Enabling ClearType in Landscape Mode on the Pocket PC

[Darius Wey]

Windows Mobile has supported ClearType for quite some time now. However, you might have noticed that it refuses to work in landscape mode, even when enabled (this rule has existed for many years). Thankfully, there's a fix, but it involves a little adventure through the registry. If you're well aware of the risks, proceed. If not, you can always use <a href="http://www.tweaks2k2.com/">Tweaks2K2 .NET</a> or <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/tipsandtricks/?en">Spb Pocket PC Tips &amp; Tricks</a> and have it do the dirty work for you.<br /><br />You'll need a registry editor, of course. In this guide, I use <a href="http://www.resco.net/pocketpc/explorer/default.asp">Resco Explorer 2005</a> - just one of the many registry editors available for the Pocket PC.<br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20060121-ClearType.gif" /><br /><br />To start off, ensure ClearType is enabled. To do this, tap Start > Settings > System > Screen > ClearType, and check to see the Enable ClearType box is ticked. Now, fire up the registry editor and navigate your way to <i>HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\GDI\ClearTypeSettings</i>. You'll notice a DWORD entry titled, <i>"OffOnRotation"</i>. Its default value should be <i>1</i>. Tap on it and edit the value to <i>0</i>. Accept the changes, soft-reset your Pocket PC, then write home to your folks and tell them how easy that was. 8)

[Gerard]

I'm not following... this is a hack to better enable global viewing of BlurType®? What a strange thing to consider. If one wants blurred fonts, a bit of fine sandpaper carefully applied to the screen in a circular motion will do the trick, and there is no need to make a backup first when using that method, nor even to install a registry editor.

[orangewinger]

All good, but cleartype only really works on one orientation of the LCD screen, hence why it's disabled on rotation by default.

Dave

[DustyLBottoms]

All good, but cleartype only really works on one orientation of the LCD screen, hence why it's disabled on rotation by default.

Dave

I did the hack on my hp4700 and it looks beautiful!

[Jason Dunn]

I'm not following... this is a hack to better enable global viewing of BlurType®?

Ah, Gerard, always the joykill. You must be great fun at parties. :lol:

[msprague]

Works great on my X50v. May not be quite as pretty as portrait, but much nicer than without it in landscape. To my eyes anyway.

[Clinton Fitch]

I have an x50v and have had this hack (via Tweaks2K2) for sometime now. I agree: It looks fantastic.

I'm not sure about the hack, but I know with Tweaks2K2 it puts a small applet in the startup directory and eats up abt 11K of memory....

[Janak Parekh]

All good, but cleartype only really works on one orientation of the LCD screen, hence why it's disabled on rotation by default.
Exactly. In fact, my JasJar has this set by default (e.g., ClearType always on). I'd like to reverse it so that it's off in portrait -- but on in landscape, where it looks very good.

--janak

[Gerard]

Sorry Jason, if my jibe offended you. It was meant as a joke. It's true that I have never comprehended why one might want to look at blurry-edged, rainbow-hued characters, rather than crisp black fonts. But you are welcome to do so. No one else could conceivably stop you, nor should they wish to, unless it's a shared device.

I wonder, do notebooks use BlurType® these days? Or is it strictly a WindowsMobile thing, up there with automated task management in terms of utility? (The other day I opened about 15 PIE windows from one page, thinking to read them all while on a bus ride. No such luck. Though my e800 had over 100MB of free RAM and over 70MB of that Program Memory, the bloody OS started shutting down the 'extra' windows. This was especially annoying because without a Wi-Fi connection PIE's 'History' menu was unable to find the pages. Idiotic 'features' like this from the geniuses at Redmond kinda piss me off... hence the mini-rant. BlurType® strikes me as being similarly counter-intuitive. I want to keep 15 windows open, but Microsoft knows I don't need that many. I want crisp fonts, just like I do in printed paper books, but Microsoft knows I'd probably like things fuzzy. The only real puzzle is why they let us shut off BlurType® at all.

[ctmagnus]

I wonder, do notebooks use BlurType® these days? Or is it strictly a WindowsMobile thing

Windows XP (at least) with an LCD display can do it, desktops as well as notebooks. I've never used Windows 2000 on a machine with an LCD so I can't comment on that.

[DustyLBottoms]

I think that 90% of the population thinks ClearType is much better that what comes standard.

