This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Hierdie gesprek is in die argief. Vra asseblief 'n nuwe vraag as jy hulp nodig het.

Font smoothing disabled for default fonts when ClearType is off

  • 4 antwoorde
  • 1 het hierdie probleem
  • 19 views
  • Laaste antwoord deur dantaeusb

dantaeusb
dantaeusb
more options

On Windows (exactly Windows 11 21H2, but I believe other versions affected as well), after disabling ClearType in system's ClearType Tuner utility, both default Arial and Courier fonts become no longer anti-aliased. This can be fixed by using other fonts in browser's font -> advanced settings, but by default result in a very poor text quality when ClearType disabled. Solution from this thread https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269170 like deleting those fonts "AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts" seem to not work since there's no such fonts. When ClearType enabled back, font immedeately changes to a perfectly smooth one, but since I have unusual RWBG pixel structure it looks quite bad with ClearType. So I either stuck with alternative fonts or eye-straining pixelated fonts without ClearType on Windows. Interestingly, this doesn't look to affect other browsers. I believe it's a bug but maybe I'm missing something.

On Windows (exactly Windows 11 21H2, but I believe other versions affected as well), after disabling ClearType in system's ClearType Tuner utility, both default Arial and Courier fonts become no longer anti-aliased. This can be fixed by using other fonts in browser's font -> advanced settings, but by default result in a very poor text quality when ClearType disabled. Solution from this thread https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1269170 like deleting those fonts "AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Fonts" seem to not work since there's no such fonts. When ClearType enabled back, font immedeately changes to a perfectly smooth one, but since I have unusual RWBG pixel structure it looks quite bad with ClearType. So I either stuck with alternative fonts or eye-straining pixelated fonts without ClearType on Windows. Interestingly, this doesn't look to affect other browsers. I believe it's a bug but maybe I'm missing something.
Aangehegde skermkiekies

All Replies (4)

dantaeusb
dantaeusb Vraag-eienaar
more options

Hmm, and what's more bad about this situation is that when I was trying to lookup for an alternative font, Firefox Developer Edition doesn't seem to work with webfonts at all. Basic Firefox, though having the same pixelated fonts issue, can show webfonts.

UPD: Disregard that, it works fine now

Gewysig op deur dantaeusb

dantaeusb
dantaeusb Vraag-eienaar
more options

I believe it's some kind of font cache in Firefox that's causing the issue (every time website uses one of the fonts that were default before ClearType settings change, like Arial or Times New Roman, it's pixelated), but wasn't able to locate those cache files, and "clear history" for offline data and cache not helped.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
more options

There is a button the right side of the Troubleshooting Information page to clear the startup cache. You could try that: Use the Troubleshooting Information page to help fix Firefox issues.

dantaeusb
dantaeusb Vraag-eienaar
more options

Hi jscher2000,

I tried both trobleshoot mode and startup cache cleanup. That didn't help unfortunately. Arial is still pixelated. Interistengly enough, in dev tools' Font tab, the font smoothed properly. But not on real webpage.