
IE9’s Stunning Text Rendering Quality - bwag
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mswanson/archive/2010/07/26/ie9-s-stunning-text-rendering-quality.aspx
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mrduncan
Not having the source available screams _rigged test_ to me.

Edit: If only because I remember what they tried to do with this chart -
[http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-
explorer/compare/d...](http://www.microsoft.com/windows/internet-
explorer/compare/default.aspx)

~~~
brandon
It _looks like_ they were basing these comparisons on a Canvas based rendering
of this PDF: <http://dl.dropbox.com/u/529041/22860302-Yellowstone-NP.pdf>

~~~
mrduncan
Which is a perfectly legitimate source - my issue is that the javascript
they're using to render it onto the canvas isn't available for me (or anyone
else) to test with.

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teilo
It would be nice if he would link to the test page he is using, so that we
could see what this looks like on non-windows platforms.

~~~
zephjc
I was looking for it too - I've never seen Safari render anything that badly,
and I'm not convinced until I see it in person

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brandon
This article is actually espousing the fillText (Canvas) rendering quality and
not standard HTML text rendering.

Here's a screenshot of the source _PDF_ viewed in Preview.app on OSX with
"Actual Size" zoom: <http://cl.ly/1nr0>

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smiler
Glad to see Microsoft getting on board with browser development and giving
Mozilla, Google and Apple some competition.

I love Microsoft technology and when they put their minds to it, they do get
it right I feel.

~~~
GrandMasterBirt
This is exactly why I love competition. Now if only there was a possibility
for a truly windows alternative. As in runs all windows apps.

Competition = forces everyone to innovate, even Microsoft. I still have a
prediction that in 3 years Microsoft will rise again.

~~~
ori_b
<http://www.reactos.org/en/index.html> \- it's not fully there, but it's a
start.

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alok-g
A few years down the road, displays may natively have higher PPI and this
issue will become moot. See for example,
[http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2010/06/apple-
retina...](http://prometheus.med.utah.edu/~bwjones/2010/06/apple-retina-
display/)

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Semiapies
The original title is downright dishonest. Who really cares about awesome
_canvas_ text-rendering, when most text will be outside of canvas?

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may
What about real text or something other than just a canned webpage? Like, for
example, the front page of the Times or something.

~~~
mrduncan
_All of the text is rendered with the canvas .fillText command and there are
no bitmap images…everything is either text or drawn to the canvas with
vectors._

The NYT doesn't use the canvas element for it's front page - which is what
this test is all about (even though it isn't very explicit about it).

~~~
may
Ah. My bad. Thank you.

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henrikhansen
What about raw text rendering and SVG rendering? I would like to see that as
well

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axod
These all look terrible to me. I guess you get used to OSX fonts...

