MacType INI Development

[sammilucia]

Hi everybody! I hope everyone is staying safe and staying well during the age of COVID−19 that we're all in. With all of us having more time on our hands, I thought I'd post my latest .ini file settings, my customized "Microsoft Sans Serif" font which I've used to replace both Tahoma & micross (Microsoft Sans Serif). My customized font is a duplicate of my glyph-customized SegoeUI font with widths and heights of U&lc being tweaked to provide a more eye-pleasing display on surfaces in the UI that default to Tahoma or micross. The result is a more unified experience across the UI.

My latest tweaks to the .ini file have proven so pleasing across so many different parts of the UI, that I haven't made any changes to it since February 21, 2020 (which is a long time relative to prior attempts). I have a series of steps I go through after each install of the Windows Insiders Fast Ring updates, and so far MacType continues to provide fantastic results (current Windows Insider Build is 19603.1000 released 2020.04.08). These steps are:

(1) Install my customized fonts for SegoeUI and Microsoft Sans Serif in particular.

Thorn Custom Fonts.zip

(2) Run MacWiz to reset the Mode used to "Registry" (I still find this mode to be the best overall way to load and use MacType in my experience, and since it continues to work, I will continue to use it). I also reload/reselect my desired .ini profile (although this appears to be unnecessary since it seems to persist build to build).

ChicoThorn-v1.5.1.0.8.zip

(3) Load my customized font substitutions into the Registry at:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

I exported a registry file with my custom settings a while back, so now after each build I just run that registry file to update Font Substituions more quickly.

Thorn Custom Registry Font Subs.zip

(4) I double-check my scaling options in Windows Settings — Settings > Display > Scaling and layout = 100% (this setting persists build to build) Settings > Ease of Access > Make text bigger = 113% (this setting also persists build to build). I've found that these scaling settings work really well for a number of reasons. First off the 100% scaling makes older .exe apps continue to function properly (case in point is Microsoft Keyboard Layout Creator, which I use to change my keyboard layout to accomodate my customized glyphs. If the scaling is set to anything other than 100% this app no longer displays properly and becomes unusable). The 113% "Make text bigger" setting enlarge most of the Directwrite renderings in the UI (at least I think it's Directwrite, that all gets so confusing to me), including the Taskbar Jumplists, Action Center flyout, the Start Menu, UWP apps, Chromium Edge Canary and others).

(5) I use WinAero Tweaker to change the default font size of Icons from 9pt to 10pt (which also changes the sizes of all filename text displays in File Explorer). 10pt scaling of the Icons and filenames nearly matches perfectly the 113% scaling produced by the Ease of Access setting, thus providing a very uniform overall look and feel within the UI. Here's a link to WinAero for the download (scroll down past the adds for the download link) — Note: When you install WinAero Tweaker Windows will pop up a security warning that it's 'dangerous.' It is not. I have been using Tweaker for over five years with no problems. Sergey Tkachenko is the sole programmer with a small operation. The software is safe and reliable. https://winaero.com/download.php?view.1796 Here is the install files for WinAero Tweaker:

winaerotweaker.zip

(6) I make sure my monitor is adjusted and calibrated properly. — This one is important. It makes a HUGE difference in overall font display quality if monitor gamma, brightness, and contrast are improperly set. This took a little trial and error; but using calibration software (and my own eye) to adjust the overall look I was able to come up with very pleasing results. I imagine these settings would differ from monitor to monitor and brand to brand. For me these monitor settings are (input through the onboard settings of the monitor itself): Brightness=85; Contrast=75; Gamma=Medium. I also adjust the Nvidia Control Panel settings to a vibrancy level of 60%. All of these display/monitor settings have a big impact on display ultimately.

Finally, here are a few screenshots of my current setup at this time:

Screenshot Samples.zip

Edge Canary, Taskbar Jumplist, Action Center sample:

Custom MS Sans Serif Font UI samples:

File Explorer, Taskbar Jumplist, Settings samples:

Light Mode samples:

---

Thanks for all your hard work on MacType @snowie2000 and @sammilucia ! MacType continues to be the most important add-on to my PC and makes my everyday work so much more pleasurable and tolerable. I'm looking forward to helping out in the future as you develop new versions! Stay well everyone! 😊

Originally posted by @ChicoThorn in https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/issues/553#issuecomment-612683662

[ChicoThorn]

For me the General settings are an improvement, but the DirectWrite are worse.

DW: 1.9 Gamma, 1.3 Contrast from your previous presets is the best so far. What programs do you mostly use for DW?

@taprobane99 I use the Taskbar Jumplists and the Settings Home page as my go-to test areas for DW. Once I get that the way I like it I check how several DWP apps look, and how the Notifications flyout looks as well. I'm still trying to find the sweet spot myself with DW. I've been keeping in mind what you've said in the past about using lower values rather than higher ones as I test. The settings you mentioned, gamma 1.9 and contrast 1.3 are awesome in Dark Mode; but seem a bit thin in Light Mode, particularly with the Settings Home page gray subtext. Also tossed into consideration now that I have 2K is a desire to make the glyph shapes more true to their actual design so I'm going for sharp edges and crisp well-defined strokes. My latest attempt works well in Light Mode but there's still a bit of coarseness in the Jumplists (those buggers are hard to get right!) and it seems it's a bit heavy on some other DW areas, especially with bold type. So the search goes on... Personally I think the last 1080p versions I uploaded were my best for that resolution (ChicoThorn ini's - 2021.01.09-13Û20.zip). Now I'm trying to find that balance for 2K. And the journey continues! 😊

[ChicoThorn]

ChicoThorn ClearUI-v1.6-2K Comparison 1K

@VladWinner thanks for the comparisons and the feedback! I appreciate it! 🙂

[taprobane99]

@ChicoThorn , also suggest trying to see how things look without any hinting now you're on 2K.

