ClearType Tuner

Every laptop or desktop LCD monitor owner should give ClearType Tuner a try, because it might save your eyes or spare you a headache or two from squinting at the microfine type that many LCDs render. After all, it is free.

This Microsoft PowerToy installs a new tool in your Control Panel. At startup you walk through a helpful wizard that displays different ClearType settings to help fill in and smooth out screen text. CRT display owners can try these tools, but generally we have found they work best for LCDs. Once you pick the best combination of letter density and smoothness for your eyes, the program sets it permanently. You can apply the setting as the default for all users on your system.

An Advanced tab is for tweakers. Here you can lighten and darken your ClearType settings manually and change the LCD screen striping setting. Some LCDs arrange the red, green, and blue lines of pixels in a non-standard order and require a somewhat different ClearType setting.

In all, we love the change this simple tool has made on the usability of our laptop. It is one of those sweet little Microsoft giveaways that remains undiscovered by most users.

www.microsoft.com
Publisher: Microsoft