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Google Investigating Issue With Blurry Fonts on new Chrome 69 (zdnet.com)

Posted by msmash on from the blurry-texts dept.

Since the release of Chrome 69 earlier this week, countless of users have gone on social media and Google Product Forums to complain about "blurry" or "fuzzy" text inside Chrome. ZDNet: The blurred font issue isn't only limited to text rendered inside a web page, users said, but also for the text suggestions displayed inside the address bar search drop-down, and Chrome's Developer Tools panel. [...] According to reports, the issue only manifests for Chrome 69 users on Windows. Those who rolled back to Chrome 68 stopped having problems. Users said that changing Chrome, operating system, or screen DPI settings didn't help. "Our team is investigating reports of this behavior. You can find more information in this public bug report," a Google spokesperson said last night after first user complaints started surfacing online. Some users have also expressed concerns over Chrome not showing "trivial subdomains" including www and secure lock sign in the address bar.

32 of 71 comments (clear)

  1. Whats the deal by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

    Whats the deal with the new interface. Looks like we are back to rounded corners again.

    1. Re:Whats the deal by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      And what's the deal with decaf coffee? How do they get the caffeine out of there, and then where does it go?

    2. Re:Whats the deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Why do they put caffeine in coffee and then take it back out?

      And why if Chrome rendering fonts in the first place? That's a job for the operating system.

    3. Re:Whats the deal by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Score: 5, That's gold Jerry, GOLD!

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      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re: Whats the deal by spongman · · Score: 1

      dichloromethe (or ethyl acetate) leeching.

  2. So Chrome 69 makes you blind? by the_skywise · · Score: 4, Funny

    The jokes write themselves...

  3. Blurry Fonts... by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

    Maybe they need to put on their Google Glass so they can read the fonts clearer.

    --
    "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    1. Re:Blurry Fonts... by Z00L00K · · Score: 2

      They just started to use Cleartype and the fuzzy fonts.

      Both cleartype and fuzzy fonts gives me a headache so I have to use uBlock to revert to the browser default when I run Firefox.

      --
      If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
  4. I bet you by The+MAZZTer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If these are Windows users they screwed with the Compatibility Mode options for DPI in order to make the window smaller or bigger. It looked fine until Google did something differently and now the Compatibility Mode options make it look blurry. Turns out using options designed for use on legacy applications only on modern applications introduces problems. Lots of Steam users have similar problems.

    1. Re:I bet you by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Wrong. I use the standard DPI settings for the whole screen (1.5x on my 27" 4K screen), which only works with programs that are DPI-aware. It's true that I didn't notice the blurry fonts until I saw the headline, but I really just thought I was that tired (I've only had 69 for about a day). At least for me, it's fairly mild.

    2. Re:I bet you by Solandri · · Score: 3, Informative

      The problem is there are three ways to tweak the DPI. Compatibility Mode, which can be set on a per-app basis. Display scaling, which is set via the Windows desktop and affects everything. And Advanced Scaling which Microsoft introduced with the Spring Creators Update, which I haven't figured out exactly how it's different from the regular Display Scaling.

      Under the hood, there's also ClearType which runs on top of DPI scaling, and does subpixel rendering (using the individual red, green, and blue subpixels to sharpen fonts). So there's a lot of places other than Compatibility Mode where something could go wrong to cause blurry fonts. My bet would actually be on the new Advanced Scaling options which were added - they're probably doing something which couldn't happen before with Display Scaling was your only option, and which only crops up if you have those two tweaked a certain way.

    3. Re:I bet you by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Looking at some zoomed in screenshots, I think they're scaling the subpixel rendering itself (which should never happen). There is no reason to have red or blue tint on anything but the outermost pixel, but looking at my screenshot close up I'm seeing two side-by-side bluish or reddish pixels.

    4. Re:I bet you by Scoth · · Score: 1

      Even on Chrome 69 on my multi-DPI work setup I have to turn on the DPI scaling compatibility mode/override to not get huge dialog boxes and widgets. It's a bit frustrating to me that a currently supported, modern app would still have problems with that.