[ChicoThorn]

@taprobane99

@ChicoThorn , also suggest trying to see how things look without any hinting now you're on 2K.

I gave it a try, but for my eyes with my monitor I really prefer hinting on. I notice that the strokes are a bit clearer and crisper. For me when I have it turned off there's a shadow on the top edge of each character.

Here's my latest 2K ini effort; give these a try and let me know what you think. 🙂

ChicoThorn Clear UI 2K ini's (D g1.83 c1.9 ct0).zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-v1.6-2K (D g1.83 c1.9 ct0) Screenshots.zip

[ChicoThorn]

UPDATE: 2021.02.07 — Even more fine-tuning on my ChicoThorn Clear UI ini. I've been using these settings for a few days now, and so far I'm really pleased with the results! Perhaps these will work well on your rig too. 🙂

ChicoThorn Clear UI 2K ini's· 2021.02.06-1140.zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-D-v1.6-2K· 2021.02.06-1140 Screenshots.zip

[ChicoThorn]

Because there will never be an end to this, lol — here is my latest effort. Tried some entirely different strategies this time. You'll notice some of the gamma levels set much lower than before, which in turn allowed contrast and other settings to change as well. I'm particularly happy with how the taskbar jumplists render in this one. Those jumplists are my acid test. If I get those right all the other DW surfaces seem to be fine. Check 'em out and let me know what you think. I'm curious how these settings work on a 1080p monitor also. Thanks! 😊

ChicoThorn Clear UI 2K Ini's - 2021.02.12-0200.zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-D&L-v1.6-2K· 2021.02.12-0200.zip

[ChicoThorn]

Going on day four using this newest iteration of my ChicoThorn Clear UI ini. I bumped it up to Version 1.7 because I took a fresh approach with the rendering settings and also cleaned up the Font Subs list, both here in the ini file, and also in Windows Font Substitutions in Regedit at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\FontSubstitutes

Check it out in both Dark and Light Modes. It renders great in both of them! These settings rock on my new 2K monitor. Hopefully they will work well on a 1080p as well.

ChicoThorn Clear UI - 2K v1.7 ini's.zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-D-v1.6-2K· 2021.02.20-1330 Screenshots.zip

[ChicoThorn]

Hi everybody! Hope all are well! — Once again I was reminded how key monitor settings are not only for correct color representation, but also for getting the most out of MacType as well. I went online and did some research and learned a few things about various monitor features and settings (i.e., Dynamic Contrast, FreeSync, Gamma, Response Time, etc.). So armed with new info I recalibrated my new 2K monitor for a much better overall experience. These changes were significant enough that I had to retweak my MacType ini settings a bit. Just a few ticks one way or another on your monitor's Brightness, Contrast, Gamma, and Sharpness settings have a significant impact on how everything is displayed, including MacType's font rendering. This once again reminded me that every monitor is different, and every pair of eyes is different, and what will work on one may not work so well on another. I've attached my OSD monitor settings in the Screenshots.zip for reference. These settings might not work for you exactly, but perhaps they could serve as a jumping off point from which to experiment. 😀

ChicoThorn Clear UI - 2K v1.7· 2021.02.27-1600 - ini's.zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-D-v1.6-2K· 2021.02.27-1600 - Screenshots.zip

[ChicoThorn]

Been trying out Open Sans as the default UI font replacing Segoe UI, Tahoma, Arial, and Microsoft Sans Serif. The results are great! It renders well and performs perfectly as a substitute for all of the default system fonts on all UI surfaces I've tested so far... Screenshots to come... ☺

[taprobane99]

Be sure to grab the latest version from source: https://github.com/googlefonts/opensans/tree/main/fonts/ttf

Sometimes the google fonts version can be out of date.

[ChicoThorn]

Be sure to grab the latest version from source:

Thanks @taprobane99 ! That's great! I had been looking for the latest version! 😊

[taprobane99]

I do find Opens Sans kind of generic and ugly as a UI font. There must be a modern replacement for Segoe UI out there, but I don't think that's it.

