Firefox 52 still rendering DirectWrite even after forcing GDI in about:config

[sdfox7]

Firefox 52.x defaults to ClearType.

Changing the

about:config

values from default -1 to 2, and from true to false, is supposed to force GDI rendering in Firefox, but Firefox is still displaying ClearType in the interface and on webpages.

Any suggestions? Perhaps it is a bug.

The menus and webpages should have "unsmoothed" appearance similar to this:

[heinoganda]

Starting with version 52 of Firefox I have the impression of blurring, particularly clearly visible in the menu area. In any case, this has something to do with the cleartype function.

I Choose generally no cleartype, that gives me headaches and eye fatigue quickly.

My configuration

Edited March 20, 2017 by heinoganda

[sdfox7]

15 hours ago, heinoganda said:

Starting with version 52 of Firefox I have the impression of blurring, particularly clearly visible in the menu area. In any case, this has something to do with the cleartype function.

I Choose generally no cleartype, that gives me headaches and eye fatigue quickly.

My configuration

Heinoganda

I understand what you are saying. I was trying to say that changing the values from "-1" to "2" is supposed to force GDI classic and disable ClearType.

If I don't receive any feedback I will submit a bug to Mozilla.

[Dclem]

I am currently running Firefox 52.0.1 (32 bit) on Windows XP SP3.   I have cleartype enabled in the control panel.  I have not noticed any difference in the display of Firefox since upgrading from version 51 to version 52 if that is any help?  Possibly something unique with your configuration?

[Bersaglio]

Blurred fonts problem in FF 52.x ESR can be easely solved: type about:config in address bar, press Enter, press "I'll be careful, I promise!" button, search for gfx.content.azure.backends variable and change it from direct2d1.1,skia,cairo to direct2d1.1,cairo (remove skia). Then restart Firefox.

[heinoganda]

Thank you, that worked! Now I have stung again, sharp characters in the menu of Firefox 52.

[sdfox7]

3 hours ago, Bersaglio said:

Blurred fonts problem in FF 52.x ESR can be easely solved: type about:config in address bar, press Enter, press "I'll be careful, I promise!" button, search for gfx.content.azure.backends variable and change it from direct2d1.1,skia,cairo to direct2d1.1,cairo (remove skia). Then restart Firefox.

Worked like a charm, thanks!

[Mcinwwl]

Bersaglio, you have saved my eyes. Thanks !

BTW might be worth punning on MFSN frontpage ^^

Edited March 25, 2017 by Mcinwwl

[Dave-H]

A noticeable improvement here too, although I must say that I hadn't actually noticed a problem.

Thanks!

 

[sdfox7]

3 hours ago, Dave-H said:

A noticeable improvement here too, although I must say that I hadn't actually noticed a problem.

Thanks!

 

Dave

I have NEVER been a fan of ClearType.

Internet Explorer 7 came with it enabled it by default, I never enabled it in the XP operating system, and I don't want it in my Firefox browser.

[Dave-H]

I never used ClearType when I had a tube monitor of course, but since I've had a flat screen monitor I actually do think it's better, as long as it's correctly tuned of course, which is a very big "if"!

Do you have the ClearType Tuner for XP installed? If not, you should give it a try. Even if you still don't like the result, at least you will have made sure that it's as optimised as it can be, because if it isn't, the results can be truly horrendous!

[Mcinwwl]

Ooooh, leave XP's with their beauty of pixelosis. Real fonts have corners!

[j7n]

Excuse the bump. I too strongly dislike ClearType. The tuning is to a large degree in the fonts, their hinting. Firefox's setting was to use cleartype for downloaded webfonts, and that is usually for the best, because they were designed recently assuming CT was on.

But Тahoma and Verdana - Windows system and classic web fonts - do not work with it. If I choose dark type (the first squares in the tuner software), the font weight increases and characters in boldface text bleed together and have decreased readability. If I choose light type, bold menu items look acceptable, but regular text is too light and increasingly purple. Maybe this is why they replaced the system font with Segoe.

ClearType also doesn't work on cheap flat screen with either narrow viewing angle (laptop / TN) or poor response time (PVA): if I sit close to such as screen or scroll text on it, vertical lines in glyphs will become distinctly purple and the color will vary across a line of text. These screens were the only types available when XP was released, and the system also didn't have any special fonts until Office 2007, and looked horrible.

Also no anti-aliasing in the vertical direction. The letter O has top and bottom pixellated but not the sides.