I had this problem under .NET 3.0 and now .NET 3.5 (running on XP SP2). Here's one screenshot (from Orcas): The strange thing is that the text slowly "refocusses". The text only goes blurry when it is moved (so I got that screenshot by scrolling the pane up and down, then hitting Print Screen). An even more obvious example is this one: This is after clicking the button (so the text moves as the button is clicked). It takes a couple of seconds to return to normal (though the text is never as crisp as the same text under System.Windows.Forms - or indeed any text as normally rendered by ClearType, only under WPF). It's really messing with my eyes; quite painful to try and read with all this text blurring in and out. Any ideas?

I have ClearType enabled, yes. However, every other application displays crisp, clean text; only WPF applications display the mess I posted.

If you look at the top screenshot, you'll notice that "Name: toolTray1" is reasonable (still fuzzier than normal ClearType text, though) but "HorizontalAlignment" is very fuzzy indeed.

Other people have noted this, but I haven't seen any fixes (especially compare these two screenshots).

The momentary blurriness after moving text may be this: After animating text, the text seems to pause for 1 second and then render more sharply than before. Why is that?. That post specifically mentions animating text, but I have a feeling it applies to your case as well.

As for the increased bluriness compared to Winforms/GDI+/GDI, it's probably due to subpixel positioning of glyphs. It increases glyph positioning at the expense of uniformity between glyphs; now the same glyph may appear differently depending on its position.

Actually, now that I think about it, the subpixel positioning sounds like a different problem, but it's one that annoys me and maybe others because glyphs all look different.

Quote:Original post by mutex
That post specifically mentions animating text, but I have a feeling it applies to your case as well.

As do I, mainly appearing on text that moves (scrolling, button being clicked and so on).

Quote:Actually, now that I think about it, the subpixel positioning sounds like a different problem, but it's one that annoys me and maybe others because glyphs all look different.

That, too, sounds likely. I find the text significantly harder to read under WPF, which I assume is the opposite to what MS are trying to achieve. [sad]