QuickType - ClearType Toggle

Filed under: Design, Developer, OS Updates, Text, Utilities, Windows, Productivity, Microsoft, Freeware

QuickType - ClearType Toggle

by Jason Clarke Nov 27th 2006

First things first - if you're running Windows XP and you've never heard of ClearType, you need to check it out. Head to Microsoft's ClearType Tuner web page to see what it's all about, and try it for yourself. For those of you that know and love ClearType, here's a little utility to help you love it just a little bit more.

Although I find that 98% of the time I want ClearType running, there are the occasional times when I'd like to turn it off - just for a second. It's sort of a hassle, since you can either go back to the Microsoft ClearType Tuner website I pointed to before, or navigate through your system's Display Settings to the Effects button on the Appearance tab to turn it on or off. If you find that you want to do this on a fairly regular basis, you might want to try QuickType, a little utility that sits in your system tray and allows you to turn ClearType on or off at will. It also gives you a shortcut to a local version of the ClearType Tuner if you have it installed (get it here), so that if you're like me and you move around from monitor to monitor, you can quickly tune your display.

The download contains no installer, so simply extract the zip file to a known folder and run it from there. The context menu when you right-click the system tray icon offers the option to run the utility when Windows starts. Note that you'll need the .Net framework installed to use QuickType, although they don't specify which version you need installed.

Tags: ClearType, ClearType Tuner, CleartypeTuner, Font Smoothing, FontSmoothing, Microsoft ClearType, MicrosoftCleartype, QuickType, Windows ClearType, WindowsCleartype

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Mike said 12:26PM on 11-27-2006

.Net is a 20+ MB download. There is also this free ClearType tuner that does the same thing and more:

http://www.ioisland.com/cleartweak/

westudi said 12:26PM on 11-27-2006

I used to use clear type when I had a crt monitor. On my LCD, it seems to blur the text to the extent that it makes it harder to read. I am not sure if its a product of the LCD, or the higher resolution setting I am running.

RP said 12:29PM on 11-27-2006

Some people love it, some people don't. On my LCD, it really looks good.

If it looks bad, try running the ClearType Tuner.

RP said 12:30PM on 11-27-2006

Another quick way to turn off ClearType, interestingly enough:

Start | Run -> magnify

Magnify.exe disables ClearType.

Sanjay Goel said 12:42PM on 11-30-2006

I would like to know what are those 2% of the times when you like to switch off Cleartype. I haven't ever felt the need.

@westudi
Cleartype is a product mainly for the LCD. I didn't find any difference on my earlier CRT monitor but it is really good on my LCD. And I found that it works correctly only on one of the resolutions my LCD supports. So try changing the resolution if your text blurs.

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