Fuzzy "out of focus" text in drop down menus

Question

Hi,

Most of the ClearType text used by WPF running on XP normally looks at least "OK" to me.  But the text in the drop-down part of menus of the samples looks blurry, fuzzy or "out of focus".  See the link below to the screen capture of part of WpfNotepad.  You need to view the largest size to see the problem:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/52602162@N00/376915412/

Notice that the text in the drop-down portion of the menu is using "grey-scale" ClearType (looks fuzzy to me), while the text on the main part of the menu is using the normal "colored" ClearType (looks OK to me).

Is there some way to get the drop-down text to use the normal "colored" ClearType?  The drop-down menus on Blend itself use the "colored" ClearType, so shouldn't I be able to also?

Thanks,
Alex

Answer 1

To be consistent on terminology - the menu bar at the top of the screen-shot is being rendered using Cleartype (all Cleartype uses coloured anti-aliasing and should only be used on LCD monitors). The popup menu in the screenshot appears to have it's text rendered using regular anti-aliasing - what Windows calls "standard" smoothing in the Display Properties->Appearance->Effects dialog.

It's an inconsistency that should definitely be looked into. Have you tried filing a bug report using the msdn tool?

Answer 2

Hi rhm,

Based on the "Note:" in the following page, you are probably right about the popup menu text being rendered "without ClearType" ("gray scale rendering"):  http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa970267.aspx

OTOH, that page seems to be saying that ClearType has a "Level" setting that controls the amount of color (or colour ;) it uses.  So how could one tell the difference between "gray scale rendering" and ClearType rendering with a "Level" setting of zero?

I'm willing to file a bug report on it, but I wanted to check first to see if this was a known problem, or maybe even a "feature".

Related issues with ClearType and general fuzziness of all rendering in WPF:
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=991153&SiteID=1

Alex

 

Answer 3

Hi rhm,

Where are you supposed to go to report WPF bugs?  Can anyone do it or do you have to be part of some "program"?

Alex

Answer 4

Try this link:

http://connect.microsoft.com/Main/content/content.aspx?ContentID=2220

You should be able to use the same Passport (or whatever they call it now) login as you use here in the forums.

The site is kind of lame IMO, but it does appear that they deal with the bugs there at least occasionally.

Answer 5

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the link.  I just posted the menu-fuzziness "issue".  I agree that the UI of the "Connect" site could use some work.  It took some "exploring" before I found that the "Feedback" link on the left is what you press to actually see the list of bugs.  This seems to be the link to go directly to the WPF buglist:  https://connect.microsoft.com/feedback/default.aspx?SiteID=212 

Seems like the "Connect" site has a lot of potential, but I wonder how many people know about it.  Surely these "Forums" and the "Connect" system could be better integrated.

Alex