+++ This bug was initially created as a clone of Bug #661471 +++ Today, MS released an update (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2545698) that includes new versions of Arial, Tahoma and Verdana that have been re-hinted to resolve the issues with sub-pixel positioning.

Looks to me like a tweak of the apparent weight (tweaks to the gamma/contrast?) to make them appear darker. Doesn't look re-hinted. It's an improvement, but I still think that the fallback looks better. *wonders what the results from the survey are showing so far*

I still think the DirectWrite rendering looks better, but I always thought that :).

(In reply to comment #1) > Looks to me like a tweak of the apparent weight (tweaks to the > gamma/contrast?) to make them appear darker. It's a little bit more than that, see http://www.debugtheweb.com/test/ClearType/ Quoting the maker of this site from http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals/archive/2011/06/29/ie9-cleartype-improved-clarity-for-tahoma-verdana-and-arial-fonts-fuzzy-blurry.aspx: "Using the comparison widget, you can see that Arial's c gets a little wider, dots on i and j get a little bolder, 10pt Verdana's 5 changes a bit, 10pt Arial's 0 gets a bit skinnier, and many of 9pt Verdana's characters gain a bit of weight."

> *wonders what the results from the survey are showing so far* Of course the results for the survey are now moot ;-)

The survey seemed to test a lot of different combinations though. It should still give general information on what settings people prefer.

I'd prefer to wait a bit before publishing the results of the survey so that more folks can run the survey without being influenced by previously published results. Note that the survey used fonts beyond the set that were updated by Microsoft (Arial, Verdana, Tahoma).

Personally, i think these fonts look much better with DW after the update than with GDI Classic. Are there any results, yet? I hope most of the folks are sharing my opinion. BTW, what prefs are needed in about:config to use DW for these fonts?

They sill looks pretty bad compared to superior GDI rendering.

(In reply to Rob Tonsan from comment #8) > They sill looks pretty bad compared to superior GDI rendering. Let's not confuse fact and opinion, please.

Screenshots please, not some fanboyism of one or another method of font rendering.

Bas, it's been almost five years with no updates. Is this bug still valid?