0

In my WPF application often used small size text (12-13 px). As a result I see a bad display of it (imho, for me). ClearType used (but does not help).

Example (from above is a desired result):

enter image description here

How you thinks, what must be helpful for me?

8
  • 2
    I'm voting to close this question as off-topic because this belongs to stack overflow
    – joojaa
    Jun 14, 2017 at 10:57
  • 1
    Funny, but there they told me to go here...
    – D .Stark
    Jun 14, 2017 at 11:40
  • Then why you did not vote against?
    – D .Stark
    Jun 14, 2017 at 11:42
  • I did that message is generated by the vote system. In anycase you question does not have any actionable points, what i think is not a question. Yes text antialiasing is sometimes an issue. Not much you can do about that.
    – joojaa
    Jun 14, 2017 at 12:09
  • 1
    Just to be clear: Above is the desired result and below is what you obtain, right? If so, note that the below case looks as if it has compression artifacts, which makes it quite difficult to make good statements about the actual font rendering. Also, what exactly do you consider bad?
    – Wrzlprmft
    Jun 15, 2017 at 7:19

2 Answers 2

1

Use a bitmap font just in the wanted size. Get one that is designed for small size. Prevent any scaling and smoothing.

4
  • ok, what bitmap font you advices for me? With Segoe UI font style.
    – D .Stark
    Jun 14, 2017 at 14:32
  • Forgot to add that Kaspersky Antivirus font is perfect! It is represented in the picture (which is on top).
    – D .Stark
    Jun 14, 2017 at 14:40
  • I was told that subpixel (ClearType) smoothing is applied. Is this true?
    – D .Stark
    Jun 14, 2017 at 14:42
  • @D.Stark Unfortunately bitmap fonts cannot have very large stylistic variation spectrum. It's difficult enough to get all needed characters acceptably visible. Please, check, if something applicable exixts here dafont.com/bitmap.php?page=1&text=Bitmap+Text+for+Everyone. I'm not a programmer so I cannot give proper answers for that area. But surely any smoothing means harmful blurring too in small sizes.
    – user82991
    Jun 14, 2017 at 14:51
0

The bottom image looks like it is using greyscale subpixel rendering. This is normal behavior in WPF for certain circumstances. The following randomly selected link summarizes better than I can:

This is not a bug actually, rather it's a known limitation, there are some of situations in which font antialiasing algorithm will fallback to grayscale, they are:

  1. Text content rendered into software render target using RenderTargetBitmap.
  2. Text content hosted inside layered windows (aka ContextMenus, ToolTips etc).
  3. Text content rasterized into VisualBrush.
  4. Text content rendered into a CompostionTarget whose Background property is set to Colors.Transparent to support areo glass frame extension.

Note: this is definitely a stack overflow question.

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.