And yes, Windows XP has Cleartype, "those idiots at Redmond" are even nice enough to give you a tuner webpage......so you can make it as blurry
as you wish.



http://www.microsoft.com/typography/cleartype/tuner/Step1.aspx

[Jason Dunn]

I wonder, do notebooks use BlurType® these days?

I have ClearType active on all my LCD displays. I do agree with you though that sometimes ClearType is NASTY on some Windows Mobile devices. I don't have it activated on my Jasjar.

[ctitanic]

I have an x50v and have had this hack (via Tweaks2K2) for sometime now. I agree: It looks fantastic.

I'm not sure about the hack, but I know with Tweaks2K2 it puts a small applet in the startup directory and eats up abt 11K of memory....


Exactly and the reason why is because after a soft reset that key is reseted back to OFF. So I had to create a little exe to set it back to ON in the start up ;)

[Darius Wey]

I'm not following... this is a hack to better enable global viewing of BlurType®?

As you can probably tell from the replies, some people like it, some people don't. It's only designed for single orientation use, but if you like your fonts "blurry" either way (like I do), hack away. FWIW, it looks great on my X50v and M600.

[Gerard]

Yes, I am aware that over the years many have expressed their enjoyment of this font re-rendering or whatever it is. (Please, no links to Microsoft's explanation - I read the thing 5 times and still couldn't make out why anyone would want it.) Just one of those weird things I suppose. Some people like caraway seeds too, something I've found bewildering for over 40 years. I like most other (non-meat) foods, so this one's a stumper, in landscape or portrait mode. (ewwww! caraway seeds in bed, that's so yucky!)

[ctitanic]

Could anyone tell me what color is the prettiest color? ;)

[Darius Wey]

Could anyone tell me what color is the prettiest color? ;)

#000000. 8)

[ctitanic]

Could anyone tell me what color is the prettiest color? ;)

#000000. 8)

thanks god you did not say PINK :D :devilboy:

[HTK]

Sorry Jason, if my jibe offended you. It was meant as a joke. It's true that I have never comprehended why one might want to look at blurry-edged, rainbow-hued characters, rather than crisp black fonts. But you are welcome to do so. No one else could conceivably stop you, nor should they wish to, unless it's a shared device.

I wonder, do notebooks use BlurType® these days? Or is it strictly a WindowsMobile thing, up there with automated task management in terms of utility? (The other day I opened about 15 PIE windows from one page, thinking to read them all while on a bus ride. No such luck. Though my e800 had over 100MB of free RAM and over 70MB of that Program Memory, the bloody OS started shutting down the 'extra' windows. This was especially annoying because without a Wi-Fi connection PIE's 'History' menu was unable to find the pages. Idiotic 'features' like this from the geniuses at Redmond kinda piss me off... hence the mini-rant. BlurType® strikes me as being similarly counter-intuitive. I want to keep 15 windows open, but Microsoft knows I don't need that many. I want crisp fonts, just like I do in printed paper books, but Microsoft knows I'd probably like things fuzzy. The only real puzzle is why they let us shut off BlurType® at all.

Well uninformed man, not only the windows XP and windows mobile from the "people at redmond" feature cleartype as a subpixel font-rendering, but also all the recent linux distributions serve sub-pixel font rendering, and also de apple macintosh. So if you want to be anti-microsoft, its better for you to find something else.

If you're using the sub pixels and you have a tft screen perfectly calibrated and aligned and the right rgb mode selected, you'll have not blurred fonts, but the exact opposite, you have fonts with 3 times more horizontal resolution ( or vertical, depending on the screen pixel alignment ).

But hey, you're free to skip it! as you're free to live in a cave, eating cockroaches and fighting bears!

[Chucky]

I dont like Cleartype on QVGA screens (well at least those bigger than 3") but on VGA it turns text into printed text quality IMO.

I got a new mobile and was most disappointed it didn't have any Cleartype equivalent - will have to decompile the firmware and implement it myself ;)

[k1darkknight]

Could anyone tell me what color is the prettiest color? ;)Clear! I TOLD you, my favorite color is CLEAR!!!

(sorry guys...couldn't pass that up...lol)

back on topic:
My understanding of ClearType is that, while technical details are probably different, it is essentially analagous to anti-aliasing in PC games, only on a much smaller scale (individual letters, rather than full-screen graphics).
I have an Axim X50v, myself, and tried this tweak in landscape mode...I didn't especially care for it, but it might be my screen protector interfering subtly with the appearance in landscape. CT looks GREAT in portrait mode on it, though.

