ClearType; Good or Bad?

http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ct/

The research above found that 80% of the time users preferred having ClearType on, but I hated it so much I couldn't turn it off quick enough. It actually hurt my eyes to read with it on.

So XP users, what do you think?

Also, I'd be interested to hear if this is simlilar in quality to the new Apple sub-pixel font smoothing.

I couldn't stand it either. I like my fonts sharp and crisp.

Y'know, at first, I hated ClearType too. It DID hurt my eyes at first. One day, I just decided that I was going to try it out to see if I could get used to it. After a couple of days, my eyes were fine.

Eye issue aside, once you get used to it, you realize how much better Mac OS X users have it. ClearType makes the fonts so smoothe... it's very nice.

I like it

Well. It was news to me when I read this. Seems it only changed thigs for the good. My eyes feel good. . . .but wait. . .been about 3 minutes now. There is this strange iridescence about everything. Oh my I'm getting dizzy. I can't feel my legs!!! What have you done to me. Why god! Why!

Basscyst

Well. It was news to me when I read this. Seems it only changed thigs for the good. My eyes feel good. . . .but wait. . .been about 3 minutes now. There is this strange iridescence about everything. Oh my I'm getting dizzy. I can't feel my legs!!! What have you done to me. Why god! Why!

Basscyst

It'll pass and be replaced by an uncontrollable urge to go out and buy more MS based products :p :p :p :p :p :eek:

lol, the clearType is actually tiny subliminal messages around each letter.

I never used to use it under OS 9 -- but ever since OS X, I've been using it. It seems a lot cleaner than it used to be (i'm guessing it's the aqua graphics) -- My eyes don't hurt as much when I read online. I dig it.

Before this post I never knew about this clear type business. So I followed the instructions on the link posted on how to turn cleartype on.

While reading the comparison texts on that link, I thought the non-cleartype text was quite boring, but I actually didn't have a preference.

Once I turned it on though, I didn't like it at all! Perhaps on OS X it looks better, but on my XP machine it looks pretty butt.

Maybe I just need to get used to it though... but not today!

There's my two bits,
Sadiq.

Ok so curiousity got the better of me and I wanted to try to get used to clearType.

When I said I didn't like it, I was looking at my desktop icons -- they're still ugly! But on the web, clearType looks really sweet! I think I'm gonna keep it.

Sadiq.

I apparently have it on but I'm sitting here under the comforting glow of a CRT so I wouldn't really know... but from those images I would definately want it on. Just reading those paragraphs, the first was very. word. by. word. whereas the second I was taking in two or three words at a time.

I turned it on when I first read this thread. After a few days, I love it on my 17" lcd.

Eeeew, you're right about it taking some getting used to. It looks pretty darn ugly at the moment. I haven't decided if I can tolerate it long enough to see if it will grow on me. :rolleyes:

P.S.
Watch out, I'm in charge of this neck of the woods now! :D

Watch out, I'm in charge of this neck of the woods now! :D
Power tripper! :p ;)

You've got that right! :D

Seriously: It sucks at first, but if you give it a few days, you'll (or at least I did) love it!

Seriously: It sucks at first, but if you give it a few days, you'll (or at least I did) love it!
Alright, I'm going to take your word for it and give it a serious shot...
The thing that still bothers me is that it is another damn thing to turn off/change when doing testing :rolleyes:

And Ryan, if this sux, I'll hold you personally responsible :p:D

I've been testing Apple's counterpart on my iBook's built in screen and my PC CRT screen. The difference is more annoying than useful on the CRT, but without it on the iBook, all text gets fudgy...

wow, I didn't know about this. I am using a laptop (of course with a LCD) and I have had cleartype on forever. I like cleartype's effect, it makes things nice and easy to read. When I compare the two, cleartype looks like it just darkens and blurs the text, but it does help make things easier to read.

Well I just got a laptop yesterday and I just tested it without cleartype on and I must say that it makes a hell of a difference on the lappy compared to my CRT.

I can't stand my laptop's LCD screen without the ClearType!

Glad I found this thread, I was just going to make one like it.

So the whole cleartype debate...where are we at? Do more people like it or hate it? Do most end users have it enabled, or should I disable it while making websites?

For those of you who get eye pain from using it, maybe your LCD output is set the wrong way. This Toy (http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx) lets you configure your cleartype settings correctly for your monitor.

I really like it, I think it makes everything look a whole lot better. However its not very helpful if every one of my web users doesn't have it enabled and sees fonts in a different way. Probably a worse way to boot.

...I just turned it on and nothing looks any different.

It works well for LCD screens, but CRT screen readability seems to actually decrease. For example:
ClearType off: http://fileanchor.com/41260-r.jpg
ClearType on: http://fileanchor.com/41262-r.jpg

It just doesn't work for CRTs. . .
BTW, yes that's the Lynx text browser. :)

Oh sweet, I've been working on my laptop for a while using <shudders>Windows</shudders> and I was wondering if there's a way to get that "Linux" feel to it.

Just went into Settings and fixed that nasty bug!

ClearType for me all the way!

It works well for LCD screens, but CRT screen readability seems to actually decrease. For example:
ClearType off: http://fileanchor.com/41260-r.jpg
ClearType on: http://fileanchor.com/41262-r.jpg

It just doesn't work for CRTs. . .
BTW, yes that's the Lynx text browser. :)
I have an LCD ;)

I don't like the clearType effect but I think IE7 uses clearType for its text. *Goes searching for a way to turn off clearType in IE7*

I like it on any flat monitors I have but on a regular crt or just clunker I just keep the text defaulted. :D

So maybe I am just worrying about this too much, but when I am developing in Photoshop, I was wondering what setting to put the AA on to most resemble that of a average persons monitor? When I put it to none, most fonts look pretty terrible, so I am almost positive i dont set it to that :D. For those of you who do mock ups, etc in photoshop, what do you set your AA to?

Cleartype seems to not affect photoshop text, so I was curious as to which setting most clearly reflects the average user.

Edit: Also, does Cleartype more resemble that of a regular CRT monitor or not? I have flatscreens at the office, but a CRT at home, and I cannot really compare the two side by side. When I turn cleartype off on my computer at the office, fonts look pretty terrible i think.

ClearType is not good for CRT monitors. AFAIK, any other monitor requires ClearType just for decent readability.

ClearType is not good for CRT monitors. AFAIK, any other monitor requires ClearType just for decent readability.

Yeah alright, I get that, but does LCD + Cleartype = CRT quality?

No... LCD's won't get CRT quality... becouse the LCD technology sucks to say the truth... didn't stop me to get an LCD though.

Yeah I knew for games and graphic-intensive things that LCDs were a no-go, especially when you want the quickest response from mouse-to-screen and high quality color, but I had no idea there was a difference in text quality as well. I really wish I could see a CRT next to an LCD on my website to check out if my fonts really do look that terrible, or if it is just cleartype-off mode making some fonts look jaggy and crappy.

I found this site with an excellent explanation of ClearType and how it works.

[http://www.grc.com/ct/cleartype.htm]

Looks like I'll be giving ClearType a test run in the near future.

ClearType should be on by default on Vista... it's definetly better to have it on when you're using an LCD... another technology to make a flawed technology less flawed :)