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In Windows XP, all fonts look 'uneven' and are a headache to read. The display is VGA (and LCD) and the resolution is 1280x768. The vertical lines on some characters vary in thickness and blurriness. For example, two d characters adjacent to each other have a different thickness of their vertical lines.

I uploaded screenshots (see below), but from other computers they look normal!!!

I've changed the resolution, the size of the fonts across the whole system, the size of fonts in individual programs, the compatibility of individual programs and nothing has changed. I've "updated" the GPU driver (NVidia GeForce 7600 LE) and have failed to come up with a solution via usual searches.

Personally I use Windows 10 (and I have my own font headaches which are unlikely to ever be solved), but this is my parents' computer which has recently had XP reinstalled, so using a different OS isn't necessarily a preferable option. This particular problem didn't exist before the reinstall AFAIK, but there were other font issues that I had mostly solved (bright white line around text and other ridiculous issues).

screenshot 1

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  • Have you checked the ClearType settings?
    – DavidPostill ♦
    Commented Jul 16, 2016 at 7:50
  • @DavidPostill Yes. ClearType helps in general, but not with this particular issue.
    – Laua
    Commented Jul 17, 2016 at 17:53
  • What is the native screen resolution and how is it connected (VGA vs. a digital connection)? Is this XP-era hardware or more recent hardware with XP installed on it?
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jul 17, 2016 at 18:20
  • @fixer1234 It's 1280x768 and VGA (and LCD). The hardware has been updated bit by bit over the years.
    – Laua
    Commented Jul 17, 2016 at 22:09
  • @Laua, I'm guessing these are internal screen captures. If the screen captures look normal on other computers, it means that what is being sent to the monitor is "good". That would point to a problem with the monitor, itself, or some kind of mismatch, where the rendering is optimized for different monitor characteristics, or maybe even a problem with the interface. Can you take a photo of the screen to capture what you're seeing? Borrow another VGA monitor to narrow it down to interface vs. monitor. Or, connect your monitor to another PC to see whether the monitor is the problem.
    – fixer1234
    Commented Jul 18, 2016 at 2:49

1 Answer 1

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The display was not set to its native resolution. It was actually 1360x768 and not 1280x768.

I checked under 'system' for the specs and it told me what the display resolution was set to, not what it was natively. I finally discovered the native resolution not by looking up the hardware details (as I probably should have) but by poking about in the graphics card's software. It, helpfully, had the screen's native resolution displayed.

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  • 1360 is odd, Shouldn't that be 1366?
    – Journeyman Geek ♦
    Commented Jul 23, 2016 at 14:06
  • No, @JourneymanGeek. Thank you for your inquiry.
    – Laua
    Commented Jul 24, 2016 at 20:10

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