Enable Windows Font Smoothing
I was checking out my website from a couple Windows computers at school, and noticed that it didn't look anything as good as it did on my Mac back home. The kicker was a lack of smooth text that I got at home, but wasn't turned-on on all those Windows machines. Enabling font smoothing on Windows XP computers will drastically increase the visual appeal of hundreds of websites, and make reading text much less stressful on the eyes. All copies of Windows XP include a font smoothing technology called ClearType, which is disabled by default.
Without font smoothing
With font smoothing
Windows XP by default uses a very inefficient method of smoothing fonts. Fonts are generally not smoothed until size 18 or greater. Windows XP includes a font smoothing technology called ClearType, that drastically improves the visual display of fonts on-screen. Although made specifically for LCD screens, I find it hard to ever use any computer without it enabled. To automatically have ClearType enabled and configured, go to Microsoft's Website for Enabling ClearType, or just follow the instructions below:
- Right Click on the Desktop and Go to "Properties"
- Click on the "Appearance" Tab
- Click on the "Effects..." Button
- Make sure the check box for "Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:" is checked
- Changed the pull-down menu from "Standard" to "ClearType"
- "OK" out of the dialog boxes and enjoy a better view!