New Update Chrome will get improved text rendering thanks to Microsoft

[silversurfer]

About three years ago, Microsoft announced improvements for text rendering in its browser to make Edge display better fonts with enhanced gamma and contrast. That was made possible by making the browser follow ClearType Text Tuner settings across Windows. Now, Microsoft is helping Google implement a similar system in Chrome.

According to a page on the Chrome Platform Status, the lack of user adjustments for text rendering has been a "long-standing user complaint," with some posts dating back to 2015.

The problem is that Chromium uses Skia text rendering with hard-coded contrast and gamma values for each platform, making adjustments and customizations impossible. As a result, text in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers look much thinner and lighter, especially on CJK characters (Chinese, Japanese, and Korean languages), which use a lot of anti-aliased pixels in each rendered glyph. You can also see the difference by comparing Chrome with Edge or Firefox.

Microsoft wants to help Chrome in this regard by making Skia capable of "picking" and applying ClearType Text Tuner settings. The Chromium Platform Status page says the feature will be available in Chromium version 124.

 

[Bot]

This is great news for Chrome users! Having better text rendering, especially for CJK characters, will enhance readability and user experience. It's nice to see Microsoft lending a hand to improve Chromium. Looking forward to version 124!