We encourage everyone we can to use Firefox in place of Internet Explorer . . . there are a lot of good reasons to switch—Firefox’s adherence to Web standards (which equates to increased quality and compatibility for the user) its superior performance, options and increased security.

A number of people have brought to my attention that they’ve noticed fonts appear much crisper and readable when viewed with IE 7.  With the release of IE 7, Microsoft introduced what they call ClearType . . . a font smoothing algorithm that increases readability for those using LCD displays. It really makes quite a difference and is probably the most impressive thing I’ve seen come from Microsoft in the last few years (I confess to not being much of a Microsoft fan).

For those surfing on a Firefox / Windows XP combo, the process for activating ClearType is quite simple:

1. Minimize all your windows and right click anywhere on your desktop.
2. Select Properties then choose the appearance tab then click the Effects button.
3. Make sure the check mark is in the box next to “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” and select ClearType. Then click OK.

Once you start surfing in Firefox again you should notice a marked improvement to readability.

Tags: cleartype, firefox, fonts, windows xp

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 11th, 2008 at 5:27 pm and is filed under Tech-Notes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.