Websites forcing directwrite

[Jimbo Slip]

Hello. This is a question for those who are a bit more technically minded. I use the website RateYourMusic a lot.

https://rateyourmusic.com/

Recently they redesigned it, and the fonts are awful and blurry (i.e. directwrite is enabled). Now, when the page opens, for a moment it renders the text with beautiful GDI, and then directwrite takes over. Does anybody know whether I can do something to force the page from using directwrite?

Directwrite is of course disabled in Cent.

[Admini]

I am not sure whether the website itself can force using DW when DW is disabled in the browser.
Have you tried disabling all extensions, or appending
--no-sandbox
to "Other settings"->"Startup command line"?

[Jimbo Slip]

It has to do with the new font they are using. Before they were using Verdana. Now they are using some newer font. it has that blurry DirectWrite look.

Take a look at this Guardian page for example:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...commission

The text looks blurry, even though I have DirectWrite turned off in my Cent browser. It looks exactly the same in Edge, no difference.

I am not sure what you mean with "--no-sandbox". Should I put that where it says "Startup command line"?

[Admini]

It has to do with the new font they are using. Before they were using Verdana. Now they are using some newer font. it has that blurry DirectWrite look.

Take a look at this Guardian page for example:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/j...commission

The text looks blurry, even though I have DirectWrite turned off in my Cent browser. It looks exactly the same in Edge, no difference.

I am not sure what you mean with "--no-sandbox". Should I put that where it says "Startup command line"?

Yes, "Startup command line" at the bottom of the Settings page.
If "--no-sandbox" doesn't work, you may need to install MacType or use Stylus to change font style.

[Jimbo Slip]

What puzzles me is that for a couple of seconds, the rendering seems to happen with GDI, and then DirectWrite takes over.

Anyway, I wrote "--no-sandbox" in the "startup command line" and it doesn't seem to make any difference, so I'll look into the other options.

Thank you.

[Grean]

I faced with the same problem and come to "Page Font" extension as solution. It's dynamically change font after page loaded (so, blurry font sometimes may appear while loading), also it keep this setting across sessions. Tried your site with "Arial" and it looks quite well.