Turn on ClearType for better readability on Windows XP
Let’s clear off the basics first, so what is ClearType?
ClearType is an anti-aliasing font display technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper. If you’d like to know the technicalities of ClearType you can read more on ClearType from this Microsoft article.
How to turn on ClearType?
You’d be interested to know that Windows Vista comes with ClearType turned on, Windows XP does not. You need to manually turn on ClearType on Windows XP machines. So how do turn on ClearType on Windows XP? Follow these steps to turn on ClearType on Windows XP machines,
Step-1:
Right click on your desktop and click “Properties” on the menu.
Step-2:
On the “Display Properties” dialog click on the “Appearance” tab. Then click on the “Effects…” button at the bottom right.
Step-3:
On the “Effects” dialog make sure to have the “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” option selected. And once selected click on the dropdown and choose “ClearType”.
Step-4:
Hit the OK button on both the dialogs to dismiss the dialogs.
Now your display will be a lot better than the jagged, broken and pixelized “Standard” type. Here is how the same context menu on Step-1 looks with ClearType turned on. (You might not notice the effects of ClearType much on this but it will be noticeable on web pages and on many other applications. If you look closer on the below image you’ll notice that the broken edges of the font are more smoothened which makes it easy on eyes).
ClearType improves readability on Windows XP machines. But your mileage might vary depends on the graphics card you have on your machine. It’s definitely worth trying to see if ClearType improves readability on your Windows XP machine.
If you have any questions regarding this please make sure to ask us in the comments.
