ClearType on UltraEdit 15

[tuyen]

I just tried the new version of UltraEdit (15.0) and for the first time ever in all the years I've been using UE, I'm disappointed.
One of the things that make UtlraEdit such a favourite editor among so many people is that it's HIGHLY configurable. You can make it do just about anything you want. You were never forced to use idiotic layouts or stupid "features" that the creators of other programs force you to use because of their "we know best" attitude.

I was horrified when I loaded UltraEdit 15 to find that I'm now being FORCED to use ClearType fonts. On my system, I specifically turn OFF any and all "enhancements" made to fonts because I absolutely detest them. I don't need antialiasing in fonts. If I wanted antialiasing, I'll load up one of my favourite first-person shooters and play till my eyes hurt. But when I'm in my text editor, I want my fonts to be SHARP and CRISP. I don't want them fuzzy or hazy or "rounded" or "edge enhanced" or any other such nonsense.

And even though I specifically turned off all font enhancements in Windows, I'm still being forced to see ClearType in UltraEdit, which clearly suggests that it's being forced down my throat whether I want to use it or not. I can't stress enough as to how much I detest this.

I want to publicly ask -- and even BEG -- that in the next minor update, the user has the OPTION to use the plain old classic fonts as we saw prior to version 15.
In my editor window, I use Courier New, and it displays perfectly. Nice and sharp, just as it should be. But in the "quick search" box (or whatever it's called), the font is all fuzzy from antialiasing. Also, at the bottom of the application on the status bar, all text on the status bar is fuzzy. The file name shown in the tabs are also fuzzy..

Please, PLEASE don't force me -- and everyone else -- to use these ridiculous fonts which hurt my eyes. Please give me the option to say NO and to be able to revert back to the standard Tahoma sharp text that I had in version 14 and every version for the last 10 years since I've been a loyal UltraEdit user.

[Mofi]

I'm with you. I also don't like all these "enhancements" for displaying fonts. So I have also turned off the cleartype options on my Windows XP computer - see screenshot effects_dialog.png.

But I have no problems with the font in the quick search or the status bar as you can see on my screenshots at http://www.ultraedit.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7779.

You will see on my screenshot that the file time is truncated a little bit in the status bar. The reason is that I have increased the font size of Selected Items in the appearance configuration dialog of windows - see screenshot appearance_dialog.png - from 8 to 10. This font is used also in the quick search edit field, in most views of UltraEdit, in Outlook for the message header lines, in all programs using the MFC class CListCtrl and not using extra code to work with a different font and font size for the list as defined in the Windows appearance dialog, etc.

[tuyen]

I have the exact same settings as you do in Windows to eliminate all the nonsensical "eye candy"...but my fonts in UltraEdit 15 are still being displayed as ClearType. I'll post a screen shot so you can see what I mean. I even tried bumping up the font size of selected items from 8 to 10 in order to perfectly match your settings because I thought maybe there was a bug with version 15 in the way in handled size 8 fonts, but even with size 10 I'm still seeing ClearType.

Here's my screen..

[rhapdog]

I have a slightly different issue with ClearType altogether with version 15, but hadn't really noticed it until I saw this thread.

I have noticed with my version of UltraEdit 15.0.00.1043, it makes no difference what settings I use for ClearType in UltraEdit, because whatever it is in Windows (XP SP2) is what it will be in UltraEdit. If I turn on ClearType in Windows, it is everywhere in UltraEdit. If I turn off ClearType in Windows, it can not be set or improved in UltraEdit.

It seems, at least for me, this configuration portion is broken in this version.

The use of ClearType, for me, is quite obvious when in use, and quite obvious when not in use. When using a standard CRT display, ClearType should be avoided. ClearType was designed to enhance the display on LCD monitors when using a digital input. If you have an LCD monitor, but are using the standard analog (e.g. VGA plug) then you will not get any benefit. When used on an LCD with digital input, ClearType is an eye saver. If used on a analog LCD or CRT, then all it does is make the fonts blurry.

If you are having trouble with ClearType because you think it makes fonts look blurry, then you should turn it off altogether. If you have a good, high-quality digital LCD, like myself, then you should turn it on all the way.

