tags:

views:

148

answers:

2
+2  Q: 

SpreadsheetGear fonts look blurred compared to Excel

I'm evaluating the SpreadsheetGear component for Excel file manipulation. However, out of the box the fonts look slightly blurred or hazy when the same spreadsheet is viewed side-by-side with Excel. Is there some anti-aliasing setting I'm missing?

Or is this by design?

A: 

SpreadsheetGear may be ClearType compatible. You may want to experiment with turning ClearType off in your Windows display settings, and seeing if that makes any difference to you.

Cheers

eazyd  2009-12-04 21:15:55
It does look like that kind of blurring, but I see it with ClearType on and off. Running on Windows 7 in case that matters.
Jon  2009-12-04 21:35:15
+2  A: 

For anyone else wondering, I logged with support and it is apparently by design.

The reason for the text not being clear is the fact that we use anti-aliased fonts. We have spent quite a bit of time trying to get non anti-aliased fonts to work. However, .NET does not provide reliable font metrics when anti-aliased fonts are not used, and we cannot do some of the layout we need to do without reliable font metrics. Performance is also slower when non anti-aliased text is used.

If Microsoft fixes this (the font metrics issues) in a future version of .NET, we may add an option to use non anti-aliased text.

There are some advantages to anti-aliased text. As users move to higher resolution (120+ DPI instead of 96 DPI) the appearance of anti-aliased text improves significantly. There are also other advantages, such as reliable zooming. Try autofitting some columns in Excel/SpreadsheetGear and then zoom in and out - notice that the text no longer fits in Excel but it still fits in SpreadsheetGear. Moving workbooks between 96 DPI and 120 DPI is also more reliable with anti-aliased text. Printed output also looks better in many cases.

Jon  2009-12-04 21:50:26

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