[ChicoThorn]

I do find Opens Sans kind of generic and ugly

It is plain and simple. l like it because it's clear, easy to read, and works on all of the many different surfaces on the PC and web. Also I like the proportions of the lowercase letters relative to the Upper Case ones. They're larger and easier to read. The only thing about it 'out of the box' that I didn't like was the 'g'. It uses one of those double loop textbook-style g's. So I used FontCreator to change it to a standard sans serif g as found in Segoe UI. —— It took a little finagling to get the system to recognize it as the new font everywhere, but I worked that all out. —— Please share if you do find a better font! I've been looking and have tested about 15 different fonts so far and none of them have met all the parameters for all the surfaces. But if you find a better one I'd love to know! 😉

[ChicoThorn]

My experiment with Open Sans replacing Segoe UI was kind of a bust. I liked the font at first, but I realized over the past couple days using it that I just couldn't live with it day in and day out. So I worked out a compromise. My goal had been to replace Tahoma, Arial, and Microsoft Sans Serif with Segoe UI. This doesn't work too well directly though because when used on the standard dialog boxes (such as 'Properties' and 'Folder Options' the text is extremely small. That's one of the things I liked about Open Sans, it has larger glyphs on the same line spacing. But I think I've worked it out so I wound up with the best of both worlds. I restored Segoe UI as the default system font and because I like the type a bit larger than the standard 9pt I used these Windows display settings: Settings > System > Display > Scale and Layout > Dropdown menu > 150% and Settings > Easy Access > Display > Make Text Bigger > Drag slider to > 110% . Then I set my font substitutes (both in the MacType ini file and also in the Registry) to replace Tahoma, Microsoft Sans Serif, MS Shell Dlg, MS Shell Dlg2, with Open Sans. It scales well in the dialog boxes and compliments Segoe UI much better than Tahoma and the others (at least to my eye).

@sammilucia you may recall quite awhile back I used FontCreator to make my own version of Segoe UI with enlarged glyphs that I called 'SegueMS'. But it had my custom glyphs in it which made it impractical for others to use. Open Sans solves all that having the standard character set. Thanks to @taprobane99 for the link to the most recent Open Sans fonts for downloads: https://github.com/googlefonts/opensans/tree/main/fonts/ttf

Here's the latest ChicoThorn Clear UI ini files and some screenshots. You'll notice that the .ini file in the screen shot has 6pt type! And it renders beautifully!

ChicoThorn Clear UI - 2K v1.7 - Ini's.zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-D1-v1.7-2K - 2021.03.11-2145 - Screenshots.zip

[taprobane99]

Will check it out!

Also worth noting, some Linux distros use Noto Sans, Nunito Sans, or Inter for their UI font. I wonder how those 3 would look on Windows..

[VladWinner]

Yep, just give a chance for Inter font :3 Upd: It is better not to use internal font hinting

[sammilucia]

Source Sans all the way!!!

On Fri, Mar 12, 2021, 17:24 VladWinner @.***> wrote:

Yep, just give a chance for Inter font :3

— You are receiving this because you were mentioned. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/issues/651#issuecomment-797810871, or unsubscribe https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AAZEQNSYPS7MZSFMWB27GTLTDKPCBANCNFSM4MHDYY6A .

[ChicoThorn]

Source Sans all the way!!!

Hi @sammilucia! —— I love Source Sans Pro, but it doesn't work in the standard color picker RGB fields on my computer. I'm assuming you don't have this difficulty on yours... I'd be curious to know how you worked that out, or if it behaved that way on yours at all.

But as you can see in the screen shot below, the text insertion cursor is half-way covering the numeral '0' of the highlighted value '170'. When I try to enter a new value it will only allow 2 numerals to be entered, not three. The third numeral causes an error beep and is not entered. I tried to figure out why this was so, but didn't have any success. I just moved on to the next font to test. Out of the dozen or so fonts I tested about three of them had this issue. Any insights or comments you might have would be greatly appreciated! 😊

Problem with RBG Value Entry.zip

ChicoThorn Source Sans - 2K v1.7.zip

[sammilucia]

hey @ChicoThorn 😊. yes I'm not using it as a system-wide font replacement, only for the fonts you can change thru WinAero 😢. I'll keep an eye out for other fonts though 😊

[ChicoThorn]

Give this iteration a try if you like... It renders a bit darker and a bit crisper in Light Mode, and crisper with better contrast in Dark Mode. I opted to go with Segoe UI for all but a couple font substitutions and changed my scaling factor back to 150% with no additional scaling of the text through Ease of Access. The Segoe UI renders great as a substitute for MS Shell Dlg & MS Shell Dlg 2, although the text size is a bit small (8 pt rather than 9pt). But on my 2K monitor I can live with that. No truncated descenders or out of bounds lines of text either 😊

~ChicoThorn Clear UI - 2K v1.7 - 2021.03.31-1600.zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-D1-v1.7-2K - 2021.04.01-0022 - Screenshots.zip ~ChicoThorn Clear UI - 2K v1.7 - 2021.03.31-1600.zip

[wai148GitHub]

[Preview] Font=Sarasa Gothic HC Color=$000000 Text=A technically and visually correct gamma for sRGB or Rec709 displays by extratype 01234567890!@#$%^&* Size=10

[General]

;【字體微調】 ;0:Normal 1:NoHinting 2:AutoHinting 3:Light+AutoHinting HintingMode=0

;【抗鋸齒方式】 ;-1:Disable 0:Normal 1:Light 2:LCD(RGB) 3:LCD(GBR) 4:Light-LCD(RGB) 5:Light-LCD(GBR) AntiAliasMode=2

