Microsoft is improving font rendering in Chrome on Windows 11 and 10

In 2021, Microsoft updated Edge to support improved font rendering and Windows ClearType Tuner. These changes bring Edge's clarity on par with native Windows apps, and now Microsoft is bringing similar improvements to all Chromium browsers, including Chrome.

Microsoft recently posted a document on ChromeStatus confirming that it is integrating the Windows ClearType text tuner into the Chrome browser. The feature, called "Windows ClearType Text Tuner Integration," is designed to ensure that native text rendering preferences are respected on Windows devices.

Font rendering in Chrome version 124 will be improved thanks to Microsoft support

Some users with certain display configurations have long found that fonts on websites look blurry or too thin and difficult to read when using Chrome. Other browsers such as Firefox and Microsoft Edge do not have this problem and look more beautiful.

In an old thread on Chromium, one user mentioned that looking at blurry text in Google Chrome for long periods of time even gave them a headache.

This happens because Chrome doesn't follow Windows native font rendering. By default, Windows native applications use DirectWrite (the native text stack API) to obtain various contrast and gamma values ​​for text rendering. Chromium also uses DirectWrite, but Google's implementation is limited to specific tasks like identifying fonts.

Google relies on the Skia graphics library, which is a good choice for cross-platform font rendering and gets the job done. This means Google handles its own text shaping and rendering across all platforms. However, this method results in noticeable differences in how text appears on Windows compared to other applications.

Microsoft has been working on fixing these issues for some time. In 2021, Microsoft released an Edge update that allows the browser to support Windows ClearType font rendering.