I don't understand why people want to be able to "disable" ClearType just for a single program. If you don't like it, it should be disabled all the time. If you do like it, it should be on all the time.

This is a feature that I suppose someone wanted, but I have difficulty understanding. I just want UltraEdit to respect my Windows font settings on this one, and I'm fine with that.

Since it picks up whatever I configure Windows to do, then I'm happy.

[tuyen]

It seems, at least for me, this configuration portion is broken in this version.

I think that much is clear, and I really hope that someone at IDM is listening and working to QUICKLY fix it.

When using a standard CRT display, ClearType should be avoided. ClearType was designed to enhance the display on LCD monitors when using a digital input. If you have an LCD monitor, but are using the standard analog (e.g. VGA plug) then you will not get any benefit. When used on an LCD with digital input, ClearType is an eye saver. If used on a analog LCD or CRT, then all it does is make the fonts blurry.

I disagree completely. There is never a time when ClearType is an "eye saver" for me. Are you kidding? It's the exact opposite -- a total eye STRAIN. That's why I don't want any part of it, and that's why I really hope that the problem in version 15 is due to a simple bug, and not the result of IDM trying to force ClearType down my throat. And being a self-proclaimed "power user" I know all the benefits/drawbacks of CRT versus LCD, and I can say with absolute certainty that at no time has ClearType ever been a positive thing that I would look at as a "feature". I've been using nothing but top of the line monitors (both CRT and LCD) over the last 12 years, and from the very first time I saw ClearType, I immediately hated it. I want my fonts to be clear, crisp, and consisting of one solid colour. As I said in an earlier post -- if I wanted antialiasing, I'll go load up one of my favourite games. But when I'm working with text, antialiasing is the last thing I want to deal with.

I don't understand why people want to be able to "disable" ClearType just for a single program. If you don't like it, it should be disabled all the time. If you do like it, it should be on all the time.

Exactly right. And since I've turned it off completely in Windows, I don't want to EVER see any traces of it. But the fact that UltraEdit is still showing me ClearType is very disturbing, because it's obvious that they've done something to bypass the Windows setting. I only hope that it was an accidental bypass and not deliberate.

[rhapdog]

There is never a time when ClearType is an "eye saver" for me. Are you kidding? It's the exact opposite -- a total eye STRAIN.

That's why ClearType is an "option" in Windows. Everyone's eyes are different. Everyone perceiving differently is also why Microsoft has available a free ClearType Fine Tuning PowerToy. The default setting for ClearType is indeed too blurry, but I was able to fine tune it to where it actually is a help to me now. I never needed it until my eyes started giving me problems (as I got older) but for the last 2 years, ClearType has been a blessing to me, and I'm thankful to have the "option." But it should always be just that... an option, and nothing more. Forcing it is wrong.

But the fact that UltraEdit is still showing me ClearType is very disturbing, because it's obvious that they've done something to bypass the Windows setting. I only hope that it was an accidental bypass and not deliberate.

Yes, that is odd. My installation doesn't give me any hint of ClearType anywhere when I turn it off in Windows. They may not be aware of your situation. I'd send an E-mail to support if I were you.

[Mofi]

I agree with rhapdog as well as with tuyen. For me ClearType makes the fonts only blur. The fonts are perfect with ClearType completely disabled (CRT and LCD). But I also know that every living on this planet see the world different. Therefore ClearType is surely very useful for many humans sitting in front of a computer display, maybe in 10-20 years also for me. For 6 years I have had a visual acuity of 120% (20% over normal). But I doubt if I would reach this result now again. The acuity starts to the decrease. Most people do not take note of this until they really start getting problems to recognize soemthing because the acuity decreasing process runs over years and the human brain compensates it as much as possible.

The ClearType setting in UltraEdit is not for enabling/disabling ClearType for UltraEdit only - see the help page for this configuration dialog.

tuyen, can be only enabled/disabled in Windows. And I think all the font settings in UltraEdit are only for the edit area of files. But I could be wrong with my last statement because I never needed to change somthing.

