Mozilla launches Firefox 4

Is there a comprehensive list of add-ons/extensions/themes that work well with 4?

I'm still sitting on 3.6.16 because I really like how my browser is at this moment - it works excellent and suites my needs nicely.

My FF may have a fair share of exts, but it runs quite well - So even though it may seem "heavy" to some, it's smooth as butter....minus the mem hogging but that has even slowed down.

I don't mind change, I do mind change that breaks what I already have without problems.

unifex said:

Now, an update about the font blurriness - it does not happen with 64-bit builds! I am using the Minefield builds on my laptop with the hardware acceleration on and I have no problems whatsoever. On my Desktop I downloaded the 32-bit official version and yes, the fonts there were blurry until I unticked the hardware acceleration option. But the 64-bit build seems to be doing just fine.

Then DirectWrite is likely broken in the 64 bit build. This is just the way DirectWrite renders text. If DirectWrite is active, you will get that blurry text, IE 9 does the same thing when DirectWrite is active. I agree that for some fonts DirectWrite rendering sucks, but a fix won't be coming from Mozilla, it would have to come from Microsoft.

Nemix77 said:

- As you've both mentioned, blurry text due to Firefox 4 new hard acceleration but this could be a driver incompatibility problem with the graphics card used (Check Intel/AMD/NVIDIA for updated driver).

As above, this isn't Mozillas Bug, it is Microsofts "feature", they consider this new font rendering "better". In theory, it is more typographically correct for typeface purists. Apparently it is quite decent for large black on white fonts.

The problem back in practical reality is that the new rendering is not very good for small fonts, or light colored fonts on dark backgrounds and is (IMO) miserable on small, light colored fonts like you often encounter on the internet.

The clear option is shutting it off (no really downside as pretty much nothing uses HW Accel), while you wait for Microsoft to improve small font rendering. Mozilla can't fix this and new drivers won't fix this.

mr pc said:

Is there a comprehensive list of add-ons/extensions/themes that work well with 4?

So install it in a different directory to coexist, so you can try it. That would take 5 minutes.

At first I thought the same thing and when I first tried it some of my favorite extensions didn't work, but a visit to the homepages of the extensions showed most had updated versions all except a couple of extensions that hadn't been updated in years and clearly never would be. These I quickly found replacements that are still being updated. So I have everything I had before working.

Snowdog said:

unifex said:

Now, an update about the font blurriness - it does not happen with 64-bit builds! I am using the Minefield builds on my laptop with the hardware acceleration on and I have no problems whatsoever. On my Desktop I downloaded the 32-bit official version and yes, the fonts there were blurry until I unticked the hardware acceleration option. But the 64-bit build seems to be doing just fine.

Then DirectWrite is likely broken in the 64 bit build. This is just the way DirectWrite renders text. If DirectWrite is active, you will get that blurry text, IE 9 does the same thing when DirectWrite is active. I agree that for some fonts DirectWrite rendering sucks, but a fix won't be coming from Mozilla, it would have to come from Microsoft.

In all honesty I have not seen the same blurriness in IE9, although that maybe due to the fact that I am still using the RC.

These few issues will be fixed in Firefox 4.2 which will be released in few weeks

Early 4.2 pre-Alpha1 builds is available
Index of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-central

Is it wrong to ask why there won't be a version 4.1 ?

unifex said:

In all honesty I have not seen the same blurriness in IE9, although that maybe due to the fact that I am still using the RC.

I have fully patched Win7 and latest stable versions of everything (Drivers, IE9, FF4).

FF4 and IE9 both render identically in GDI (IE GDI = FF GDI) mode or DirectWrite (FF DW = IE DW) mode. I have tested them side by side on several pages.

The difference, Microsoft has a complex flowchart to decide when you use DirectWrite and other modern features, so it will often drop into IE7/IE8 compatibility mode. But you can force it into IE9 to use DirectWrite (or force IE8 rendering to render using GDI).

Find a page with Blurry text in FF4, load it in IE9, if it isn't identical hit "F12", then check the bottom Developer box for "Document Mode" Chances are it won't be in "IE9 Standards", go to the dropdown and select "IE9 Standards" and you will activate DirectWrite and text will be identically blurry to FF4.

I have found a way to check for DirectWrite functioning independent of perceived font blur.

Find a page with reflowable text, not all of them work, but this one does so you spot it the first time:
DirectWrite « Marc Gregoire’s Blog

Now start shrinking the page down horizontally to squish the text, very slowly.

DirectWrite on: Shrinking is very smooth and even until a word gets moved.
DirectWrite off: Shinking jitters all over the place as words shake back and forth.

Again both IE9/FF4 behave the same way. Use F12 Document Mode to switch IE9 (no restart) or HW Accel off/on for FF4 (restart needed).

IE9 ie easier because you can switch without restart, but the are both the same.


Part of the point of DirectWrite is that it ignores pixel boundaries so movement, transformations are very smooth(but can have softer text). GDI text respects these boundaries so it has to jump to the grid (but can have sharper text).

FWIW: I downloaded the FF x64 Minefield 4.2a1. It behaves just like IE9/FF4 x32. DirectWrite is functioning and it creates some blur on some fonts.