Internet Explorer version 7 added a feature that makes fonts (a.k.a., “type”) appear smoother. I like this feature. I’m on the fence as to whether it makes the type more readable or not but it does look nice. (My general feeling is that it works better when using a DVI monitor interface than an analog one. My analog monitor has some color ghosting that’s especially noticeable with small fonts, and the smoothing seems to exaggerate this.) The problem is that I occasionally use Firefox, but Firefox does not have its own font smoothing option.
You can turn on font smoothing for Firefox, but there is a catch—you have to turn it on for all of Windows at the same time. To turn it on, go to the “Display Properties” dialog box (either through the control panel or by right-clicking on a blank area of the desktop and choosing “Properties”), click the “Appearance” tab, then click the “Effects” button. Under “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts” choose “ClearType.” This will add the same font smoothing effect in Internet Explorer 7 to everything in Windows, including Firefox.
Perhaps in the future Firefox will add a setting to use ClearType that overrides the global Windows setting (this is what Internet Explorer 7 does now). Until then it’s all or nothing.
(Note: I mentioned right-clicking on the desktop. A quick and handy way to instantly get to the desktop is to hold down the “start” key and hit the “D” key. Repeating this sequence restores things back the way they were.)
Yahoo. I was wondering why I had different text in IE and FF. All sorted now, thanks.
I have a 22″ widescreen digital and the effect of Clear Type is superb.
Tried for ages to sort this out, site looked dreadful in Firefox, thanks for the fix.
thx for the fix i was trying to figure this one out for awhile
Awesome. That was driving me nuts. Thanks…
Baller! I’ve been looking for this for a long time. Looks great.
Thank so much for this tip. It changed my entire browser world!
wow… thanks for your help. All sorted out.
Thanks for the help!!
Much better! Now, why shouldn’t MS have made the clearly (pardon the pun) superior display their default for Windows XP, not just IE7? Maybe someone in Redmond needs to read “Nudge” by Thaler and Sunstein – who promote the idea of preserving choice, but “nugding” by providing a carefully chosen default.
thanks!!!!!!!
Thank you so much for this helpful tip.
Perfect! Exactly what I was looking for. It was the difference of switching to FireFox, for me.
Thanks again.
Thanks! I was really annoyed that IE did this but Firefox didn’t. Makes reading 10 times easier.
Perfect. I have been looking this for long time to sort out the LAF of gmail in Firefox
Thank you for this.
THANK YOU! wooooo