717669 - Georgia looks fuzzier with DirectWrite

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: Graphics, defect)

Description

[JB]

Attachment: FontIssueShots.7z

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1
Build ID: 20111220165912

Steps to reproduce:

On this website:
http://www.salon.com/writer/glenn_greenwald/

Specifically the first paragraph of this article (though should occur for all of site):
http://www.salon.com/2012/01/12/iran_and_the_terrorism_game/singleton/

When I have HW acceleration on, the font is noticeably less clear, but when I turn HW acceleration off, >OR< set 'gfx.font_rendering.cleartype_params.rendering_mode' to 2 with HW accel on, it fixes the issue and the font is clear.

I've attached pictures showing the issue; the images prefixed "Scaled_" show the issue more clearly. Note that fonts also seem bigger with HW accel off.

From my normal Firefox profile:
Scaled_HW_Accel_Ren_Mode_Default.png - Blurred, HW accel on, default rendering mode (-1)
Scaled_No_HW_Accel_Ren_Mode_Default.png - Not blurred, No HW Accel, default rendering mode (-1)
Scaled_HW_Accel_On_Ren_Mode_2.png - Not blurred, HW accel on, rendering mode 2

From a fresh firefox profile specifically for demonstrating this:
Scaled_FF_9.01_Default_NoChangeSettings.png - Blurred, default FF settings (HW accel on, default rendering mode)
Scaled_FF_9.0.1_Default_NoHWAccel.png - Not blurred, HW accel turned off (all other settings default)


Actual results:

Blurred fonts.


Expected results:

Not blurred fonts.

Comment 1

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Attachment: Default Fx9, no hardware accel

Comment 2

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Attachment: Default Fx9, default settings

Comment 3

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Attachment: Hardware acceleration on, font render mode 2

Comment 4

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Attachment: Hardware acceleration on, default font render mode

Comment 5

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Attachment: Default Fx9, no hardware accel

(Accidentally uploaded the wrong png before)

Comment 6

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Attachment: Hardware acceleration off, default render mode

Comment 7

[Joe Drew (not getting mail)]

Salon.com is using "font-family: Georgia,'Droid Serif',Times New Roman,Times,serif;"

Georgia's not part of the core web fonts, so in bug 661471 we didn't include it. The list is currently:
       "Arial,Consolas,Courier New,Microsoft Sans Serif,Segoe UI,Tahoma,Trebuchet MS,Verdana");

I don't know whether we should include Georgia in that list; maybe not, but I'd listen to reason here.

Comment 8

[Jonathan Kew [:jfkthame]]

More generally, it's a serif font, and bug 661471 ended up specifically targeting core sans-serif faces, because some people felt that the DW-blurriness issue is most severe with them, and not a serious problem for serif faces (see bug 661471 comment 19 & following). Clearly, that's not a universally-shared opinion.

Comment 9

[JB]

Would the approach to this (if it is addressed) be the same 'fix-it-per-font'/'per-font-family' approach as previous font blurriness issues?

If so, is there a better (objective) way of determining what fonts will be problematic, so a universal fix can be implemented, rather than patching these issues as they crop up?

Maybe would warrant another ticket in itself.

Comment 10

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Firefox: 45.0,Build ID: 20160303134406
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:45.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/45.0

Hi JB,

I have tested this issue on the latest Firefox (45.0) release, latest Nightly (48.0a1 - 20160308030418) build and I could not reproduce it. I have tested with the provided page in comment 1, but the article is no more available, so I have tested with anther article from the page. The font does not look blurred with HW acceleration on.

Can you please test this on the latest Firefox release or latest Nightly build (https://nightly.mozilla.org/) and report back the results ? When doing this, please use a new clean Firefox profile, maybe even safe mode, to eliminate custom settings as a possible cause (https://goo.gl/PNe90E). 

Thanks,
Cosmin.

Comment 11

[Cosmin Muntean [:cmuntean], Ecosystem QA]

Marking this as Resolved: Incomplete due to the lack of response from the reporter.
If anyone can still reproduce it on latest versions, feel free to reopen the issue and provide more information.