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Has anyone figured out a way to GLOBALLY disable Cleartype in Vista?

J

John

Moderator Emeritus<br>Elite Member
Unfortunately I can't stand cleartype and I'm not alone. I am aware of how to do it this way:

1. Right click desktop, click personalize.
2. Click "windows color and appearence"
3. Click "Open classic appearance properties for more color options."
4. Click effects.
5. Uncheck "Use the following method to smooth screen fonts"

I can also disable it in IE7.

However there is still a lot of cleartype in the OS that is not disabled. I don't see any global settings, and I noticed that when I was going to install Office 2007 Enterprise in XP the setup screen had cleartype. IMHO it should be disabled by default because in most cases it simply blurrs the text.
 
You must be using a CRT, because with most LCD, cleartype is noticably smoother and easier to read. When it is off, I see terrible anti-alias jaggies. Sure it looks sharper, but it has jaggies, which I can't stand. With a CRT, I don't see these because the CRT kind of blurs the font, in which case cleartype will blur it even more.
 
I'm using 2x 1800FP LCD's and they do not do well with cleartype. Regardless, I have used dozens of various LCD monitors, including those on laptops, and my personal preference is to have cleartype disabled. As it stands Vista will not allow you to globally disable it which is a shame.
 
Originally posted by: John
I'm using 2x 1800FP LCD's and they do not do well with cleartype. Regardless, I have used dozens of various LCD monitors, including those on laptops, and my personal preference is to have cleartype disabled. As it stands Vista will not allow you to globally disable it which is a shame.
Click to expand...

Same here. Cleartype looks horrible on my 1800fp no matter how I try to adjust the settings.
 
Originally posted by: John
IMHO it should be disabled by default because in most cases it simply blurrs the text.
Click to expand...
Blurs the text *and* creates a pretty rainbow of colors around the font edges. Yuck...
 
In step 4, if you click Advanced instead of Effects, then click on the text shown in the find-it pic, and switch them from Segoe UI to Tahoma or something that's not an inherent CT font, that may help turn off more of the ClearType.

Any good?
 
The Dell 1800's required the "Cleartype Tuner" to function correctly. The pixel layout is different on these displays. Is there the option to use the "Cleartype Tuner" in vista???
 
1. Right-click Computer icon on desktop
2. Click "Advanced System Settings"
3. Click the first "Settings" button (under Performance)
4. Uncheck "Smooth edges of screen fonts"
5. Click OK
 
im liking my samsung 225bw more and more. it had backlight bleed and not very good contrast from what i thought, but man i never had text or cleartype problems. with or without cleartype this screen has amazing text. with cleartype its even better, and vista did the right thing by enabling it default. i bet there will be less then 3% of users that want to disable cleartype in vista.
 
shekondar, unfortunately that doesn't globally disable cleartype.

zig3695, I appreciate your opinion on cleartype, but the fact of the matter is we all have opinions on what looks good to our own two eyes. Since it can be enabled/disabled globally in XP one would think Vista would offer the same choice. Being forced to view things a certain way is not the best approach to keeping everyone happy. If MS was confident that cleartype was perfect for everyone why give an option to disable it in IE 7 and in other parts of the OS?
 
Originally posted by: John
shekondar, unfortunately that doesn't globally disable cleartype.

zig3695, I appreciate your opinion on cleartype, but the fact of the matter is we all have opinions on what looks good to our own two eyes. Since it can be enabled/disabled globally in XP one would think Vista would offer the same choice. Being forced to view things a certain way is not the best approach to keeping everyone happy. If MS was confident that cleartype was perfect for everyone why give an option to disable it in IE 7 and in other parts of the OS?
Click to expand...
Did you try my other idea above (using a non-CT font for the GUI)?
 
I *hate* Cleartype too. It just smudges up text, makes it uglier and harder to read, and produces that rainbow effect.

I've never seen an LCD where it looks better on than off.

That's really disappointing Vista would not only make it the default, but remove a way to disable it?
 
This is the one thing that annoyed me most about Vista. Hoping for a custom theme that disables CT everywhere.

 
Originally posted by: shekondar
1. Right-click Computer icon on desktop
2. Click "Advanced System Settings"
3. Click the first "Settings" button (under Performance)
4. Uncheck "Smooth edges of screen fonts"
5. Click OK
Click to expand...

Thx!...that worked for my Firefox 2 in Vista x64,was wondering how to remove cleartype from Firefox 2 🙂 , think I have most of cleartype removed.

Update: just checked my IE7, no cleartype on I can see 🙂.
 
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