issue with font quality after installation of vista ultimate

[MistaCooL17]

so i just installed windows vista to replace windows xp and everything is working fine except the text on AIM buddy list or box or even microsoft word seems to have a red shade behind the text making it appear to be blurry and not clear...this never happened to me when i was using windows xp...i have a Samsung 22'' SyncmMaster226bw..which means it shouldn't be my monitor issue..anyone know the problem? i installed drivers for both my video card and monitor yet the problem remains. thank you!

 

[Ika]

Sounds like ClearType issues... here are two links that could be of use to you:

1) A Google search with lots of info, if you need/want it
2) ClearTweak, a program which lets you twiddle with ClearType.

Now, why would you want to tweak ClearType if you could just disable it completely? Well, I've found that Vista puts a lot of weight on ClearType, and some fonts are downright ugly without ClearType. What I did on my desktop is tweak it so that ClearType does minimal smoothing, but takes care of most of the problems.

 

[Avalon]

I experienced the same thing when I first switched to Vista a couple weeks ago. Right click and go to Personalize, then go to Window Color and Appearance. Click "Open classic appearance properties for more color options." Go to the "Effects" button. You'll see three options, with the first being "Use the following methods to smooth the edges of screen fonts." You have a choice between Standard and Cleartype. It defaults to Cleartype. I have a CRT, which I guess doesn't like Cleartype, so I turned the smoothing off, and also tried standard smoothing. Standard looked better than no smoothing at all for me. Just don't use Cleartype. That should help.