I use on my Windows XP and my Vista the Windows Classic theme and have even disabled the color gradient in the active and inactive title bar. In other words I use Windows 95 look on my WinXP SP3 and Vista Prof. because it is simply the fastest theme, increases the time I can work with the battery and screenshots are very small because often less than 256 colors or even less than 16 colors.

tuyen, I'm really wondering about your screenshot. The text in the title bars, the menu and the edit area is looking fine. Only in the quick search bar and the quick open bar the text looks blurry. That's really strange. I have never seen that and can't reproduce it on my computer.

You can configure in Windows XP, Vista also the visual effects like "Smooth edges of screen fonts" in the control panel. I have simply chosen "Best performance" which disables all the visual effects - see for example Optimize Windows Vista for better performance or How to set performance options in Windows XP.

[rhapdog]

Must be nice to still be young and have great vision. I remember the day. All my life I had visual acuity of well over 120%, until about 3 years ago. I hit my early forties, and down it started to go. It's already gotten farther than I would like during the last few years.

Of course, it's the perfect excuse for upgrading to the large, oversize, wide-screen display that I now have, which gives me the proper screen real-estate I need to do my programming and web design properly.

Even running at it's native resolution, the pixels seem rather large to me, and the ClearType, once properly tuned with the power toy, actually smoothed out the jagged edges without giving any blur whatsoever. ClearType's initial setting before fine-tuning was quite blurry, but thank goodness a power user never has to settle for initial settings that something comes with. Fiddle, fiddle, fiddle. You get some great stuff that way. It's why I like UltraEdit so much, because I can customize it anyway I like, and I don't have to work the same way someone else does.

[tuyen]

I use on my Windows XP and my Vista the Windows Classic theme

Same with me. After every O/S installation, the very first thing I do is change back to the classic theme, and I turn off every option in the performance section except for two which I leave turned on ("Show translucent selection rectangle", and also "Show windows content while dragging").

tuyen, I'm really wondering about your screenshot. The text in the title bars, the menu and the edit area is looking fine. Only in the quick search bar and the quick open bar the text looks blurry.

And don't forget my status bar also. If you scroll down in the image I posted, you'll see ClearType at the bottom too.

That's really strange. I have never seen that and can't reproduce it on my computer.

I've never seen it before, either. That's why I'm confident that it's definitely a bug with version 15, because none of my other applications ever give me unwanted ClearType, and prior to version 15 of UltraEdit, I never had any problems with it.

[Mofi]

I have found an interesting article - see GDI+ and ClearType : inconsistent behavior. It looks like GDI+ has some bugs and therefore it is maybe important which version of GdiPlus.dll is installed and used on your computer by UltraEdit.

I used Filemon from SysInternals to find out which GdiPlus.dll is used by UltraEdit on my computer. On my computer with Windows XP SP3 UltraEdit uses

C:\Windows\WinSxS\x86_Microsoft.Windows.GdiPlus_6595b64144ccf1df_1.0.2600.5581_x-ww_dfbc4fc4\GdiPlus.dll

There are 4 other versions of this DLL in the *GdiPlus* subdirectories in the WinSxS directory. The version of this DLL is 5.1.3102.5581.

Can you find out which version the file GdiPlus.dll used by UltraEdit has on your computer?

I further have found out that GDI+ is also used by Office 2003 and maybe GDI+ was installed with Office 2003.

The version of GDI+ used by UltraEdit on my computer was installed by Security update KB938464 for GDI+ and this version is the latest on my computer. The other 4 versions are older and have a lower version number.

[tuyen]

There are 4 other versions of this DLL in the *GdiPlus* subdirectories in the WinSxS directory. The version of this DLL is 5.1.3102.5581.

Can you find out which version the file GdiPlus.dll used by UltraEdit has on your computer?

Thanks for looking into this problem some more. Unfortunately, I'm using the exact same version of the DLL as you. I've eliminated all other versions from my system, and placed only ONE copy of the DLL in my system32 directory so that every application that needs GDI+ can use only that one file. But the problem with UltraEdit 15 is still there..

I further have found out that GDI+ is also used by Office 2003 and maybe GDI+ was installed with Office 2003.

I never used Office 2003. I'm still using Office XP..

[Mofi]

Hi tuyen,

you won't believe it, but I suddenly have had the same problem as you. Although all cleartype settings were as before and posted here, cleartype was active for the file tabs, status bar, address bar and menu items, but only in UltraEdit v15.00. In UltraCompare v6.30 the menu items were OK, but the status bar uses also a cleartyped font.

