Will they ever fix font rendering in firefox 4?

[Omega X]

Because Direct2D and DirectWrite are Microsoft systems.

Some of the bugs/inferiorities are due to Firefox though as Bas Schouten & Jonathan Kew explain on this bug:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635490

They both mention the same AA issue where DirectWrite didn't support the AA method.
They also mention that except for edge cases, Firefox was identical to IE9.

So after they fix the AA issue then what? The complaints will still be there because DirectWrite uses different kerning and sub pixel positioning than GDI.

[hews310]

They both mention the same AA issue where DirectWrite didn't support the AA method.
They also mention that except for edge cases, Firefox was identical to IE9.

It isn't identical, IE9 creates more space with no or light colour shading between letters which reduces the blurry/letters joining effect, see my attachment in comment 32
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635490#c32

[avada]

They both mention the same AA issue where DirectWrite didn't support the AA method.
They also mention that except for edge cases, Firefox was identical to IE9.

It isn't identical, IE9 creates more space with no or light colour shading between letters which reduces the blurry/letters joining effect, see my attachment in comment 32
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635490#c32

That is precisely what Omega X was talking about when he mentioned kerning and subpixel positioning.

[hews310]

They both mention the same AA issue where DirectWrite didn't support the AA method.
They also mention that except for edge cases, Firefox was identical to IE9.

It isn't identical, IE9 creates more space with no or light colour shading between letters which reduces the blurry/letters joining effect, see my attachment in comment 32
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635490#c32

That is precisely what Omega X was talking about when he mentioned kerning and subpixel positioning.

Omega X said:

"complaints will still be there because DirectWrite uses different kerning and sub pixel positioning than GDI"

GDI is hardware acceleration off, I am saying IE9 does not deliver identical results to FF4 both with hardware acceleration/DirectWrite enabled, IE9 creates more space between letters reducing the blurring/letter joining effect you get on FF4.

[avada]

Omega X said:

"complaints will still be there because DirectWrite uses different kerning and sub pixel positioning than GDI"

GDI is hardware acceleration off, I am saying IE9 does not deliver identical results to FF4 both with hardware acceleration/DirectWrite enabled, IE9 creates more space between letters reducing the blurring/letter joining effect you get on FF4.

No one said it delivers identical results, because of the mentioned things. Also if I remember correctly IE uses GDI for font rendering.

[hews310]

No one said it delivers identical results, because of the mentioned things. Also if I remember correctly IE uses GDI for font rendering.

Only for sites in compatibility mode/forced IE6-8 standards mode.

[avada]

I just noticed that anti-aliasing tuner was updated. (a month ago...) Anyway. I installed it and fonts look rather better. Not sure how it works though, because changing and applying settings didn't change anything visibly.

[Omega X]

"complaints will still be there because DirectWrite uses different kerning and sub pixel positioning than GDI"

GDI is hardware acceleration off, I am saying IE9 does not deliver identical results to FF4 both with hardware acceleration/DirectWrite enabled, IE9 creates more space between letters reducing the blurring/letter joining effect you get on FF4.

In your example, there are the exact same amount of pixels between letters. The difference is that Firefox does darker sub pixels. In most cases its hard to tell the difference unless you zoom extremely up close.

My point in the quote was that some people hate the DirectWrite text looks regardless and prefer the GDI look.

[Meol]

Anti-Aliasing Tuner

can those settings be accessed manually?
the tuner seems to cover a lot more than previously discussed

[hews310]

In your example, there are the exact same amount of pixels between letters. The difference is that Firefox does darker sub pixels. In most cases its hard to tell the difference unless you zoom extremely up close.

First there aren't the same amount of pixels, look at the second m and e in remember, between the last e and r, between the n and d in and, the e and p and e and t in petty, IE9 is using less pixels or much lighter pixels between letters for a reason, to make them clearer, reduce any letter joining effect, mentioned in comment 11

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635490#c32
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=635490#c11

My point in the quote was that some people hate the DirectWrite text looks regardless and prefer the GDI look.

I wouldn't hate if it looked better, problem is it pretty clearly doesn't for the majority of people. I am sure it can be done properly, but microsoft/mozilla have not got it right yet.

Anti-Aliasing Tuner

can those settings be accessed manually?
the tuner seems to cover a lot more than previously discussed

Looks interesting, does it work with directwrite, I'll test it out and report back....

[ac15cc1x]

i couldn't get any good combination with the tuner.

[psishock]

Anti-Aliasing Tuner

can those settings be accessed manually?
the tuner seems to cover a lot more than previously discussed

wow, this is pretty neat stuff. It does sightly improve the clearness of the rendering, i might even stay on hardware accelerated rendering after all.
Only the spaces between letters seems a bit messed, but that (hopefully) can get fixed without too much trouble.

some random examples, all with hardware acceleration enabled of course:

[_Dexter_]

Those of you having text rendering problems, and running at a high DPI, might want to try this and see if it helps.

Under Custom DPI setting uncheck the box that says to use Windows XP style scaling. Doing so will 'activate' DPI awareness which Fx4 does support. But be forewarned that many other programs do not support it which will make their text blurry looking. You can correct this under the Compatibility tab for these programs by checking the option that refers to DPI.

I don't seem to have a rendering problem so I can't really tell if this will help some of you. It's worth the try.

[hews310]

Anti-Aliasing Tuner

can those settings be accessed manually?
the tuner seems to cover a lot more than previously discussed

wow, this is pretty neat stuff. It does sightly improve the clearness of the rendering, i might even stay on hardware accelerated rendering after all.
Only the spaces between letters seems a bit messed, but that (hopefully) can get fixed without too much trouble.

This seems pretty good although I'm not sure the GDI rendering is the same as with hardware acceleration off, need to to do a bit of testing to verify. I am quite liking the Default>Natural setting. Changes take place as soon as you hit apply and close, they do not affect any other applications.

[psishock]

This seems pretty good although I'm not sure the GDI rendering is the same as with hardware acceleration off, need to to do a bit of testing to verify.

Its definitely hardware accelerated, even on the GDI modes. I've got the best results with Clear Type+GDI normal on the short test.

Try the infamous fishtank test from microsoft, the acceleration impact is most definitely there, even with those "GDI" rendering modes.