ZoomText - Loss of font smoothing moving from Internet Explorer
Problem
If a customer used to font smoothing in Internet Explorer moves to using Microsoft Edge or Chrome they will notice some drop in font smoothing quality in the new browser.
Applies to
- ZoomText
- Fusion
Note
This article discusses ongoing issues with ZoomText font smoothing. Freedom Scientific propose to improve support in on an application by application basis to restore xFont support. This is in active development and may be made available via software update.
Resolution
- In Internet Explorer ZoomText supported xFont smoothing which allowed ZoomText to directly replace on screen fonts with its own.
- Microsoft have since retired Internet Explorer 15/06/2022 for current versions of their operating systems.
- Users who migrate to Microsoft Edge or other browsers may notice xFont smoothing is not available in modern browsers, ZoomText now only provides Geometric font smoothing whose imperfections are more noticeable.
- Freedom Scientific are aware of the limitation and are engaged in restoring xFont to modern browsers now that the magnification engine has been refactored in 2023. This requires the development of application specific technical solutions that will be rolled out when they ready. This work is currently ongoing (28/08/2024).
ZoomText 2022 and earlier
The xFont feature was disabled part way through the 2022 cycle. This decision was made due to their being fewer places where xFont worked and also to improve performance. There is also a similar scenario for 2022 users with Microsoft Office 365 however from build 2307 and later now allow ZoomText 2024 can again display xFont smoothing in the latest versions of Microsoft Office. Users not currently on the latest version are advised to make their Freedom Scientific product license current and update to the latest version of Microsoft Office possible to take advantage of the re-introduced xFont support.
Why has this happened
Application developers have been forced to make their applications more secure. This means ZoomText and similar products can on longer just draw in replacement fonts as they once did. A technical solution must be co-developed by Freedom Scientific and the app developer to allow xFont style font smoothing to be available once more. This likely means that better font smoother may need to be rolled out on an application specific basis.
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