14 DAY TRIAL // Microsoft is finally addressing an issue that users have been reporting for a while now, providing a fix for a font rendering problem affecting some of those running Internet Explorer 9.
The software giant confirmed that text displayed in some core fonts can appear blurred in IE9. This is a browser related glitch, and as such customers have come across it on all the platforms that IE9 supports, including Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, Windows 7, or Windows Server 2008 R2 and their latest upgrades.
Users providing feedback of the bug underlined that the issue did not occur when using Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) on the same machine, but only in IE9. Impacted are fonts such as Arial, Verdana and Tahoma.
On June 28th, 2011, the Redmond company released KB 2545698, a fix for blurry fonts in IE9 designed for users of Vista SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP2, Windows 7 RTM and SP1, Windows Server 2008 R2 RTM and SP1.
Here is how Microsoft describes the fuzzy font rendering bug in IE9:
“Text that is displayed in the following core fonts in Windows Internet Explorer 9 appears blurred, when you compare it to text in Windows Internet Explorer 8: Arial (10-point and 11-point), Verdana (9-point and 10-point) and Tahoma (11-point and 13-point).”
The evolution from IE8 to IE9 brought with it some changes impacting font rendering by the browser. With IE9, Microsoft opted to take advantage of the DirectX 11 APIs (application programing interfaces), a decision which contributed to the blurry font problem.
“This issue occurs because of a design change to rendering is made in Internet Explorer 9. By default, Internet Explorer 9 uses sub-pixel positioned ClearType to render text by using DirectWrite, whereas Internet Explorer 8 uses whole-pixel positioned ClearType to render text by using the Microsoft Windows graphics device interface (GDI),” the software giant explains.
But as of June 28th, 2011, IE9 users can download an update designed to make fonts rendered by the browser as sharp as in IE8.
Here are the download links, make sure to grab the update you need in accordance with the operating system on top of which you’re running IE9:
All supported x86-based versions of Windows 7 including Windows 7 SP1
All supported x64-based versions of Windows 7 including Windows 7 SP1
All supported x86-based versions of Windows Vista
All supported x64-based versions of Windows Vista
All supported x86-based versions of Windows Server 2008
All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008
All supported IA-64-based versions of Windows Server 2008
All supported x64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2
All supported IA-64-based versions of Windows Server 2008 R2
Internet Explorer 10 (IE10) Platform Preview 1 (PP1) is available for download here.
Windows Internet Explorer 9 RTW for Windows 7 and Windows 7 SP1 is available for download here.