But the big advantage was, that I knew, what has been changed since last yesterday: I installed today Office 2007.
I saw in the Office 2007 options on first run that ClearType was enabled by default for Office and so I disabled it immediately. Yes, Microsoft has found a way to enable cleartype in Office 2007 and IE7/IE8 even when it is not enabled for Windows itself. Makes this sense? Maybe for someone else, definitely not for me. The screen is the same for the Office applications and IE8 as for all other applications.

As always when installing a new application I made my personal snapshot of the most important directories and whole registry. Well, to find out what has been changed by installation of Office 2007 is a nightmare and will take surely many, many hours in the next weeks. However, I already made a quick compare to find out what causes the partial cleartype in UltraEdit. I mainly looked on the new fonts installed and the new font settings in the registry. I saw that Office 2007 installed a lot of new fonts which I have to delete one by one in the next weeks after making a backup of them because I don't like to have a list of 50+ fonts in the font selection drop-down lists.

I used now Regmon from SysInternals to log all registry accesses during start of UltraEdit and search in this log for "font". At the end of the log I saw several approaches to access following registry key which does not exist on my computer:

HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes\Segoe UI

Segoe UI? Never have seen such a font before. Was it installed before? No, it wasn't according to my logs of changes.

So I searched in the registry for "Segoe" and found only the keys where Office MSI has recorded that this font was installed with Office 2007 and the standard registration values for the font.

So I copied the 4 files C:\Windows\Fonts\SEGOEUI*.ttf to another directory (= backup), opened Control Panel - Fonts and uninstalled the 4 "Segoe UI" fonts.

I closed UltraEdit, started it again and ... surprise ... no cleartype anymore in UltraEdit.

To make sure that the existence of this font package is the reason, I installed the 4 "Segoe UI" fonts again from the backup directory, restarted UltraEdit, and yes, cleartype is back. Unbelievable, isn't it.

I searched now in all files in C:\Windows and its subdirectories for the string "Segoe" and found it in 8 files. 5 of them are in the MSI installer directory and were not of interest (Office 2007 MSI and 4 Office patches). But the other 3 files were interesting because they are:

C:\Windows\system32\ieframe.dll
C:\Windows\system32\ieframe.dll.mui
C:\Windows\system32\de-de\ieframe.dll.mui

It looks like in this DLL the font "Segoe UI" is hard coded or preselected. I have already known that ieframe.dll is loaded by uedit32.exe at the end (for the browser view feature, the quick start guide and the IPM when not registered). I wanted to test if ieframe.dll is really responsible for this problem and renamed it temporarily. But uedit32.exe can't start without ieframe.dll.

However, it looks like ieframe.dll replaces the font Tahoma defined in the Windows theme by "Sergoe UI" and as you can read on Wikipedia the font "Segoe UI" is based on Tahoma and mainly for cleartype on Vista. If cleartype is disabled it looks awful. In my point of view it is a bug of ieframe.dll that it ignores the font setting in the Windows theme and replaces it with "Segoe UI" and everything drawn on the display with the system font for the status bar, address bar, menu items, etc. after loading ieframe.dll in the current application uses than "Segoe UI". Interesting is that on my other computer also with Windows XP SP3 there is no file ieframe.dll. The reason is probably that my other computer still uses IE6 while I have installed on my new computer IE8. (IE7 was already preinstalled on the new computer and therefore I decided to update to IE8. I use on both computers as default browser Opera.)

Conclusion to workaround the cleartype problem:

1. Copy C:\Windows\Fonts\SEGOEUI*.ttf to a backup directory in case you need to re-install them.
2. Uninstall all 4 Segoe UI fonts via control panel.

I will also describe the problem and report it to IDM by email. Maybe the IDM developers can find a workaround for that problem within UltraEdit now after we know what is causing it.

PS: Using HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes\Segoe UI with Tahoma as substitution font has no effect without uninstalling the "Segoe UI" fonts.

[tuyen]

you won't believe it, but I suddenly have had the same problem as you.

I believe it. But I'm surprised it took this long before you encoutered the problem.