;【常規體調整】 ;-32:+32 NormalWeight=0

;【粗體字的調整】 ;-16:+16 BoldWeight=0

;【斜體字的傾斜角度微調】 ;-16:+16 ItalicSlant=0

EnableKerning=1

;【Gamma模式開關】 ;-1：關閉；0：使用設置的Gamma值（GammaValue）；1：使用sRGB的Gamma值；2：不明 GammaMode=0

;【液晶顯示器的優化配置】 ;[0:None] 1:Default 2:Light 16:Legacy LcdFilter=1

;【字體加粗模式】 ;對NormalWeight和BoldWeight有效 ;0：Weight值大時橫向加粗，值小時雙向加粗，主要是避免Weight值過大時，模式3中在小字號時加粗過度出現斬頭的現象； ;1：總是橫向加粗； ;2：總是雙向加粗，也就是freetype本身的粗體渲染。 ;注意：通過加大GammaValue、TextTuning的值，可以減少Weight值過大的造成的效果問題，即可以在BolderMode=2時也可以避免轉接頭 BolderMode=2

;【文字边界设置】 ;数字越大越强调背景（类似文字边界被侵蚀的感觉），强调背景会有中字体锐利的感觉。适当降低对比度，提高TextTuning，可以使文字周围的颜色看起来“淡一点” ;再加上RenderWeight，把这三个设置的微妙平衡调节好的话，能得到不输给Mac的效果 ;取值范围：0~12

;AntiAliasMode=1時，通過TextTuning份量來調節 TextTuning=7

;AntiAliasMode=2時，通過TextTuning的RGB份量來調節 TextTuningR=7 TextTuningG=7 TextTuningB=7

;【Gamma值】 ;GammaMode=0的時候此項設置才有效 ;sRGB ≒ 2.2 CT-Default = 1.4 ;windows的cleartype的Gamma值是1.4 GammaValue=1.2

;【對比度】 ;數字越大越銳利，數字越小越發虛 Contrast=1.0

;【字體輪廓】 ;數字越大字體就越粗越黑 RenderWeight=1.3

;【字體鏈接】 ;當FontLoader=0時 ;0：什麼都不做； ;1：使用註冊表裡的字體鏈接設置，通過FreeType的字符表進行查找 ;2：使用註冊表裡的字體鏈接設置，使用Windows的轉換函數直接查找 ;當FontLoader=1時 ;會保持啟用的狀態，但是所有字體鏈接的處理會交由WIN32API完成。 FontLink=1

;【自動掛鉤子進程】 ;[0:Disable] 1:Enable HookChildProcesses=1

;【字體的載入方法】 ;（注意是載入方法，不是渲染方法） ;0：用freetype載入字體 ;1：用windows的繪圖核心載入字體 ;很多freetype的設置需要此項選0才能生效 FontLoader=0

;【字體替代】 ;當FontLoader=0時 ;0：什麼都不做； ;1：安全替換方案（兼容性較好），根據以下FontSubstitutes的配置進行替換； ;2：完全替換方案（效果較全面，如替換後出現亂碼，請嘗試使用1），根據以下FontSubstitutes的配置進行替換； ;當FontLoader=1時 ;會保持啟用的狀態，但是所有字體替代的處理會交由WIN32API完成 FontSubstitutes=2

;【微调LcdFilterWeight】 ;LcdFilter>0，且AntiAliasMode>-1时，该微调才生效 ;这5个值分别代表文字笔划中从左到右的笔划浓度，最小为0，最大为255 ;注释掉这个参数则恢复使用 ;当LcdFilter=1，默认值为“16,64,112,64,16” ;当LcdFilter=2，默认值为“0,85,86,85,0”

;【陰影設置】 ;格式：水平偏移,垂直偏移,陰影深度（值越大，越淺） Shadow=0,0,0,0x0,0,0x0

;【优先使用点阵】 ;小于指定字号的文字将优先使用内嵌点阵 MaxBitmap=12

;【对硬件加速的渲染支持】 ;对使用DirectWrite作为硬件加速技术的软件（如IE和firefox的硬件加速）提供渲染支持开关 ;0：关闭，1：开启。默认开启 DirectWrite=1

;【强制对小字体使用Hinting】 ;对9号以下字体自动施加Hinting，使小字体更清晰 ;此参数仅在AntiAliasMode=1、4、5时有效 ;0：关闭，1：开启。默认开启 HintSmallFont=0

;【字体缓存、内存的设置】 CacheMaxFaces=256 CacheMaxSizes=12554432 CacheMaxBytes=12108864

Name=WIN10

;【除外的字体】 [exclude]

