ClearType iPAQ problem after update

[alekz]

Hi, I recently updated my iPAQ 3630 to the latest ROM, 2.20 and EUU 3.0.
(PocketPC 2002).

After that when I enabled ClearType it's all fuzzy / blurred and has
coloured shadows around fonts.

Is anyone recognizing these symptoms? Any fix for this?

Thanks.

[mscdex]

Hi, I recently updated my iPAQ 3630 to the latest ROM, 2.20 and EUU 3.0.
(PocketPC 2002).

After that when I enabled ClearType it's all fuzzy / blurred and has
coloured shadows around fonts.

Is anyone recognizing these symptoms? Any fix for this?

Thanks.

Isn't that what ClearType is supposed to do, at least that's what it does on my laptop (at least the shadows and all)? ;)

[alekz]

No, you don't understand. :cry: ClearType was fine before the upgrade. It's severly messed up now, something like my iPAQ does it in the wrong "direction", it's somehow misaligned. Hard to describe with words, is there any way to take screenshots on Pocket PC? :(

[mscdex]

No, you don't understand. :cry: ClearType was fine before the upgrade. It's severly messed up now, something like my iPAQ does it in the wrong "direction", it's somehow misaligned. Hard to describe with words, is there any way to take screenshots on Pocket PC? :(
Yeah, there's programs out there.

[Dave Beauvais]

Yeah, there's programs out there.
Wow, what an incredibly helpful post that was. :roll:

You might want to check out this thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11417) for info on a freeware screenshot program and some other alternatives.

--Dave

[Janak Parekh]

alekz: do you mean the ClearType looks "thicker" and "fuzzier"? If so, that's the adjustment Compaq made a few years ago to "solve" the problem of the 3630 showing colors in its ClearType font. I'm pretty sure that behavior is not adjustable. If it's something else, please describe it.

Quite frankly, the 3630 doesn't have the hardware to do ClearType correctly. Even the old version was terrible compared to most newer Pocket PCs -- you should have always had slight color shadows.

--janak

[mscdex]

Yeah, there's programs out there.
Wow, what an incredibly helpful post that was. :roll:

You might want to check out this thread (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=11417) for info on a freeware screenshot program and some other alternatives.

--Dave

You try doing anything on a limited 14.4k connection, and you wouldn't have wanted to search either :roll:

[alekz]

I will try the programs and see if I can capture the effect.

[alekz]

Ok, I took a screenshot with ClearType on.

Screenshot (http://w1.314.telia.com/~u31412016/my_ipaq_with_cleartype_on.jpg)

The point I'm trying to make is that the colored shadows around the text where not there in my previous ROM version (PPC2002 CD-ROM).

I've also found some old Google Groups posts with people who have the same problem, apperantly it's still so, and I don't expect HP/Compaq to help.

[stevetooth]

Ok, I took a screenshot with ClearType on.

Screenshot (http://w1.314.telia.com/~u31412016/my_ipaq_with_cleartype_on.jpg)

The point I'm trying to make is that the colored shadows around the text where not there in my previous ROM version (PPC2002 CD-ROM).

I've also found some old Google Groups posts with people who have the same problem, apperantly it's still so, and I don't expect HP/Compaq to help.

Hmm. A screenshot of a cleartype text looks fine if it is magnified, and it looks different on different monitors (LCD with RGB or BGR subpixel order, or a CRT...) if it is not magnified.

Cleartype uses the LCD display's subpixels to achieve the smoothing effect, but if the display's Red, Green and Blue subpixels are not in the right position (the cleartype engine is not tuned to the display correctly), then the text rendered by the cleartype engine looks blurry and awful. If you have Windows XP, an LCD display, and cleartype turned on, you can check out the difference between the outlook of an un-optimized and optimized cleartype text:

http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/2.htm

The real difference between the two will hardly be seen on a CRT display.

Also, cleartype not works on rotated screens, where subpixels are not next to each other in a row, but aligned vertically.

If I know well, even 3970 and 5455 iPAQ screens were not optimized for displaying cleartype correctly (they use a 320x240 screen rotated 90 degrees to be 240x320), that's why it looks bad for you. Cleartype works fine on 2210 only.

But still, with a rotated screen, some sort of cleartype effect can be reached, but unfortunatelly PPC2002 does not allow us to tune the cleartype settings (unlike windows xp), so you can't do anything about it.

[Dave Beauvais]

Actually, the 3900 and 5000 series look great with ClearType -- the 3800 series was the last one with the "rotated" LCD.

--Dave

[stevetooth]

Actually, the 3900 and 5000 series look great with ClearType -- the 3800 series was the last one with the "rotated" LCD.

--Dave

Yes, you may be right. However my 3970's cleartype looks very frumpish compared to my desktop LCD monitor. This, and the fact HP did not include cleartype tuner into 3970's wm2003 rom update, and *disabled* the cleartype option in settings/system/screen page, means that somehow they were not able to really optimize cleartype for 3970.

[gorgoroth]

I know where you have been. i've been parying in the desert also when I claimed that the 3850 upgrade to rom 2.20 made cleartype blurry in some language but not in english rom. Nobody would answer. And I just found my answer in the registry. The firsts answer where right saying there is a tool somewere. It's something like cleartype tuner, but for pocket PC. I cannot find it again either, but I can tell you what registry key you have to change for having a nice cleartype:

HKey_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shell\ClearTypeAlgorithm and set it to 0 if it's 1 or 1 if it's 0

You can try other settings in this shell zone, but this one is the one you normaly need. Do a soft reset afterward.

BTW, I've been able to change it with resco file explorer 4.20, so if you cannot find it with some other registry editor, try this one.

[stevetooth]

I know where you have been. i've been parying in the desert also when I claimed that the 3850 upgrade to rom 2.20 made cleartype blurry in some language but not in english rom. Nobody would answer. And I just found my answer in the registry. The firsts answer where right saying there is a tool somewere. It's something like cleartype tuner, but for pocket PC. I cannot find it again either, but I can tell you what registry key you have to change for having a nice cleartype:

HKey_Local_Machine\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Shell\ClearTypeAlgorithm and set it to 0 if it's 1 or 1 if it's 0

You can try other settings in this shell zone, but this one is the one you normaly need. Do a soft reset afterward.

BTW, I've been able to change it with resco file explorer 4.20, so if you cannot find it with some other registry editor, try this one.

Hmm. I was able to turn on the "enable cleartype" option on my 3970 setting the "NoClearType" key to 0 at \hklm\software\microsoft\shell. However, I am trying to change the "ClearTypeAlgorithm" key from 1 to 0, but it does not help, the cleartype is still blurry. :(

[gorgoroth]

But does it acgtually "change" the bluriness? Did you try 2 as a value?

[alekz]

Thanks to everyone for the help. I've decided to let it go and run without ClearType. Don't feel like downgrading the ROM and reinstalling all the apps...