    5. Re:I bet you by omnichad · · Score: 1

      If it looks significantly worse, it could also have nothing at all to do with the bug - Chrome is DPI aware and should never have that enabled. Especially since the bug report doesn't have any mention of anything but the system DPI setting.

    6. Re:I bet you by Ingenium13 · · Score: 1

      Nope, I have a Windows VM that's essentially stock that I use for a couple applications. I had Chrome open in it earlier today, and noticed that the fonts were blurry and were giving me a headache after a few minutes of use. I thought maybe it was something with RDP messing it up, but after I read this, I logged in again and verified that the fuzzy fonts are only in Chrome. All other applications are fine.

    7. Re:I bet you by omnichad · · Score: 1

      So you like the way I word it (No Giggity).

    8. Re:I bet you by greenwow · · Score: 1

      And most Windows apps. For most of our users on Windows 10, Windows apps have blurry text no matter what settings we try. That really sucks for developers that need to read a lot of text.

    9. Re: I bet you by spongman · · Score: 1

      They don't?

    10. Re:I bet you by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      At some point you just need to get your developers glasses or fire your IT team.

  5. Not new by Tailhook · · Score: 1

    Chrome has been having this problem for certain desktop users for a while now. There are workaround flags and whatnot. Just another chronic quality problem in Chrome that never gets fixed....

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    1. Re:Not new by MidSpeck · · Score: 1

      True. I had to disable "Accelerated 2D canvas" in order to get the fuzziness to go away on mine on Chrome 68, which was working just fine before that.

  6. While they're at it by Pedestrianwolf · · Score: 2

    ..maybe they could also roll back all rounded rectangles they added in v69. Everything is so round it feels like I designed it in my basement.

    1. Re:While they're at it by ArchieBunker · · Score: 3, Funny

      Chrome has a major UI re-design? Firefox is going to be pulling some late nights to catch up!

      --
      Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
    2. Re:While they're at it by NickDngr · · Score: 1

      ..maybe they could also roll back all rounded rectangles they added in v69. Everything is so round it feels like I designed it in my basement.

      Yeah, it's starting to look like Slashdot.

      --
      Yoda of Borg am I! Assimilated shall you be! Futile resistance is, hmm?
  7. It's also has performance regressions by SurenEnfiajyan · · Score: 2

    On my Lenovo G570 the latest chrome also has very high CPU usage on slither.io game and the game turns into a slideshow in places with many snakes. Firefox 61 doesn't suffer from the this problem, despite the fact that its slower almost in any regard. But not this time.

  8. BSOD by jimbrooking · · Score: 1

    After installing ALL pages I visit are pure black. No text or graphics.

    1. Re:BSOD by jimbrooking · · Score: 1

      Fix (Win 7 Home): Uninstall Chrome, delete all browsing date. reinstall Chrome, be dazzled by the curviness.

  9. Can someone summarize the linked article? by kaizendojo · · Score: 4, Funny

    I upgraded and I can't read it.

  10. See Jeff Probst ... by CaptainDork · · Score: 1

    ... about this.

    I remember on Survivor®, back in the day, they had a "blurry tit," problem.

    They fixed that by disallowing exposed tits.

    Google should remove the tits from their fonts.

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    It little behooves the best of us to comment on the rest of us.
  11. trivial subdomain hiding by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

    So this "trivial subdomain hiding" thing... it's a crap idea right?

  12. Here's my take as a Mac user by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    First of all, I really hate these thin fonts. They may look neat on hi-DPI displays but not everyone has one.

    Secondly, the text on the left screen capture looks like it had its pixels hammered to the nearest pixel, which is the typical crappy-looking Microsoft anti-aliasing while the text on the right looks like normal anti-aliased text to me.

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    #DeleteFacebook
  13. Re:Problem has been solved already by Z34107 · · Score: 1

    Text wrapping is a "solved" problem, too, but you're still doing it by hand for some reason.

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