;【字体替代】 ;系统在调用“=”前面的字体时会忽视“=”前面的字体，而去直接调用“=”后面的字体 [FontSubstitutes] @Arial Unicode MS=@Sarasa Gothic HC @Microsoft JhengHei UI=@Sarasa Gothic HC @Microsoft YaHei=@Sarasa Gothic HC @Microsoft YaHei UI=@Sarasa Gothic HC @MS Gothic=@Sarasa Gothic HC @MS PGothic=@Sarasa Gothic HC @MS UI Gothic=@Sarasa Gothic HC @NSimSun=@Sarasa Gothic HC @Segoe UI=@Sarasa Gothic HC @SimSun=@Sarasa Gothic HC @SimSun-ExtB=@Sarasa Gothic HC @細明體=@Sarasa Gothic HC @細明體_HKSCS=@Sarasa Gothic HC @細明體_HKSCS-ExtB=@Sarasa Gothic HC @細明體-ExtB=@Sarasa Gothic HC Arial=Sarasa Gothic HC Arial Black=Sarasa Gothic HC Arial Narrow=Sarasa Gothic HC Arial Unicode MS=Sarasa Gothic HC Consolas=Sarasa Gothic HC Courier New=Sarasa Gothic HC Fixedsys=Sarasa Gothic HC Google Sans=Sarasa Gothic HC Lucida Console=Sarasa Gothic HC Microsoft JhengHei UI=Sarasa Gothic HC Microsoft Sans Serif=Sarasa Gothic HC Microsoft Serif=Sarasa Gothic HC Microsoft Tai Le=Sarasa Gothic HC Microsoft YaHei=Sarasa Gothic HC Microsoft YaHei UI=Sarasa Gothic HC monospace=Sarasa Gothic HC MS Gothic=Sarasa Gothic HC MS PGothic=Sarasa Gothic HC MS UI Gothic=Sarasa Gothic HC NSimSun=Sarasa Gothic HC SansSerif=Sarasa Gothic HC Segoe UI=Sarasa Gothic HC Segoe UI Black=Sarasa Gothic HC SimSun=Sarasa Gothic HC SimSun-ExtB=Sarasa Gothic HC Tahoma=Sarasa Gothic HC Times New Roman=Sarasa Gothic HC Yu Gothic=Sarasa Gothic HC Yu Gothic UI=Sarasa Gothic HC 細明體=Sarasa Gothic HC 細明體_HKSCS=Sarasa Gothic HC 細明體_HKSCS-ExtB=Sarasa Gothic HC 細明體-ExtB=Sarasa Gothic HC 微軟正黑體=Sarasa Gothic HC 新細明體=Sarasa Gothic HC 新細明體-ExtB=Sarasa Gothic HC 標楷體=Sarasa Gothic HC

;【单独设置的字体】 ;格式＝Hinting, AAMode, NormalWeight, BoldWeight, ItalicSlant, Kerning [Individual] @Sarasa Gothic HC=,,7,,, Sarasa Gothic HC=,,7,,,

[DirectWrite] ;渲染模式，0=默认，1=锯齿，2=经典，3=经典自然，4=自然，5=自然对称，6=字体原型 RenderingMode=0 ;Gamma值，不写则根据上面的GammaValue自动计算 GammaValue=2.2 ;对比度，默认为1，0.0625-10 Contrast=0.8 ;抗锯齿程度，默认1，0-1 ClearTypeLevel=0

[Experimental] ColorFont=1

[Experimental@chrome.exe] ; Make color fonts appear correctly in Chrome InvertColor=1

[Experimental@idea64.exe] ; Workaround for IDEA/JAVA font rendering unverified as of 2018/10/19 clipboxfix=1

[wai148GitHub]

FONT : sarasa-gothic-ttc-unhinted-0.20.2

[wai148GitHub]

cleartype for mactype UnloadDll

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\DISPLAY1] "ClearTypeLevel"=dword:00000000 "EnhancedContrastLevel"=dword:000000c8 GammaLevel=00000898 "GrayscaleEnhancedContrastLevel"=dword:000000c8 PixelStructure=00000001 "TextContrastLevel"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Avalon.Graphics\DISPLAY1] "PixelStructure"=dword:00000001 "GammaLevel"=dword:00000898

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop] "FontSmoothing"="2" "FontSmoothingGamma"=dword:000004b0 "FontSmoothingOrientation"=dword:00000001 "FontSmoothingType"=dword:00000002

[wai148GitHub]

change font ； noMeiryoUI

[wai148GitHub]

[ChicoThorn]

Another shot at perfection! — 😄 — Did more refining. In this version (ChicoThorn Clear UI - 2K v1.7 - 2021.04.08-1400) I tried a whole different approach. I changed the Normal Weight to '0' and the RGB Tuning values to '2'. Overall this had the effect of 'de-fuzzying' the glyphs, particularly those with closed spaces like 'e' 'o' 'a' , etc. The result is a thinner crisper character stroke with a more solid and sharp overall appearance in both Light or Dark Mode throughout the UI. I also changed the DirectWrite settings slightly (increased gamma a tad)... I'm trying to match the rendering of the Taskbar Jumplists and the smaller text on the Settings home page to the standard File Explorer rendering and to the Edge Chromium text rendering online and in UWP apps. This version renders the smaller text in dialog boxes (MS Shell Dlg & MS Shell Dlg 2) much better as well. Give it try if you like! 😎

ChicoThorn Clear UI - 2K v1.7 - 2021.04.08-1400 - ini's.zip

ChicoThorn ClearUI-D1-v1.7-2K - 2021.04.08-1400 - Screenshots.zip

[ChicoThorn]

Microsoft is up to their old tricks again. As of Build 21343 Notepad was taken out of the 'bundled' Windows Accessories folder and made into a Microsoft Store app. Then a week later Build 21354 they removed Paint from the Accessories folder and made that one a Store app as well. What's the big deal, you may ask? For whatever reason, when they do this with 'Sys32' apps somehow they mess up the text rendering something awful. The result is all text is very light and sketchy looking. Here's a screenshot showing the difference in Paint's text rendering.

