance/whatever?

 

That the setting does not apply to a "system" info window or that it only applies in the "preview" of the Clear Type tuner(and not anywhere else)?

 

This latter would imply that MS is lying (or at the very least mis-representing features), and you know how this never happens. 

 

jaclaz

Edited November 17, 2014 by jaclaz

[NoelC]

Sorry if I wasn't completely clear in my rendering of the problem. 

 

The basic assumption (which Microsoft may indeed be lying about) is that one of the parameters that can be set by the ClearType tuner is how much color should be used in the subpixel rendering.  See:

 

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/text/archive/2006/10/18/tips-for-improving-your-wpf-text-rendering-experience.aspx

 

That article suggests that the ClearTypeLevel - which is influenced by the ClearType Tuner panel I illustrated above - tunes the amount of color used in font rendering.  As I have two end monitors that are turned up sideways, I'd like to completely disable the colored subpixel rendering entirely on them.  It only serves to add color fringing, which is subtly visible.

 

 

 

In Windows 8.1 this doesn't work properly either, but I've given up on trying to get Microsoft to improve 8.1. 

 

Basically the ClearType font rendering process now uses full color in doing the subpixel rendering.  I'm quite sure this once worked (possibly in Windows 7, possibly in 8 or early versions of 8.1) - I'm not really sure when this particular thing in Windows went wrong.

 

Thus neither Windows 8.1 nor 10 appear to respond to changes to the ClearTypeLevel setting in the Avalon.Graphics key.  They use full color at all times as I illustrated in post 1 above.

 

What I'd like to know is whether if you use the panel entry I illustrated above (or enter a ClearTypeLevel value of 0 in the proper DISPLAY subkey of the Avalon.Graphics registry key) do you still see color in font rendering.

 

As a side note, and only distantly related to this issue, Internet Explorer (since version 9 I think) NEVER uses color in its subpixel rendering - which probably explains why I haven't been too bothered by this feature not working on my side monitors.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

I see now , like if the value in 

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\<displayName>\ClearTypeLevel

was totally ignored or however assumed/rendered as "100" no matters which value you actually have in it?

 

My previous doubt was about the fact that the mentioned article as well as this:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970267(v=vs.110).aspx

talk of that Registry key when related to "WPF applications" (*whatever* they are ) and not as a "generic" Windows rendering engine .

 

See also this:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/tmancini/archive/2008/02/07/do-you-find-the-wpf-editor-to-be-too-fuzzy.aspx

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

Like you, I don't know what applications use WPF.  It's possible most don't (using GDI instead, which may not be capable of this adjustment, I don't know).

 

Given that the ClearType tuner application allows the choice I was thinking that the setting ought to actually do something.  I have not been able to find an application that IS affected by this.

 

• Applications like Notepad and Wordpad, as well as dialogs like those put out by WinVer always use the full amount of color.
   
• Internet Explorer always uses 0 color.
   
• Visual Studio 2013 I believe is considered to be a WPF application, yet I can see color in the rendering of text from that application.
   

In other words, it doesn't work and it's shrouded in such mystery that it's impossible even to define what "it" is.

 

-Noel

[NoelC]

In any case, I'd really like to know if anyone else has found this setting to affect anything.

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

Just to keep everything as together as possible, a nice reply by aphelion has been posted on the "other" thread:

http://www.msfn.org/board/topic/172704-has-anyone-had-the-cleartype-tuner-work-for-multiple-monitors/

 

 

Font matters. Try using an OpenType font with PostScript outlines and you won't see any color fringing. They render as ClearType Outline rather than Natural (Default). There's a whole complicated matrix. I leave ClearType enabled but banish all color by going through the tool, and using Helvetica Neue instead of Segoe UI/Tahoma/etc.
 
There is also a registry key that the tuner modifies, that's supposed to be the end-all-be-all of whether your monitor supports subpixel antialiasing. Search for a value of "PixelStructure" and 0 means it's flat and to render using grayscale. But it still gets ignored if the font is Seogue UI.

 

jaclaz

[NoelC]

Thanks.  I had forgotten I had posted the other thread on this forum.

 

It's gratifying to know that a few folks actually understand the problem.  At least I've gotten one response now that actually answers the question, "does it happen for you?"

 

I realize the subject and detail of font rendering are subtle, but I really expected more folks to contribute to this discussion. 

 

Didn't Microsoft announce that Windows 8 was going to be all about perfection in typography?  Is that all anything is any more?  Say it, don't bother to do it?

 

-Noel

[jaclaz]

Didn't Microsoft announce that Windows 8 was going to be all about perfection in typography? 

Well, maybe it does look "perfect" on a teeny-tiny 2-to-10 inches screen with a single app full-size (which sounds the only way the good MS guys think their stupid OS should be used).

 

jaclaz

[aphelion]

They're kinda-sorta just starting to get there. The DirectWrite implementation of ClearType removes the subpixel color based enhancement in favor of a grayscale one precisely for the reason jaclaz mentioned: because handheld devices can rotate and their pixel structures shift rapidly without any way to know how they're being looked at to optimize the font rendering. Also there are various studies that show about a third of the population notices color fringing significantly more than more people and for them it's a distraction rather than an enhancement. It's probably related to the degree of variance in astigmatism -- the most common is on an axis of 180 deg and the more you have the more likely you are to have your subtle visual boundaries drawn on a vertical axis that brings out those band of color. This is on a very microscopic level though, and since it's not the majority of the population Microsoft is just waking up to the annoyance their value-adding is causing.

[NoelC]

With the vertical RGB bands I actually sense more color fringing on characters rendered with pure grayscale, as well as a bit more of a "broken up" look to them.

 

These are good reasons for having configurability.  Configurability that actually works, I mean.  EVEN IF it were system-wide, I could set it to use less color (there are three choices) and have a happier medium.

 

And why is it considered impossible that the software could automatically enable the color when the device is oriented a certain way, and disable it if turned up sideways.  Oh, that's right, computers are getting less powerful and have smaller storage.

 

-Noel

Edited November 28, 2014 by NoelC

[aphelion]

Yeah well, this stuff gets driven up the chain by a combination of haphazardness on the side of developers and zeal on the managers looking to put a gold star in their presentation. In a perfect world it'd be all thought out from the beginning, but the implement-first culture reality is that they'll get it right eventually and we'll just have to wait or find ways to work around.

 

I find that as I get very tired (over 20 hours or so) my brain starts to forget the familiarity of the screen and I notice the bands come out more, as well as the overall display looking more "liquid" if that makes sense. Conversely, CRT I see a screen door effect between pixels. Joe Sixpack doesn't use the 'puter as much.

[NoelC]

Yes, indeed.  Optimizing the thing to minimize stress leaves more room to spend that stress on real work.  Like you I'm in front of the machine continuously, except for the occasional sleep break.  My bed is in my home office; commute time is 3 or 4 seconds. 

 

-Noel