Geek Oracle:Rainbow font in Outlook 2007 & Windows XP

Poststructural Pub
1

I’m having a problem with Outlook 2007, just installed on my office computer.

In the list of messages in Outlook, the font looks like this.

I’m hopeful you can see that the font is fuzzy and multicolored. This is not about my monitor–I’ve checked it on other monitors and the result is the same. I’ve also changed to other fonts and that hasn’t solved the problem. (Edited: I orginally thought this was only in Outlook, but I’m spotting it in some other applications. I think it’s a Windows issue.) I’ve also looked at the Outlook view on other people’s computers here in the office and we’re all having the same issue.

Any ideas on what can be done about this?

2

I know what the problem is, but not what can be done about it.
It’s the visual presentation of the typeface in the font size that is the problem.
Because of the high definition of modern screens (including Vista) typefaces may appear to be “fuzzy” because they don’t fit the pixel array.

One approach is to find a more computer friendly typface and use that until the time when you want to print your document. Smallfonts is something that should display more accurately, but is not that pleasant to read. Not recommended.

The other approach is to try different size settings until you find a bearable one. Not the typeface size, but the image size. 100% may be no good. Try 75%. For you, it may be 78% while for your neighbour, 81%. It’s a personal thing.

3

Well, I defeated the problem in Outlook by changing to bold display fonts. That’ll do. I still think, though, there ought to be a Windows tweak somewhere to take care of this.

4

The real problem is that Microsoft has yet to properly implement the Ballmer Peak effect among its programmers.

5

I was just getting ready to mention the Ballmer Peak effect when Coffee beat me to it. My printer usually prints a line of italic print someone on any given page, and I have grown so accustomed to it that I hardly notice anymore.

6

There’s a display feature called aliasing that adds shading to letters so that they don’t look jagged (pixelated). Perhaps this is the feature that is over-compnsating and making things looked blurred. I don’t have Vista, so I’m not sure where to turn this feature off.

djm