@sammilucia @snowie2000 — Do you think there may be a way to add some sort of new settings to MacType that will handle this 'new' scheme for font rendering they're using? My guess is they're going to be switching more of the old-school Sys32 apps to Store apps and it'd be great to have a way to render them with MacType.

Classic Paint vs Store Paint.zip

[sammilucia]

I really like Montserrat font, it might be an interesting one to try for Windows. I'm not sure about full Unicode/character set support. It strikes me as a newer take on Proxima Nova and Gotham.

Averta is another interesting one, though possibly might look too formal.

[ChicoThorn]

Another new start. — I've ditched the version numbers on my ini files, it just got too confusing — even for me! 😆 So now I'm just including the Date & Time stamp in the filename which will serve as the version number. This change is reflected in the names of the ChicoThorn ini's I've worked on over the past couple years (ChicoThorn Soft, ChicoThorn Clean, ChicoThorn Clear). You'll find them as well as the newest incarnations (ChicoThorn Sharp) in the attached ini zip file.

I've backed way off from the more extreme high-number settings I was experimenting with and took everything back to basics. In the [General] settings I set the Normal Weight and Bold Weight both to zero and am now only using the RenderWeight plus the RGB TextTuning settings to enhance the font's appearance. The result is a strikingly sharp rendering throughout most of the Windows' UI that's not rendered by DirectWrite or any of the other odd Windows' rendering schemes.

In DirectWrite I started over at zero, literally. — Surprisingly a setting of Gamma=0 and Contrast=0 produces really nice results without the coarseness I was beginning to see in some of my more recent high-value settings I tried. Personally though, I like the rendered text in DirectWrite to be a bit clearer and less soft and fuzzy, so I upped the Contrast setting to 0.6. This still produces excellent text in Light Mode as well as in Dark.

Speaking of Light and Dark Modes, here's a tip I learned recently: Make your initial adjustments and tests while in Light Mode — it's the tougher one to get just right (especially in DirectWrite). Once you've got it set where you like it, then switch over to Dark Mode and check it. I think you'll find that Dark Mode will almost always render well if you've set the Light Mode first.

Give the new ChicoThorn Sharp settings a try. I'd like to hear how they work out for you! 😊

ChicoThorn ini's - 2021.04.25.zip

ChicoThorn-2021.04.25-1725-Screenshots.zip

[maaldheefee]

@ChicoThorn Substituting Arial breaks some of the icons in VS Code, Typora, etc.

[sammilucia]

@maaldheefee this is because the Arial don't doesn't have a complete Unicode at of characters, which is where VS Code will be getting those icons.

@snowie2000 I wonder if it's possible to have a fallback font character ranges for fonts that don't have a complete set.

[taprobane99]

slightly off topic, but in case anyone is looking for a coding font, this one looks beautiful using MacType!

https://github.com/microsoft/cascadia-code

[ChicoThorn]

Microsoft is up to their old tricks again. As of Build 21343 Notepad was taken out of the 'bundled' Windows Accessories folder and made into a Microsoft Store app. Then a week later Build 21354 they removed Paint from the Accessories folder and made that one a Store app as well.

(from #553 @snowie2000 Sept. 8, 2019) — The reason it "seems" to work in service and tray mode is that the tray application/service works as a process monitor, it detects newly created process and applies mactype to them. The affected application should refresh its interface automatically by design, but for some reason, this auto-refresh method doesn't work in service mode, you have to hover your mouse to the interface to trigger a repaint.

(from #553 @sammilucia Aug. 30, 2019) — Technically Service and Tray modes are the OS friendly ways to implement the kind of integration MacType does. (But yes as you say - not quite as complete.)

(from #553 @sammilucia Aug. 21, 2019) — I think Microsoft's CEO Satya Nadella will move towards Metro for everything, and eventually deprecate the old systems in Windows (and other products). It makes sense from a business point of view

Hmmm... So the answer to this was right in front of me all along... 😉

And as you know Microsoft has indeed moved many of the Sys32 apps to the Store now... so I've revisited my Mode setting in MacType and have switched over to MacTray Standalone Mode as you suggested earlier. It works great even on those new converted 'old' apps. I'm still annoyed with the need to hover sometimes first for the rendering to kick in, but on the other hand it's a lot better than not having it render at all as is the case in Registry Mode on those particular apps. Thanks again @snowie2000 and @sammilucia for the insight you provided on this in 2019... it just took me awhile to come to the party! 😊

[ChicoThorn]

I'm still annoyed with the need to hover sometimes first for the rendering to kick in

After switching to MacTray (Admin) mode I decided to turn on 'Secure Boot' once more in my BIOS settings. But when I did that all of the Titlebars on all apps no longer rendered with MacType. This annoyed me more than the issues I encountered with Registry Mode... So I went back into the BIOS and turned 'Secure Boot' off again. Thinking that MacTray wasn't going to work as I expected I switched back to Registry Mode. But I wanted to experiment some more so I switched back to MacTray Mode again. This time all Titlebars were rendered by MacType, just like they are in Registry Mode! Even apps and windows that I had to either hover over or minimize then restore to activate MacType rendering no longer required these gymnastics (Task Manager & other apps)! They rendered great without having to hover or be minimized first. This seemed quite curious to me, so I retested it, repeating all my steps. What I've discovered is that it seems if Secure Boot is off, and you first set MacType to Registry Mode, restart, then set it to MacTray Admin mode it works great! Restarting or shutting down your computer doesn't 'undo' this; MacType continues to render the Titlebars and problematic apps and windows properly! The only exception to this I've experienced so far is the new Store version of Notepad. It still requires the hover over or minimize/restore for MacType rendering to kick in, but even it has the properly rendered Titlebars. I haven't a clue why this works, maybe @sammilucia or @snowie2000 can explain it, but so far I've had really good luck with it.