It looks like in this DLL the font "Segoe UI" is hard coded or preselected.

Yeah, don't you just love it when people hard-code things which are SUPPOSED to be optional?

Conclusion to workaround the cleartype problem:

1. Copy C:\Windows\Fonts\SEGOEUI*.ttf to a backup directory in case you need to re-install them.
2. Uninstall all 4 Segoe UI fonts via control panel.

I will also describe the problem and report it to IDM by email. Maybe the IDM developers can find a workaround for that problem within UltraEdit now after we know what is causing it.

PS: Using HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes\Segoe UI with Tahoma as substitution font has no effect without uninstalling the "Segoe UI" fonts.

I knew it would come down to only two possibilities: a bug in UltraEdit 15, or a font problem.
Unfortunately, I didn't have much time in the last couple of months to investigate the problem, but I'm really glad that you did. Thank you -- I'm now able to use UltraEdit once again without hating it at the same time.

And the thing I find really frustrating is that you have to go into the Fonts section of the Control Panel to actually delete the font. If you just delete the files from the Fonts directory, nothing changes. I don't understand that...because if the fonts are no longer there on the hard drive, how can they still be used? Maybe it requires a system reboot before the changes take effect? I don't know because I didn't reboot. I was just so happy to get rid of the damn ClearType. Or maybe it's cached somewhere in one of the Windows system backup folders? That's probably it.

Anyhow, thanks once again for solving it. I really hope that IDM pays attention and fixes it for the next version.

[mjcarman]

Segoe UI? Never have seen such a font before. Was it installed before? No, it wasn't according to my logs of changes.

Segoe UI is one of the fonts added in Windows Vista and also included in Office 2007. It's the default for UI elements (captions, titles, etc.) Some of the fonts in that set (like Consolas) are designed for ClearType and look utterly horrid without it. Presumably that's why Office 2007 defaults to using ClearType even if you don't have it enabled in the OS itself.

[Mofi]

But I'm surprised it took this long before you encoutered the problem. :-)

I would not have found the reason if Windows XP SP3 on my new laptop was not already preinstalled with IE7 and Microsoft's Home Use Program would have given me the option to buy Office 2003 instead of Office 2007. :-)

And the thing I find really frustrating is that you have to go into the Fonts section of the Control Panel to actually delete the font. If you just delete the files from the Fonts directory, nothing changes. I don't understand that...because if the fonts are no longer there on the hard drive, how can they still be used? Maybe it requires a system reboot before the changes take effect?

In the good article Fonts in Windows you can read that on start of Windows all installed fonts are preloaded and therefore cached in RAM. So just deleting a font file in the fonts directory without rebooting Windows has no effect. With using the uninstall option to uninstall a font, the file is deleted, the registration of the font in the registry is deleted and additionally the font is removed from the list of loaded fonts in RAM. So for a faster Windows startup and getting a little bit more free RAM it is good practice to backup the entire fonts directory and then uninstall all fonts never or only rarely needed. But that must be done with care because some fonts are required by Windows and some fonts are required by the GUI of some applications. For example I have uninstalled all fonts for Asian languages because I surely don't need them ever. I can't read any Asian text and therefore it does not matter if I see just rectangles for the characters of an Asian text because of missing font. The Asian fonts are often the largest (many and complex symbols = many vector data = larger file).

Segoe UI is one of the fonts added in Windows Vista and also included in Office 2007. It's the default for UI elements (captions, titles, etc.) Some of the fonts in that set (like Consolas) are designed for ClearType and look utterly horrid without it. Presumably that's why Office 2007 defaults to using ClearType even if you don't have it enabled in the OS itself.

Thanks, but I have thought already the same after reading the Wikipedia article about the font Segoe UI. It looks like the Microsoft developers have simply forgotten that even on Windows Vista the Classic theme can be selected to improve performance and the ClearType option can be disabled. Well, it looks like IE8 itself does not use on Windows XP with Classic theme, ClearType not enabled and with Segoe UI installed this font for the window tabs and the status bar although IE8 also loads ieframe.dll. So there is something the IDM developers have overlooked or is not well documented for other developers using the IE rendering engine to display HTML files in a frame window directly in the application.