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Firefox 5 text rendering
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Author:  winstep [ Wed Jun 29, 2011 12:40 pm ]
Post subject:  Firefox 5 text rendering

Is it just me or is text rendering in FireFox 5.0 *A LOT BETTER* then in FireFox 4.x?

Text in this forum now seems a lot sharper and clear than the rendering in Firefox 4.x using DirectWrite.

Author:  skagon [ Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:03 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

Haven't witnessed any differences in the text... here it looks all the same.

Author:  winstep [ Wed Jun 29, 2011 3:10 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

Must be me, then. Sigh. But I could almost swear it's different!

Author:  jeffgraper [ Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

I read somewhere that the latest windows update changed the text rendering in most browsers. I installed today, not sure if it made any difference that I can see. But maybe ....

Author:  winstep [ Wed Jun 29, 2011 11:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

Ah, so that was it, I installed the Windows updates too! I was sure something was different, thanks for confirming it. :D

Directwrite had a problem rendering Cleartype text on dark backgrounds (text would become blurred, like if written in bold typeface), for instance, and now the text is pretty sharp.

Author:  T3STY [ Thu Jun 30, 2011 5:48 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

Yes it is, rendering is much better now even for other things like images while scrolling (in past you'd have seen some image traces while scrolling) or basic geometric objects like lines, curves (they now use the same rendering as text and makes them clearer).
Anyway, I still complain with Firefox because on my pc it's very very slow and it's not working as it was... maybe it's just me...

Although, you should try GDI++, uses the same text rendering like Mac OSs, it does really improve text rendering!

Author:  comonu [ Mon Sep 12, 2011 1:39 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

good to know. i was having some problems with firefox 5 and 6 - manly when playing my browser games. but i also had the feeling that this text issue had changed.

_________________

Author:  skagon [ Sat Sep 24, 2011 10:05 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

You two characters (:P) could take a look at the add-ons you're using. I've discovered that certain add-ons can really have a huge impact on CPU usage. As for RAM usage... 3 more days till Firefox 7! ;)

Author:  skagon [ Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:39 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

Well, that's the beauty of having choices. Or do you?
Anyway, I don't really know if versions 5 and 6 had enough new stuff to be worth a new first digit version, but version 7 is supposed to be incorporating the MemShrink initiative code enhancements, which (latest betas show) use around 30% less RAM, and also more aggressive JS garbage collection, which will also decrease RAM usage.
Tell you the truth, I've been thinking a lot about ditching Firefox, but... I can't seem to find another browser that's better. I mean, ok, it uses a lot of RAM, but I've found was around that, and apart from that f$cking Flash player (which is a plague for any browser), I don't mind the rest. Sure, I'd like it to be a bit faster when dealing with my ≈200 tabs, I'd like the BarTab plug-in to work in newer versions too, I'd like a facility to see which tabs use too much RAM or consume too much CPU time, I'd like Ctrl+E officially back (I've made my own plug-in for that), etc. But are any of the other browsers really *that* better? I don't think so...

Author:  skagon [ Sat Sep 24, 2011 11:55 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

FYI: http://blog.mozilla.com/nnethercote/201 ... nd-fast-2/
;)

Author:  Ed1965 [ Wed Nov 23, 2011 3:45 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

skagon wrote:
Well, that's the beauty of having choices. Or do you?
Anyway, I don't really know if versions 5 and 6 had enough new stuff to be worth a new first digit version, but version 7 is supposed to be incorporating the MemShrink initiative code enhancements, which (latest betas show) use around 30% less RAM, and also more aggressive JS garbage collection, which will also decrease RAM usage.
Tell you the truth, I've been thinking a lot about ditching Firefox, but... I can't seem to find another browser that's better. I mean, ok, it uses a lot of RAM, but I've found was around that, and apart from that f$cking Flash player (which is a plague for any browser), I don't mind the rest. Sure, I'd like it to be a bit faster when dealing with my ≈200 tabs, I'd like the BarTab plug-in to work in newer versions too, I'd like a facility to see which tabs use too much RAM or consume too much CPU time, I'd like Ctrl+E officially back (I've made my own plug-in for that), etc. But are any of the other browsers really *that* better? I don't think so...



I am a big blog writer and you can't beat FF for all the handy addons that can help people that write a lot. Also I have been testing browsers for years and I will admit I came real close to ditching FF about a year ago but since the last couple of updates, the browser has been great. In the last speed test I did, it out perform Chrome and absolutely killed IE for loading times, especially pages with loads of images. Opera still won the test, that has won every test I have done in the last 3 years to be honest but this time, the winning margin was minimal. I have checked out a few other lesser known browsers too and a couple of those are faster still but they always seem to have at least one bug that turns me off. I will stick with FF till something better comes along but I can't see that happening for a while.

By the way, I do a lot of commenting on Cnet and there is a lot of FF haters on that site but one thing I discovered a long time ago is most people who hate FF have no concept on how to set up FF for maximum speed and they usually are novices when it comes to computers. So I always say it is usually the user with the problem, not the browser.

In case you are wondering, I have fixing, and building systems for over 8 years and have worked professionally for 5 years and I am not saying FF is perfect but no browser is, there is faults with all of them.

Author:  DesertDwarf [ Thu Mar 12, 2020 11:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

I don't know if Pilgrim will read your reply as he posted that over 8 years ago. Hopefully, he has restarted his PC by now. (Actually, I hope he has updated to a new PC by now. It would be sad if he was still on the same one.)

Author:  winstep [ Fri Mar 13, 2020 7:32 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

LOL I have a feeling he is a spam bot, but since I can't be 100% sure (the text doesn't seem to be taken from anywhere else) I just removed his signature.

Author:  nexter [ Fri Mar 13, 2020 5:29 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Firefox 5 text rendering

DesertDwarf wrote:
I don't know if Pilgrim will read your reply as he posted that over 8 years ago. Hopefully, he has restarted his PC by now. (Actually, I hope he has updated to a new PC by now. It would be sad if he was still on the same one.)

Why would it be sad, Ric? One of the machines I run is a now 14 year old AMD X2 based system, which is pretty nippy still, running Linux and Windows 7 without a problem, and indeed if I were able to sit at the desk for longer, not having to use a laptop much of the time, and didn't have the need for some high-end specialist apps, this system would be all I would need really and I would not have upgraded to up to date hardware. (I upgraded it to USB 3 and SATA 3 though. And 8GB DDR2 RAM - the max. it can take - seems to perform better than the 16Gig on my i7 quad laptop, comparing e.g. Debian GNU/Linux running Firefox and also Win 7/ Win 10 running Firefox, on those two machines. Naturally, FF really rocks on my 8 core Ryzen box, but so what? Don't use it that much, 90+% of my browsing is under TOR anyway.

Likewise, my mobile (cell) phone is also 14 years old. Does what I need it to do, end of story. Would never use a modern so-called smartphone anyway if you paid me.

So, older is not necessarily in or of itself inferior or whatever - horses for courses, really.

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