I've also been fine-tuning and trying new ini settings (as I am wont to do, lol!). Here then is my latest ini file settings. Give them a try if you'd like. 😀

EDIT: Just saw the news about the new upcoming release! WooHoo!! 😄

My most recent ini files. @sammilucia , @snowie2000 — Would it be possible to add this latest ini to the new 2021 release? That'd be awesome if you could! 😀 It's my best effort yet. The name could be 'ChicoThorn Sharp' .

I've attached both variations: (ChicoThorn Sharp+FS-2021.06.02-0835 — contains all my current font substitutions ChicoThorn Sharp-2021.06.02-0835 — contains a much smaller font substitution list

Other than the font substitution list the ini files are identical. Perhaps the one with the smaller font sub list would be the best for release? — Also I've tested these ini files with many different point sizes, so there's no need to classify it only for scaled up displays. They also render beautifully in both Dark and Light Modes.

Also, please let me know how I can help troubleshoot the new pre-release. I just downloaded it and will install it shortly! Excited to see how well it works! — Thanks @snowie2000 for all your hard work! 😊

ChicoThorn Sharp INIs-2021.06.02-0835.zip ChicoThorn Sharp-Screenshots-2021.06.02-0835.zip

[ChicoThorn]

Just installed the new MacType 2021.1-rc1... Wow! It really renders well! I used the same ini file I uploaded above (ChicoThorn Sharp-2021.06.02-0835) and compared Screenshots from 2021.1-rc1 with Screenshots from MacType beta6· 2019.06.21 and there is a subtle difference between the two. The new version seems to render sharper, crisper, and clearer than before; it's truly a remarkable difference! I really like it! I'm going to experiment with the new ArmBreaker setting and will be updating my ini file soon to reflect that change.

Here are the new Screenshots from 2021.1-rc1:

ChicoThorn Sharp-Screenshots-NEW MacType 2021.1-rc1-2021.06.02-0835.zip

ChicoThorn Sharp INIs-2021.06.02-0835.zip

😀😊

[ChicoThorn]

With this new incarnation of MacType I switched over to the Service Mode. It feels a lot like the old Registry Mode to me, which is what I had preferred before so I think this is a good fit. 😊

It's great to have a new tool with the ArmBreaker setting! One of my pet peeves has been the need to hover over text or minimize an app window in order for MacType to kick in. With ArmBreaker set at "1" I still experienced the hover issue with Task Manager and some other apps, so I changed ArmBreaker to "2", restarted my computer and found that right after restart Task Manager opened perfectly with no need to hover or minimize first! This seemed to be the case with some other apps as well, but when I opened RegEdit, it did require me to minimize first then restore in order for MacType to render properly. — I then tested how the WinAero Tweaker window behaved, and it was the most bizarre! Please see the comments embedded in the screenshots below for what happened. In total I relaunched Winaero Tweaker six consecutive times and got different rendering results pretty much each time... It just gets curiouser and curiouser!... 🤔

On the plus side I noticed that the 2021 version renders the thinner, lighter text (I think it's just basic ClearType text?) much better than the 2019 version. I noticed that app windows' Titlebars display in this thinner rendering, but interestingly File Explorer Titlebars are rendered properly and match the rest of the text in the window. With 2021 those areas that display this thinner rendering is much clearer, crisper and really quite pleasing to the eye! — When I was using Registry Mode with MacType 2019 I never had to worry about this thinner text issue, since it rendered pretty much everything the same and quite well (with the exception of those ported Sys32 to Store apps). Frankly, I miss having the option of using Registry Mode in MacWizard and am looking forward to your Wiki on how to make it work again. 😉

Overall I'm really impressed with 2021.1-rc1! — I'll report more as I dig deeper. — Thanks again @snowie2000 ! 💕❤️

Here are my updated ini files (ChicoThorn Sharp-2021.06.02-1640) with the new ArmBreaker settings. All of the other settings remain the same from my last upload (ChicoThorn Sharp-2021.06.02-0835):

ChicoThorn Sharp-INIs MT 2021.1-2021.06.02-1640.zip ChicoThorn Sharp-Screenshots-MT 2021.1- 2021.06.02-1640.zip

These are the results of my launch tests with Task Manager, RegEdit, and Winaero Tweaker:

[snowie2000]

You can't hook into regedit on its startup because it's a special app that requires administrator privilege and it's in the Windows whitelist! So you don't see any UAC pop-ups interrupting you and ask you for permission, but all the UAC thing is still going under the table. MacType yet has had no way to penetrate through the UAC (nor should it have right?), it just has to wait for it to fully startup and hook into it.

Registry mode works great when it works... Setting it up is not as complicated as you may think, just a couple of clicks, but removing it from wizard should be enough to stop a lot of new users from enabling it blindly without knowing what they are doing.

