Display problem related to font?

[protegechris]

I just got a few new monitors and hooked one up to my 700mhz box, and the font is real blurry, on the start button, on internet explorer, anywhere where theres text to be seen..

I didn't notice it on the small monitor because it was a POS, but I'm thinking maybe I turned a smoothing setting off or something?

[k_rock923]

if the font is blurry, maybe the resolution is set a bit too low?

[protegechris]

1024x768

I was thinking something about truetype or something. I know sometime I set something off to improve performance, and I don't know what now

[Psythik]

If you're running XP (should work in other versions of Windows too, I dunno) try this:
Control Panel > System > Advanced > Performance (settings) > (check/uncheck) Smooth edges of screen fonts

If that doesn't work, try making sure everything is checked in that box. Also, if you don't have XP, try searching through the system properties; it's bound to be somewhere.

BTW, 1024x768 is a bit too low.

[DrO]

Originally posted by ScYtH
BTW, 1024x768 is a bit too low.

it's not on a 15" that's dieing on you

-daz

[protegechris]

Well actually I'm using a 17 inch on it now..

All of the options were checked, I unchecked smooth screen fonts, it made it a little better actually, but still noticably crappy looking :x

I'll try and get a hi-quality screen shot in a little bit.

[Phyltre]

Some monitors are just that crappy--one of my friends had a monitor that blurred text to the point that it would hurt your eyes to read off of it. Nothing to do with settings, the monitor was either just that old or just that crappy. But those people weren't computer literate, so they never knew they should be able to read the stuff on the screen...

[protegechris]

This monitor is only a year old, and looks fine on my other computers O_O

[k_rock923]

it's also not too low on a 21" that's hooked to a computer with an onboard video card from 1998

[PulseDriver]

If you're using an LCD monitor and you're not running Windows XP and the resolution you run is not the same as the amount of the points the LCD monitor have, the fonts can look real ugly. A really bad thing about LCD monitors. Anyways, if you run XP, you can make the font be drawn the trippel amount of times, so it visually looks good.

Here is how to select ClearType Support:

1. Click Start and then click Control Panel.
2. Click Appearance And Themes, and then click Display.
3. In the Appearance and Themes dialog box, click Appearance.
4. In the Appearance tab, click Effects
5. Select the Use The Following Method To Smooth Edges Of Screen Fonts check box, and then select ClearType from the drop-down list. See picture below:



Also, if you didn't run XP, maybe it's a good idea to actually use the resolution the LCD is physically. CRC monitors actually change the amount of protons that shoots on to the screen when the resolution is changed and which the CRC monitor supports, but LCD monitors is built up by a static number of cells which represents a pixel or less, so resolutions which is no dividable with the physical resolution is the reason fonts can look crappy, as it cannot display 0.xx pixels.

The ClearType Support draw fonts tree times as fast, and by these three frames it makes the pixels display the colors which makes the human eye to register them as on a regular CRC monitor.

The ClearType support is only available for Window XP.

[protegechris]

Thank you thank you thank you pulse driver. It's not an LCD monitor, but that was the menu I was looking for. Truetype looks too bland , but I realized the standard smoothing was turned off, turned it on and it's normal again. Thanks man!

[Phyltre]

CRC monitors actually change the amount of protons that shoots on to the screen when the resolution is changed and which the CRC monitor supports

Do you mean photons? Or do monitors really have proton drives or something?

[Russ]

Originally posted by Phyltre
Do you mean photons? Or do monitors really have proton drives or something?

They actually use electrons. Protons was closer than photons anyhow .

[Cognition]

Yeah CRT is just a Cathode Ray Tube, 1930's style. Old technology that just shoots electrons at a sheet of phosphorus.

[Phyltre]

I like phosphorous.

[Cognition]

"If you like phosphorous, you'll LOVE this CRT monitor, only $399.95."

[mark]

A bad graphics card can and will cause fuzzy picture. especially on board crap.

i dint type expeciallyy, honest...

[protegechris]

It's fixed now. No point in buying a vcard for a computer that old

[mark]

fixed? and an old matrox dual head gfx card would let you use 2 screens, something i cant live without, since getting my ati radeon 9600XT

[PulseDriver]

And for those who REALLY REALLY want to know how the monitors really work (CRT), here it is:

The electron beam gun, the deflection yoke and the cathode ray tube are the three major components in a monitor. The quality of these three components will determine the quality of the monitor itself.

The electron beams are emitted from an electron beam gun in the neck of the cathode ray tube. Being negatively charged, these electrons are attracted by a high voltage electric field that is generated at the front of the CRT. To guide the electrons to strike and illuminate the proper phosphor areas on the front inside surface of the CRT, a deflection yoke is implemented to deflect each beam.

Theoretically, each electron beam should travel the same distance with the same intensity. However, there are several influences that can affect the path the electron beam takes as it approaches the surface of the CRT. Since each electron beam has an equal current, each should travel the same distance. However, the CRT surface is not truly spherical and the beams which must travel to the center of the display are foreshortened, while those that travel to the corners of the display are comparatively longer.

The deflection yoke around the neck of the CRT creates a magnetic field which controls the direction of the electron beams, guiding them to strike the proper position on the screen.

Distortion appears at the edges of the screen because the longer beams which must strike the corners of the CRT are subjected to magnetic deflection for a longer period of time. If the same deflection current is applied to those beams which are directed to the center areas of the screen, their travel distance being shorter, they will not be deflected to such a degree. Thus, they will strike the screen sooner, creating a distorted image.

To compensate, all displays have a deflection circuit which dynamically varies the deflection current depending on the position that the electron beam should strike the CRT surface.