I think that bug reports are probably more effective than comments on blogs. The guys at Microsoft can see a simple counter mounting up rather than having to wade through loads of, not always clearly expressed, comments.

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Ever since Microsoft launched ClearType on the world there has been a large minority of users who simply cannot stand it. For some reason our eyes/brains just can't get on with the concept. To us it looks like blurry, multi-coloured text. Like an out of alignment CRT. It makes a lot of us feel nauseous.

We've been telling Microsoft this for years. When MS Office 2k7 came out there was no option to disable it in the UI and despite system settings saying 'Don't use it' MSO used it anyway. Luckily there was an undocumented registry setting 'RespectSystemFontSmooth' that could be used. The name says it all - a plea to MSO to respect our choice.

Now along comes IE9 and they've done it again! No option to disable ClearType. People complained in the beta and got nowhere. Now the official release is out and no option. Any attempt to query this with MS is met with the usual [censored] 'Check your DPI, run the wizard, ClearType is wonderful'!

It's like fighting some rabid religious cult, [censored]! We don't want ClearType. I consider it injurious to my health. Why the hell are MS so blind to this issue and inconsiderate of our complaints?

They have the same bug as google, they want to control how the user use's apps instead of giving choice, I am fully in agreement qith you and think its aweful design choice. I hated it so much I rolled back to IE8.

Since I use both IE and firefox, if I did get used to cleartype I would then have to enable for firefox so both match. Easier for me to rollback.

It is rather ironic that microsoft design their apps to ignore an OS setting on their own OS.

Edited by Chrysalis (Sat 19-Mar-11 19:08:04)

In reply to a post by Andrue:

Ever since Microsoft launched ClearType on the world there has been a large minority of users who simply cannot stand it. For some reason our eyes/brains just can't get on with the concept. To us it looks like blurry, multi-coloured text. Like an out of alignment CRT. It makes a lot of us feel nauseous.

We've been telling Microsoft this for years. When MS Office 2k7 came out there was no option to disable it in the UI and despite system settings saying 'Don't use it' MSO used it anyway. Luckily there was an undocumented registry setting 'RespectSystemFontSmooth' that could be used. The name says it all - a plea to MSO to respect our choice.

Now along comes IE9 and they've done it again! No option to disable ClearType. People complained in the beta and got nowhere. Now the official release is out and no option. Any attempt to query this with MS is met with the usual [censored] 'Check your DPI, run the wizard, ClearType is wonderful'!

It's like fighting some rabid religious cult, [censored]! We don't want ClearType. I consider it injurious to my health. Why the hell are MS so blind to this issue and inconsiderate of our complaints?

I did some digging as I noticed that reg key doesnt work on my office 2007.

It seems microsoft even went out of their way to remove the user choice (along with the key) in SP1 and onwards.

http://www.wfu.edu/~yipcw/is/vista/office2007/cleart...

I assume it also isnt possible in office 2010.

Although it does seem office 2007 is actually honouring the system setting tho.

Always use Clear Type option is in Word 2010.

There is apossible solution, someone wrote a wrapper dll to disable clear type. have a look at http://nolovelust.com/post/IE-9-and-Clear-Type.aspx#...

In reply to a post by asidana:

There is apossible solution, someone wrote a wrapper dll to disable clear type. have a look at http://nolovelust.com/post/IE-9-and-Clear-Type.aspx#...

nice link.

Update on 18/03/2011: After 3 days I've decided to remove IE9 from my computer. It is half cooked, has really bad UI and makes my eyes ichy!

sounds about right

I will test the wrapper on spare pc or laptop and see how it goes. That still leaves the gui issues tho but is a step in the right direction.