Forums Feature Suggestions Font quality options

I recently switched to Windows 7, which has ClearType fonts enabled by default. ClearType fonts can be disabled system-wide, which makes many areas of Windows 7 look terrible. However, many of people's font choices in mIRC do not look right with ClearType enabled. Some applications (such as putty, for example), have the option to select the font quality, with options like Antialiased, Non-Antialiased, ClearType, Default. Non-antialiased makes the application ignore Windows' preferences and displays the font in the more crisp traditional manner.

It would be nice if mIRC had this option in the font dialog box.

brandon@dalnet

Which fonts of yours aren't looking "right"? AFAIK, if the font looks right in the rest of Windows then it should look just as right in mIRC.

Lucida Console looks different with cleartype on, and crisper with no anti-aliasing, regardless of whether or not you're using it in mIRC or another app (putty, notepad, cmd). mIRC is just one of the applications that offers no control of font quality options like some programs (such as putty) do.

I think it was a poor choice of words for us to say looking "right" or "wrong" - this is entirely a user preference issue. I'd just like to be able to make it look the way I prefer it - crisp & not antialiased.

If you want to see the difference I'm describing, then on a system with ClearType enabled by default (Win7 or Vista), get putty, choose Lucida Console as the font, and switch the font quality options around and watch the difference. To me, it's fairly drastic. Drastic enough that a 10-year mirc user who has never used the forums dragged myself on here, signed up, and requested it as a feature...hehe

-brandon

I realize this is hardly a long term answer to what you would like to see added to Mirc, but, have you tried switching to other fonts instead? If nothing else, its a short term solution.

Hey B,

Which version of 7? I honestly had no issues at all with fonts so far. Maybe I'm missing something.

Thrull, yes, I don't like any of the other ones...I like to use fixed width fonts so that limits my choices, and I'm in love with Lucida Console. What can I say, I'm a freak.

Excalibur, we talked about this on irc, but just for the benefit of anyone else who's reading...Windows 7 Enterprise (RTM), with cleartype turned on system-wide. If you turn it off, it looks fine in mIRC, but the rest looks like crap. I'd just like it to be customizable inside of mirc independent of the system, like the feature putty has. It's a preference issue, not a bug. I am just that darn picky!

Thanks

Definitely a good idea. Choosing font quality can be a decent addition to mIRC.

How is Windows7 different from Vista (or even XP)? The way I look at it, Lucida Console looks way better with cleartype on than it does off. Perhaps this is something you just need to get used to.

Here is an article about cleartype fonts on the MSDN blog:
http://blogs.msdn.com/e7/archive/2009/06/23/engineering-changes-to-cleartype-in-windows-7.aspx

Notice that 30% of people prefer cleartype to be disabled - and the article mentions that although cleartype defaults to being on in Windows 7, applications can offer their own font quality options on a per-font basis.

Obviously, if the option is never added, I will have to get used to it, or use a different font that looks better as cleartype at size 8.

This is a feature suggestion forum, not a tell people that you believe their opinion on a matter of preference is invalid. 30% of people in Microsoft's research share my preference. Therefore, they made cleartype the default. They didn't remove the option to turn it off, though. Cleartype / antialiasing decreases contrast, particularly on smaller sizes of certain fonts. I don't like it. Don't tell me I need to get used to it on a feature suggestion forum - it's completely irrelevant.

I'm suggesting you attempt to get used to it for your benefit, not mine. mIRC versions don't come often; it could take anywhere from a month or two to a year.

The suggestion is fine, mIRC can benefit from improved font control settings-- but there's a good chance that by the time that happens (if ever) you'll have already gotten used to ClearType and probably won't even want to switch back. I recall people making similar suggestions about how the new icons were "ugly" when the mIRC and toolbar icons were redesigned recently. Within a few weeks those claims mostly died out, and I know people who changed their opinions outright.

I should also add that Fixedsys Excelsior uses a little hack to disable ClearType behaviour on a per-font basis. The hack applies system wide to all uses of the font, so if you don't like how Lucida Console looks with CT, you can disable it the same way:



You can try this mechanism with Lucida Console and fix the behaviour across all your W7 apps that don't have finetuned font controls. I'm not sure how exactly this is done, but a little googling could find you the right info and a font editing program that could do this.

Ah...Thanks argv, I will definitely check that out!