Windows 7 blurry text at lower resolutions

[swell9]

Hi,

I am new to Windows 7, I noticed that my current resolution is set automatically by Windows 7 to the max on a 22'' screen which is 1680*1050
at that high resolution everything is super sharp and crisp..
But if i try to go a little lower, even by one step, the text and the objects
seem a little bit less sharp. For example if I go to the 1280*1024 resolution, like I am used to while running windows XP, the sharpness fades a little bit..

Why does this happen? I just update my Video card driver

here are my spec:
E6600 overclocked to 3.4Ghz
ATI 4890
4GB (currently using 3.2GB on a 32-bit system)
Asus P5N32-SLI Motherboard

Thanks in advance

 

[Tews]

Have you adjusted your truetype settings?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/337-cleartype-text-tuner.html

 

[swell9]

Thanks a lot
I adjusted my trueType Settings now and they look better..
I prefer the higher resolution though. I think, I will stick to it.
Just out of curiousity what resolution do you guy run W7 at?

 

[Brink]

Hello Swell,

It's best (recommended) to use your monitor's native screen resolution for the best picture quality. I'm runing at 1900x1200.

 

[Tews]

My native resolution is 1600x900 ...

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
as well as the correct video drivers for your monitor / video card you also need to ensure you have installed the correct chipset drivers for your machine.

These can be downloaded from the Intel site (or AMD if you have that type of processor / MB combo).

These will definitely improve "screwey typeface" and should allow you to run in ALL resolutions that your monitor / video card is capable of producing.

If you can't use some "allowed" resolutions then the chances are you haven't installed the correct chipset drivers.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[antt]

The eye's perception of "display resolution" can be affected by a number of factors—see Image resolution and Optical resolution. One factor is the display screen's rectangular shape, which is expressed as the ratio of the physical picture width to the picture height. This is known as the aspect ratio. A screen's physical aspect ratio and the individual pixels' aspect ratio may not necessarily be the same. An array of 1280×720 on a 16:9 display has square pixels. An array of 1024×768 on a 16:9 display has rectangular pixels.
An example of pixel shape affecting "resolution" or perceived sharpness: displaying more information in a smaller area using a higher resolution makes the image much clearer. However, newer LCD displays and such are fixed at a certain resolution; making the resolution lower on these kinds of screens will greatly decrease sharpness, as an interpolation process is used to "fix" the non-native resolution input into the displays native resolution output.


from wikipedia - might be relevant. What is the native resolution of your display?

 

[dsteinschneider]

Keep your resolution of your lcd panel at it's native resolution (1680 x 1050). On a 22 inch panel that results in text that's difficult to read for some. Go to personalize>display and change the DPI (dots per inch) to the middle setting. This should make everything larger but crisp.

Don't forget that in Internet Explorer 7 and up you can click on the lower right of the browser where you see the number 100% and increase the size of the everything in the browser window.

In Outlook you can set larger fonts for the inbox subject line and other parts.

 

[CraiginNJ]

FYI#1 -- IMHO, altering DPI size is a nice idea in theory, but not pretty in reality. First, it doesn't really address the fundamental issue of fuzzy text. And worse, a side effect is that many applications use fixed-sized popup prompt or settings windows that display text in the chosen DPI but won't turn on a scrollbar, so the text overuns the window and you cannot reach any fields or buttons that are pushed out of view because of the larger text above it. Since most of these windows have their "okay" and "cancel" buttons at the bottom, this makes Windows virtually unusable with anything but the default DPI unless you are lucky enough to not need those windows (don't usually pop up every day). Similarly, some add-ins like Windows 7 desktop Gadgets don't consistently honor a non-100% DPI, so they become inconsistent in size and can't be lined up neatly.

FYI#2 - You might find it worthwhile to test using DVI or HDMI connections (digital connections) to your LCD monitor instead of VGA (analog) connections, if that's an option for you. Those clear up the fuzziness of text for me (Win7 + Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 9800 GT-series card + Dell 1920x1200 LCD monitor fuzzy at 1280x800 over VGA and not over DVI/HDMI nor at 1920x1200, even though they have the exact same 16:10 ratio). Unfortunately, I need both my PC's to feed the same type connection via a KVM, and my laptop only has VGA.

Craig in NJ

 

[CraiginNJ]

Followup:

I just found my cure at
Windows 7 is Blurry/Fuzzy for me...

To recap: Win7 via VGA from my Gigabyte nVidia GeForce 9800 GT card

was sharp at 1920x1080 but fuzzy at 1280x800 (the same 16:10 proportions) on my Dell LCD 1920x1200 . (Vista via VGA from nVidia GeForce Go 7400 in my laptop was sharp on this same monitor.) Besides the fuzzy text, other offered resolutions didn't look quite right, and when I kept saying 60 Hz (or 75 Hz) they kept reverting back on their own to saying they were using 59 Hz.

I tried igloola's solution and used the nVidia Control Panel (not Win7's Screen Resolution panel) to define a custom resolution at 1280x800 @ 60Hz, and the fuzzy text became sharp. At first it seemed to drop me down to 16 bit color, but I was able to select & apply the standard-offered 1280x800 at 16-bit and then go back to select & apply my custom-defined 1280x800 at 32-bit.

Thought you might like to know.

Craig in NJ

 

[purefct]

I experience the blurry issue when I use Aero themes (When accessing the Control Panel at Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization)

If I switch back to a Basic theme the blurry goes away. The custom resolution and adding or removing "Smooth edges of screen fonts" in the visual Effects section of Performance Options does not appear to affect the blurry issue for me.

 

[Thrasherzone]

Hi,there,if you've already done everything on the net and here and still got the text thin not sharp,this may help you.It's not about the clear type,coz it makes the texts better,it all about setting the gamma of your windows 7.
Left click on the screen,personalize,and display.Now click colour set up.Click next and on the forth page there is a tool to resetup your gama,reduce it depending on the given instruction.Then click next till the end finish the job.The clear type appears,do not uncheck! and continue clicking to the 4th page choose the bold ones which you like.
That's it! and don't forget use your monitor on the auto mode.I hope I've helped a little,coz I had the same issue.