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Which web browser has the best font renderer?

Regeneration

Regeneration

NGOHQ.COM
Joined
Oct 26, 2005
Messages
3,153 (0.44/day)
Attached below are screenshots from the 12 most downloaded web browsers. I'm trying to compare the quality of font rendering between all of them.

Avant Browser
avant.png

Brave
brave.png

Google Chrome
chrome.png

Microsoft Edge (the new one)
edge.png

Mozilla Firefox
firefox.png

Internet Explorer 11
ie11.png

Maxthon
maxthon.png

Opera
opera.png

SeaMonkey
seamonkey.png

SlimBrowser
slimbrowser.png

Vivaldi
vivaldi.png

Waterfox
waterfox.png

If you look carefully at the screenshots, font rendering changes according to the engine used by the web browser. Rendered fonts in all of WebKit-based browsers (Chromium) look exactly alike. Same goes for Gecko-based browsers (Firefox). The only exception is Internet Explorer 11 and its Trident engine.

Clipboard03.jpg

The fonts in WebKit have some kind of Chroma subpixeling and a bit blurry.

chromevsff-big.jpg

This is what we get if we disable "Accelerated 2D canvas" in Chrome (chrome://flags) and force GDI natural in Firefox (set gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.rendering_mode to 2 in about:config). So far, IE 11 produced the prettiest font, Firefox next, and Chrome last. It is very disappointing that most browsers are just clones of Google Chrome - even the new Edge.
 
Last edited:
I don't understand the point of this thread. While I might see some slight differences on my monitors, who's to say which is "better" or "best"? The text was properly displayed in each, and I was able to easily read each one. None were blurry. None displayed garbled text. Each displayed graphics fine. So IMO, for this particular parameter, it is 100% subjective.

So which is best? Well Pale Moon, of course! ;)
 
All looked the same to me.
 
Chrome is too thin and light for me. It's why I staid on IE6 for a loooong time, have been using Firefox since, and very happy.
 
Is this like the subjective thread 'what stress test is best' you started?

I don't see much of a difference in the images personally. Maybe create a spoiler showing what you see? Doesn't this thread go against forum rules that you can't just post links or images too? What do YOU see?

EDIT: I can see when you explode it to 400%....... but that isn't how I use my browser.
 
Definitely with the popular(?) sentiment above, see virtually no difference between them especially at a distance of 2 feet or more. If you're looking that hard at text rendering perhaps lower your font size or something?
 
Firefox for me.
 
Regeneration said:
Look how awful it looks:
Click to expand...
I say, so what? I am not a webpage developer but I am pretty sure scaling text WAY WAY beyond the size in the original content is not the job of the browser. If the webpage developer expects scaling to any size, it is up to the developer - at least that's how I think it works.
 
I recommend getting a better monitor. :D
 
I dont get this obsession.
 
Prefer firefox.
 
Regeneration said:
All Chrome-based browsers have that chroma pixel annoyance.
Click to expand...

Say what you want about that, but it is the reason why I've been holding onto Office 2010. Since 2013, Office uses grayscale antialiasing that looks like shit in Word. Bah, it looks like shit everywhere unless you're using a high-DPI display, apparently.

To be fair, that kind of ClearType depends a lot on the background pixels' colors, so it has a performance penalty. But it still pisses me off that they just ditched it completely without leaving even a toggle to turn it back on.
 
So you can do one of two things, move back your viewing position to the extent it doesn't affect you ask much. The other option is to lower DPI scaling, what resolution & scaling you're at right now? A photo of the screen could tell us a much better picture, literally & metaphorically speaking.
 
Hi,
Do browsers render anything or does your cpu and graphic's do that and your monitor translates to image.
Firefox looks fine but I can only zoom to 300% so it still looks fine but way more than I usually use which is 130%

Just tried chredge too everything looked fine with it too.
So yeah I agree with a few people here get a better monitor/ cpu/ graphic's card :-)
 
ThrashZone said:
Hi,
Do browsers render anything or does your cpu and graphic's do that and your monitor translates to image.
Firefox looks fine but I can only zoom to 300% so it still looks fine but way more than I usually use which is 130%
Click to expand...

The blur should not be that visible. The rendering as I understand it is done by the browser, and at least in Firefox there are multiple settings controlling font rendering. And if you zoom in the text, the rendering should automatically adjust the font smoothing so that it's not glaringly obvious.
 
Fonts are rendered by the browser with the DirectWrite API and can be accelerated with a GPU.

Firefox can be tweaked to show even better fonts by setting gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.rendering_mode to 2 in about:config.
 
windwhirl said:
You're not supposed to see it. Font rendering should automatically adapt the smoothing to whatever font size or zoom level you use.
Click to expand...

Yeah, nevermind, removed my post. I don't see it the way OP does.
 
CrAsHnBuRnXp said:
Do you have webpages at 200%!?
Click to expand...

No. I use 100% and normal DPI. But I can see the fonts are a bit blurry and colored.

windwhirl said:
Say what you want about that, but it is the reason why I've been holding onto Office 2010. Since 2013, Office uses grayscale antialiasing that looks like shit in Word. Bah, it looks like shit everywhere unless you're using a high-DPI display, apparently.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the warning. I use Office 2010 too but planned to update.
 
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