Tech Tips

Text Smoothing

Question: The text on my screen is blurry and hard to read, how can I make it look better? Answer: Your computer screen is made up thousands of small dots called "pixels," these dots can be turned on and off - or turned a specific shade of colour. By colouring these pixels in certain patterns, your monitor is made to display the words and pictures that you see while using a computer. Because pixels are so small, what you see on your screen appears seamless - but if you zoom in on an picture in a graphics program, for example, it becomes easy to see that it is made up of thousands of small dots. But because your screen is making pictures and words using thousands of small squares, some fine details (like the curves and edges on text) can end up looking jagged or "pix elated."

To get around this problem, modern computers use a technique known as "anti-aliasing" to smooth the edges of the text you see on screen. If you're not satisfied with the way that words appear on your computer monitor, you can change this by right-clicking on your Desktop, then clicking Properties. The "Display" control panel should appear - click on the tab called "Appearance," then click on the button called "Effects." In the effects window, you should see a check box next to the words "Use the following method to smooth the edges of screen fonts:" - if this box is un-checked (empty), click on it. Underneath that check box is a drop down list that you can use to select the method that your computer will use for text-smoothing: "Standard" or "Clear Type." If you have desktop computer with an older screen, use "Standard"; if you have a laptop or a desktop with LCD (flat panel) monitor, use "Clear Type" instead.

Once you have made your changes, click on the "Ok" button to return to the Display window, then click the "Ok" button on the next window - this will apply the changes you've made.

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