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Since Vista upgrade font on webpages looks like a printer running low on ink. Note, this is not a printer problem but a display problem. How can I correct this?

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  • Last reply by rjacobs46

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I recently upgraded WIndows Vista with upgrades from Microsoft. After rebooting, the fonts on most Firefox pages and on my word processing program, (StarOffice not MS Word), look faint and incomplete, some part of the letter faint while the rest is dark. It looks like, what I can only describe as, a printer running low on ink. I have tried increasing the size of the font, rebooting again.

I suspect the problem is with Windows and not Firefox but I am lost as to how to correct the problem, so any help will be greatly appreciated.

I recently upgraded WIndows Vista with upgrades from Microsoft. After rebooting, the fonts on most Firefox pages and on my word processing program, (StarOffice not MS Word), look faint and incomplete, some part of the letter faint while the rest is dark. It looks like, what I can only describe as, a printer running low on ink. I have tried increasing the size of the font, rebooting again. I suspect the problem is with Windows and not Firefox but I am lost as to how to correct the problem, so any help will be greatly appreciated.

Chosen solution

You might want to double-check your ClearType or other font anti-aliasing settings. I think this page requires IE: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/tune.aspx

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I think that's a question you have to ask at http://answers.microsoft.com/de-de/windows/forum/windows_vista?auth=1

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Thank you for getting back so quickly. If I understand your answer correctly you think I should post my question of the link you supplied. The problem is the link appears to be German and my German is very limited. Is there an English site similar to this one?

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Did you get a new version of IE? Apparently there is a problem between a component of IE10 (and perhaps IE11) and how Firefox renders fonts. This was surfaced last May, for example: http://www.infoworld.com/t/microsoft-.../windows-7-patch-kb-2670838-fries-firefox-fonts-218186.

As noted in the article, one of the workarounds is to turn off advanced rendering (azure) using a hidden option. Here's how:

(1) In a new tab, type or paste about:config in the address bar and press Enter. Click the button promising to be careful.

(2) In the search box above the list, type or paste gfx and pause while the list is filtered

(3) Double-click the gfx.content.azure.enabled preference to switch it from true to false. I don't know whether this kicks in right away or the next time you exit and restart Firefox.

Any improvement?

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I'm sorry for that! The english version is @ http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista?auth=1

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Thank you for the hint. I tried it but the text is still crappy. Thanks for trying though, I really appreciate it.

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Chosen Solution

You might want to double-check your ClearType or other font anti-aliasing settings. I think this page requires IE: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/tune.aspx

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Thank you. Turning on ClearType and it cleared up the problem.