CNN and other sites using Lato fonts not displaying in my Chrome browser

[GoogleCodeExporter]

What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Go to any site that has a Lato font
2.
3.

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
I expect a smooth font that is uniform on both sides, instead, I see a mixture 
of thick and thin and jagged curves on the font. CNN helped identify it as a 
Lato font issue on my Chrome browser on one computer.

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
 Version 38.0.2125.101 m

Please provide any additional information below.
The file that begins with ie is the same website as the other, just taken from 
the internet explorer browser.

I'm not a web developer, just a user trying to get the best browsing experience 
using Chrome. I would prefer not switch to IE

Original issue reported on code.google.com by thomas.b...@gmail.com on 17 Oct 2014 at 5:41

Attachments:

• [2014-10-13 22_50_19-Kmart says payment systems hacked - Oct. 10, 2014.jpg](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/googlefontdirectory/issue-350/comment-0/2014-10-13 22_50_19-Kmart says payment systems hacked - Oct. 10, 2014.jpg)
• [ie 2014-10-13 22_59_26-Kmart says payment systems hacked - Oct. 10, 2014 - Internet Explorer.jpg](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/googlefontdirectory/issue-350/comment-0/ie 2014-10-13 22_59_26-Kmart says payment systems hacked - Oct. 10, 2014 - Internet Explorer.jpg)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

To me, it seems like you haven't enabled ClearType in your Windows. 

If you use Windows XP or Vista, download, install and run the ClearType 
PowerToy from http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx 
If you use Windows 7 or later, choose Control Panel / Appearance and 
Personalization / ClearType Tuning. 

Like most fonts from the Google Fonts collection, the Lato fonts are optimized 
for ClearType. Using the old grayscale Windows renderer will not yield optimal 
visual results. The hinting tool used to produce the Lato font family, 
ttfautohint (and many other fonts from the Google Fonts collection), optimizes 
the rendering for ClearType but in grayscale or black-and-white environments, 
it does not make good-looking fonts. 

I'm attaching a screenshot of 
http://money.cnn.com/2014/10/20/news/companies/mcdonalds-russia/index.html?iid=H
P_LN rendered in Google Chrome on Windows 7, with ClearType enabled. To me, it 
looks pretty good. 

Regards,
Adam Twardoch
team LatoFonts.com

Original comment by a...@twardoch.com on 20 Oct 2014 at 10:02

Attachments:

• [scr- 2014-10-20 at 23.55.51.PNG](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/googlefontdirectory/issue-350/comment-1/scr- 2014-10-20 at 23.55.51.PNG)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

Ps. In fact, this is not even about ClearType but about font smoothing in 
general. The original screenshots show rendering which has font smoothing 
completely disabled. Lato will not render well in pure black-and-white, and in 
fact very very few fonts will. Here is a screenshot showing Lato with ClearType 
disabled but grayscale font smoothing enabled. It also looks good. 

Original comment by a...@twardoch.com on 20 Oct 2014 at 10:28

Attachments:

• [scr- 2014-10-21 at 00.25.10.PNG](https://storage.googleapis.com/google-code-attachments/googlefontdirectory/issue-350/comment-2/scr- 2014-10-21 at 00.25.10.PNG)

[GoogleCodeExporter]

That fixed it! Clear Type fonts were disabled and once I enabled it and
restarted the browser, I could read the articles without my eyes bleeding.

Thanks for your help!

Original comment by thomas.b...@gmail.com on 24 Oct 2014 at 3:50