Microsoft has announced the implementation of some changes in Chromium that will ensure better text rendering on Windows devices with Chrome. This news comes after years of reports from users and starting with version 124 of Chrome. Google’s browser will finally support contrast and gamma values set through Windows’ ClearType Text Tuner.
This change should finally bring Chrome in line with the improvements that Microsoft has already introduced in Edge regarding the rendering of fonts and text. In this way, you will be able to apply text contrast improvements and gamma corrections for better readability of web pages. Chrome uses Skia for text rendering, with default values for contrast and gamma, and as a result did not take advantage of the enhancements offered by ClearType.
This proprietary Microsoft technology has long been used in Windows to improve the rendering of text on screens, with the goal of making it look like that printed on paper. Now, as reported in the official blog, Microsoft’s engineers have integrated ClearType Text Tuner support into Chrome, allowing the browser to take on board any contrast and gamma changes, just like most other native Windows applications.
Kurt Catti-Schmidt, Senior Software Development Engineer at Microsoft, led the development of this feature. In recent months, Catti-Schmidt has been dedicated to improving text rendering on Chromium-based browsers, regularly focusing on accessibility improvements for both Edge and Chrome.
These latest changes are part of Microsoft’s commitment to improving Chromium-based browsers on Windows. That commitment began over five years ago, when the company decided to adopt Chromium for its Edge browser. At the time, Microsoft stated that it would make its expertise on the Windows platform available to improve the experience of all Chromium-based browsers on Windows, a promise that the company seems intent on keeping. In fact, Microsoft has already helped improve scrolling on Chrome, touch support, and much more.
Speaking of Chrome, did you know that Google has introduced a new experimental feature powered by Gemini’s AI that helps users write or enhance texts based on the content of web pages. It’s called “Help Me Write” and for now it’s the prerogative of the only stable M122 version in the United States.
