Info Tech Scraps » Microsoft Windows http://www.infoscraps.com Information Technology at your finger tips... Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:24:43 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 Mac OS X like font smoothing in Windows http://www.infoscraps.com/2009/04/08/mac-os-x-like-font-smoothing-in-windows/ http://www.infoscraps.com/2009/04/08/mac-os-x-like-font-smoothing-in-windows/#comments Wed, 08 Apr 2009 10:46:55 +0000 Srinivasan A Paul Joseph http://www.infoscraps.com/2009/04/08/mac-os-x-like-font-smoothing-in-windows/ Ever wondered why everything looks so beautiful and clear in Mac OS X? It is basically it’s font rendering engine and graphics abilities. Windows is already playing catch up with the font rendering using their own ClearType technology. However, even ClearType can’t stand up to the beauty and clarity given by Mac OS X font rendering. Anyone using Apple Safari on windows would’ve already know about this. I used to switch to Apple Safari on my Windows PC just to read new sites in that glorious smooth font rendering.

My longing for this has been answered mightily by a Japanese freelancer who developed a small program named GDI++ that works on top of a Open Source product named FreeType (an advanced font rendering program across OSes). This small program works beautifully and adjusts the font rendering to Mac OS X like smooth and clarity all over the Windows. It is so beautiful how it can turn a boring looking windows to smooth and clear display. See the comparison shots below:

Without GDI++

With GDI++

Here are some instructions on how to get this working on your computer:

  1. Download GDI++.
  2. Extract this ZIP file in any directory, for example: C:\gdi
  3. Double-click the file: gditray.exe
  4. Now, your task bar you can note a “G”, like the image:
    howto-image3
  5. Double-click it, it should start glowing green:
    howto-image4
  6. Enjoy this beautiful font-smoothing.
  7. You can adjust the font-smoothing level by right clicking this icon and choosing Use Preferences and selecting any of the three Japanese letters shown there.

Try it out…

]]> http://www.infoscraps.com/2009/04/08/mac-os-x-like-font-smoothing-in-windows/feed/ 1 Image dimensions are not shown in the Status Bar of Windows Explorer http://www.infoscraps.com/2006/11/02/image-dimensions-are-not-shown-in-the-status-bar-of-windows-explorer/ http://www.infoscraps.com/2006/11/02/image-dimensions-are-not-shown-in-the-status-bar-of-windows-explorer/#comments Thu, 02 Nov 2006 07:22:10 +0000 Srinivasan A Paul Joseph http://www.infoscraps.com/?p=31 This is the recent problem I had with Windows XP. My system Windows Explorer was NOT showing image dimensions in the Windows Explorer. Then, I’ve almost wasted 4 hours in searching internet and found no solutions. At last, by combining various solutions I had from Google Groups, I’ve been able to solve the problem. If any one of you face the same problem, do the following:

  1. Start -> Run -> Type: regsvr32 shimgvw.dll
  2. If this is NOT fixing the problem, do the following:
  3. Start -> Run -> RegEdit
  4. Navigate to: My Computer\KHEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Folder\ShellEx\ColumnHeaders
  5. If there is NO key with this name: {24F14F01-7B1C-11d1-838f-0000F80461CF}, create it.
  6. Close RegEdit

Now, your problem will be solved.

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