Maybe it's mostly the VGA resolution devices that make it look REALLY smooth? Dunno, I don't get paid enough to speculate on that. (What? I'm not getting paid to type this? Dammit!)

[ctitanic]

I like cleartype in vgas. it looks completely different than in a qvga device.

[PhilH]

My understanding of ClearType is that, while technical details are probably different, it is essentially analagous to anti-aliasing in PC games, only on a much smaller scale (individual letters, rather than full-screen graphics).

Close, but not quite. ClearType uses something called sub-pixel rendering, which specifically utilises the way an LCD screen is made. Wikipedia explains it much better than I could: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-pixel_rendering

[fone_fanatic]

I don't understand the point of this. Ok you give me a bunch of definitions of what it technically is and throw jargon out there that i somewhat have a feel of what it means. But what is the point to this, does the device run any better? Maybe it slows it down? What motivates people to use this feature. I'll leave you guys today with a quote.

BlurType®

[Gerard]

(shhhh! they like it, and they get angry when others don't like it)

[Janak Parekh]

I have an Axim X50v, myself, and tried this tweak in landscape mode...I didn't especially care for it, but it might be my screen protector interfering subtly with the appearance in landscape. CT looks GREAT in portrait mode on it, though.
That's because ClearType has an "optimal orientation". It tweaks colors in such a way that the orientation of the LCDs in your screen has a significant effect on how "clean" the effect looks... and, in fact, that's also why ClearType is disabled in landscape by default. I leave it off. Darius posted on it because some people prefer the ClearType effect in landscape, even though it's non-optimal. Your mileage may vary.

But what is the point to this, does the device run any better? Maybe it slows it down? What motivates people to use this feature.
It does not have a significant effect on system performance, either way. The effect is purely visual -- by utilizing subpixel rendering, the potential horizontal screen resolution is tripled -- and makes fonts take on a fuller, more printed look (IMO -- YMMV, especially Gerard's, may vary). Take a look at the Wikipedia article linked above, as well as this one on font rasterization (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Font_rasterization) -- they do a very good job of visualizing the ideas behind ClearType. "BlurType" is quite inaccurate when it's done properly, but if you don't like it, turn it off. It is worth mentioning that in my experience it takes a few days before one gets used to it, and now, the lack of ClearType looks horribly aliased and garish to me.

--janak

[ctmagnus]

That's because ClearType has an "optimal orientation". It tweaks colors in such a way that the orientation of the LCDs in your screen has a significant effect on how "clean" the effect looks...

Would the orientation of the crystals have anything to do with the fact that some LCDs yellow as you tilt them away from you? Some of my devices yellow when you look at them from the side, and some yellow when you look at them from above. But not nearly to the extent of some of the devices in Jason's post about it a few years ago.

[Janak Parekh]

Would the orientation of the crystals have anything to do with the fact that some LCDs yellow as you tilt them away from you?
Hmm, I don't think so. From what I've heard, that's a sign the screen is designed upside-down. Indeed, if you look from above or try looking at your screen rotated 180 degrees, pretending you're holding the unit right-side up and tilting it away from you, it will yellow in a similar fashion to units like the iPAQ 4150. It might not yellow that much, but then again, the yellowness varies -- some 4150s I've seen doesn't yellow as much as Jason's pics, which seemed to be the most extreme case.

--janak

[Kamen]

This looks like a very old thread. But I came upon it on a google search so chances are other people will too. So let's see if I can make some sense of what the anti-"Blur"type brigade are trying to say. Let's see. So basically what you mean is, this:

http://www.cnetx.com/clearType/screen/lorem0.gif

is better than this:

http://www.cnetx.com/clearType/screen/lorem1.gif

Ok, now I see what you mean. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Darius Wey]

is better than this:

There sure is a lot of colour fringing in the second shot. ClearType isn't normally like that. Are you sure that shot isn't tweaked?

[Janak Parekh]

There sure is a lot of colour fringing in the second shot. ClearType isn't normally like that. Are you sure that shot isn't tweaked?
Hard to say. It could be an artifact of differing LCDs, with different ClearType arrangements (i.e. we're looking at the image using a desktop LCD with possibly different alignment).

--janak

[Kamen]

Yes you're right. It doesn't even look tinted on my screen here.