Clear Type and IE7

some unexpected changes.

[Jon_King]

What your thoughts on Clear Type? As I write this with my newly installed IE7 I have to say the type seem harder to read. I thought it's supposed to be better?

I also browsed around a few sites and see the type handing at small sizes produces some fonts with a 'heavy side' with small areas in the center of letters filled in, they also seem lighter and kind of transparent.

In fact looking at some of my own sites it appears some of the fonts have completely changed. Arrg!

Maybe it's a matter of getting used to, maybe I'm gonna have to redo some fonts in some sites, maybe I hate this upgrade. Your thoughts please.

[tedster]

We had some discussion back in October on this:
[webmasterworld.com...]

Particularly helpful for some people is Microsoft's Clear Type Tuner [microsoft.com]

[kaled]

Fonts do look dramatically different with ClearType. I reckon it's worth checking appearance with and without it. HOWEVER, if you've only just tried it (and you're using a flat panel monitor) give yourself a week to get used to it before making any changes.

If you're not using a flat-panel monitor, disable ClearType.

Kaled.

[Jon_King]

Thank you Tedster for the heads-up. I did install the tweaker, and it helps.

The most disturbing thing is the default settings of the new IE install dramatically affect the fonts on our sites.

Knowing most users will simply choose the default install, it could very well mean rethinking the fonts in existing sites.

Seriously, even the very common Helvetica bold at certain sizes looks very different. It looks good from a readability standpoint, but not from a style/design point of view. This font will have to be changed for continuity with other page elements on many of the sites we manage.

I think this may a bigger deal than most designers realize at the moment.

[CritterNYC]

I much prefer ClearTweak to Microsoft's tuner. It gives you much better control over the appearance.

[ioisland.com...]