Font Smoother FAQ

Yes. Windows NT 4 and Windows 2000 come with font smoothing built in. From the Display Properties dialog, you may activate font smoothing from the Plus! tab.

Yes. These versions of Windows come with font smoothing built in. From the Display Properties dialog, you may activate font smoothing from the Effects tab.

Font smoothing should work with all current TrueType and OpenType fonts.

Windows includes default settings for enabling smoothing. This differs between roman, italic and bold weights, mainly due to the fact that smoothing may be more or less necessary depending on the outlines.

To switch off font smoothing, open Display Properties and click the Plus! tab (Effects tab in Windows 98). Uncheck the 'Smooth edges of screen fonts' check box.

To remove the Font Smoother or Plus! pack completely, select Start->Settings->Control Panel->Add/Remove programs->Install/Uninstall. Then select 'Windows 95 Font Smoothing' or 'Microsoft Plus! for Windows 95' and click on Add/Remove.

Windows 98 Users Note! If you upgraded from a Windows 95 installation with the font smoother installed, you should not under any circumstances uninstall the Windows 95 smoother. Uninstalling the smoother from Windows 98 systems will result in Windows 98's own smoothing components being permanently deleted. Running setup from the original Windows 98 upgrade CD is the only way to replace the deleted components.

Be sure to check the following:

1.	Make sure font smoothing is switched on. To turn font smoothing on (and off), open Display Properties and click the Plus! tab. Check the 'Smooth edges of screen fonts' box.
2.	Make sure you are running in 16-bit or better color mode. To check your color setting, open Display Properties and click the Settings tab. Make sure the Color palette entry is High Color (16-bit) or True Color (24-bit).
3.	Font smoothing only works on TrueType fonts above a certain size. As a test, launch WordPad from Start/Programs/Accessories. Set the typeface to Arial and the size to 24pt and type some words, they should be smoothed.
4.	If you are still getting jagged fonts, check with the manufacturer of your video card. A few users have told us that some video cards do not support font smoothing, and other cards require updated drivers.

The free Font Smoother and the Plus! pack smoother let the user activate a feature that is already built into Windows 95. For this reason, they both do exactly the same thing, and there are no performance benefits of using one instead of the other.

Remove the font smoother and contact the manufacturer of your PC or video card for updated display drivers or information on compatibility with the Plus! pack.

There are two things to keep in mind here. First, Windows has some default sizes at which smoothing is turned on or off, and this depends on the style of the typeface. Second, and perhaps more importantly, TrueType has a mechanism for providing font makers the ability to control the sizes where smoothing is turned on. As different typefaces may have differing needs at varying sizes, this becomes one more way for the typographer to control typeface appearance at particular sizes. The font designer's settings take precedence over the default setting from Windows.

For more information on font smoothing, see our Smooth fonts in Microsoft Windows page.

The only supported feature of the font smoother is font smoothing. If you want to use the other features, you should purchase a copy of the Plus! pack.

Figure 1. The Display Properties Plus! tab.