Font smoothing updates?

Hi,

I skipped Windows 8.1 after trying it for a while since font smoothing was terribly bad in some parts of the OS (such as Metro) and I found tons of threads on forums that tried to solve this problem for people who experience bad looking fonts like me but I didn't have the time & patience to go through all the testing thinking that this problem shouldn't be existent in the first place! so I skipped Windows 8.1 entirely.

Now that Windows 9 has been in the hands of some people, I'd like to ask if I should feel optimistic about any updates regarding this matter or no noticeable updates? The leaked screenshots doesn't show anything clearly for me.

Please let me know your feedback & opinion about any new improvements to the font smoothing used in Windows 9 compared to its predecessor & how does it compare to one of its main rivals, OS X Mavericks?

Regards...

Lee said:

Why is it when something goes wrong with a computer the first thing that causes the problem is the OS regardless if it is Apple, Linux, or Microsoft who created the OS. It couldn't be the computer or the devices within the computer just maybe the individual who owns it is causing the problem. . .no it just can't be anything put the OS. . .how silly of me to think otherwise. . .

Font smoothing has very little to do with hardware specially when it shows up only at certain places but not others. It may be influenced by GPU driver but that would show everywhere.

CountMike said:

Font smoothing has very little to do with hardware specially when it shows up only at certain places but not others. It may be influenced by GPU driver but that would show everywhere.

Actually, Font Smoothing has quite a bit to do with hardware. Sub-pixel rasterization is hardware dependent. Different displays have different orientations of their individual red green and blue pixels.

The reason you see fonts look different in different places is because different software renders fonts with different technology. Some software uses the built-in rendering, while others use "generic" rendering that doesn't try to use sub-pixel rendering. There are at least half a dozen different rendering engines in common use in Windows apps, from GDI and GDI+ to WinRT (ie modern/metro), to custom engines used in either Firefox or Chrome (can't remember which). Some of them depend on whether you are running your monitors in native resolution, some of them don't.. some of them depend on the orientation of the sub-pixels, some of them don't... it's a crazy world to get this right.

This is one reason why some people see the problem, and others don't... and why quite often the problem does not show up if you simply take a screenshot and let someone else see it. You HAVE to see it on the screen of the user's hardware to see it.