As for the Winaero Tweaker, I downloaded one the installed it, and so far so good on my system... weird.

Did you notice that your task manager doesn't restart itself on close anymore~ It was a bug in easyhook and it was fixed in rc1!

[CrossbowDemon]

How do I re-enable registry mode in MacType? And why was it disabled in this new version? Or is service mode now better/the same as registry mode?

Also, how do I enable ArmBreaker? I haven't worked with the config files before and have only used the wizard/program menus.

[snowie2000]

The reason it was disabled is that it causes more trouble in Windows 10, and now we have a better service mode now which works equivalently good but stabler. We have a discussion here #729. In fact, the wizard still allows you to enable registry mode if it is running in Windows 7 and 8.

The armbreaker option is introduced with RC1, and it allows mactype to "break" through the Windows security system a bit so that more programs work with it. A more detailed usage can be found on the wiki page https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/wiki/ArmBreaker

The guide to re-enable registry mode is not yet available. It will be there ASAP.

[snowie2000]

A guide on how to set up the registry mode is published. Check it out if you really wish to do it.

[ChicoThorn]

Setting it up is not as complicated as you may think, just a couple of clicks, but removing it from wizard should be enough to stop a lot of new users from enabling it blindly without knowing what they are doing.

As for the Winaero Tweaker, I downloaded one the installed it, and so far so good on my system... weird.

Did you notice that your task manager doesn't restart itself on close anymore~ It was a bug in easyhook and it was fixed in rc1!

Thank you @snowie2000 for the wiki on the Registry Mode! I'm going to give it a try, I'll let you know how it goes! 😃 — That is weird about Winaero Tweaker! I'll try uninstalling it and reinstalling from a fresh download... — Yes, I did notice that Task Manager seems to behave better, well done! 😊

[ChicoThorn]

Hi @snowie2000 ... I gave the manual setup for Registry Mode a try and I ran into a really weird roadblock. When I opened AppInit_DLLs in RegEdit to edit the string value I was shocked to see already there a huge long list that repeats itself over and over... Please see the screenshot below. I'm pretty sure it's not supposed to be like that. I've never edited this portion of the registry before and am not aware of anything I might have done earlier that would have caused this... Should I delete all that stuff and then enter 'mactype64.dll' as the only value... or... ??? 🤷

[snowie2000]

That was shocking🤯

I recalled that there was a release where I chose to write the whole absolute path of mactype.dll into the registry instead of just writing the filename and let the system path do the finding. And because of the way the AppInitDll works, it has to be a path without any space in it. That should be where the problem comes from.

So you're right, replace all of them with mactype64.dll/mactype.dll respectively.

[ChicoThorn]

replace all of them with mactype64.dll/mactype.dll respectively.

Got it! Thank you @snowie2000 ! — I just gave it a go and so far it seems to work well... When I reopened MacWizard to check which Mode would now be displayed it still showed Manual Mode as the selected mode rather than Registry Mode... Is that how it's supposed to appear? If I were to select a different mode would it automatically 'undo' what I did manually to set Registry Mode? And if that's true, then I suppose if a I wanted to then switch back to Registry I would need to repeat the manual steps? Not that I plan to switch back and forth, just curious how that would work is all. 🙂

[snowie2000]

It should be able to detect if you're on registry mode whatever way you set it up. It's a very thorough check. It checks for both x86 and x64 keys, if any of them is missing, it reports the mode as manual.

[taprobane99]

https://mspoweruser.com/microsoft-edge-on-windows-font-rendering/

not massive change but text looks a bit darker compared to other chrome-based browsers. still not as nice as GDI rendered text.

i wonder if mactype can hook into something here, if it's now reading the system cleartype settings.

[ChicoThorn]

but text looks a bit darker compared to other chrome-based browsers

Thanks for the link @taprobane99 ! It looks a lot clearer to my eye in Edge Canary Dark Mode. 😀

[ChicoThorn]

Well @snowie2000, I think it's time I just abandon the notion of Registry Mode. It doesn't seem to work the same as it did in the 2019 version. The screenshot below shows the best example of what I'm running into. All three panels are from the app 'Flexible Renamer' — In MacType 2019 Flexible Renamer always rendered perfectly in Registry Mode. But as you can see in the 2021 version it doesn't use MacType rendering at all. I tried MacTray Admin Mode next. It rendered Flexible Renamer beautifully and without having to first hover or minimize. Lastly I tried Service Mode and it too rendered Flexible Renamer without any problems. — I'm going to go with either MacTray or Service Mode from this point forward I think. 😉

[ChicoThorn]

Discovered something interesting @snowie2000 ... while in MacTray Admin Mode I was experimenting with RegEdit. If you launch the 'standard' RegEdit (the one at the base level of the Windows folder) MacType won't render it until you minimize/restore. But if you launch the RegEdit in the SysWOW64 folder MacType DOES render the window on opening; it just takes it about one or two seconds to click in. I've tested it several times and it works! A workaround! 😀

[taprobane99]

I have a problem with the new 2021 version that whatever mode I run it in, and with ArmBreaker on 1 or 2, the titlebars of programs like Notepad are never rendered with Mactype, whereas they always were before.