Google Chrome dumps 30-year-old Windows technology

[Matsuda]

Chrome 37 for Windows, now in beta, switches from GDI to DirectWrite to render text

Google last week said that it was finally ditching a 30-year-old technology to display fonts on Web pages in its Chrome browser for Windows. In an announcement Thursday about some of the notable changes in Chrome for version 37, which reached Google's Beta build channel earlier that day, a software engineer said the preview relied on Microsoft's DirectWrite technology.

"Chrome 37 adds support for DirectWrite, an API on Windows for clear, high-quality text rendering even on high-DPI displays," said Emil Eklund in a July 17 blog post.

Microsoft introduced the DirectWrite API with Windows 7, which shipped in the fall of 2009, and back-ported the technology to Windows Vista Service Pack 2 (SP2) at the same time with what it called a Platform Update. Windows XP, the now-retired operating system -- but one that still powers one-in-four personal computers worldwide -- does not support DirectWrite.

Prior to the switch to DisplayWrite, Chrome used Microsoft's Graphics Device Interface (GDI), which was a core component of Windows since the graphical user interface's (GUI) debut in late 1985. Microsoft had been working on GDI for at least two years before that.

Chrome 36, the current version out of Google's Stable build channel, continues to use GDI to render text on Windows.

Eklund said that DirectWrite had been a top user request for years: An entry in Chromium's bug tracker -- Chromium is the open-source project that feeds code to Chrome proper -- about adding DirectWrite support to the browser was penned Oct. 22, 2009, the same day Windows 7 launched.

As far as a reason for the long stretch between that entry and DirectWrite support making it into Chrome, Eklund said, "The switch to DirectWrite ... required extensive re-architecting and streamlining of Chrome's font rendering engine."

Much of that difficulty stemmed from the sandboxing -- an anti-exploit and anti-crash technology -- of Chrome's rendering engine; it wasn't until February of this year that developers reported on the bug tracker that they'd managed to get DirectWrite to work inside the sandbox.

Other browsers have long since adopted DirectWrite. Mozilla's Firefox, for example, switched from GDI to DirectWrite with version 4, which debuted in March 2011. Microsoft's own Internet Explorer (IE9) began using DirectWrite with IE9, which also shipped in March 2011.

DirectWrite was one of the reasons why Microsoft declined to add the then-powerhouse Windows XP to the list of supported editions for IE9, a move that made the company the first major browser developer to drop support for XP.

If all goes according to plan, DirectWrite support will reach the Stable edition of Chrome with version 37. Google does not hew to a set timetable to browser upgrades, as does Mozilla, but it typically rolls out a new version every six to eight weeks.

Google promoted Chrome 36 to the Stable channel last week, so version 37 should ship between the end of August and mid-September.

The beta of Chrome 37 for Windows can be downloaded from the company's website.



Source: http://www.infoworld.com/d/applications/google-chrome-dumps-30-year-old-windows-technology-246626

[dcs18]

Sounds great - have already tweaked my web fonts display to a nicety, on Firefox (look forward to the new results - as and when it arrives.)

[shorty6100]

Interesting-games would not render properly in version 37, so I downgraded to stable channel 36. Games display properly as always. Game example: Saloon Brawl 2.

[brain_death]

This is a disaster for me, that I have noticed creeping in to Chromium and Chrome Canary over the past few weeks. It was bad enough having IE9 and above render fonts totally differently from Firefox and Chrome, but now the IE and Chrome renderings pretty much match, Firefox and all older browsers are the odd ones out, not to mention anything that isn't Windows.

This means line lengths of text are no longer consistent, leading to ragged paragraphs and orphaned words, under different operating systems and across different browsers. You can disable DirectWrite in your own version of Chrome/Chromium, but not for other people unless they do this themselves. So if you are picky about your layouts as I am, you are screwed as a designer.

I thought Firefox tried this in Versions 4-6, then abandoned it due to the outcry? Chrome/Chromium should leave this feature disabled by default, so folk can switch it on if they want to, not the other way around...

:s FML

[shorty6100]

So THAT'S why games are awry (or texts in general) in this version.........

Edited July 22, 2014 by shorty6100

[smallhagrid]

The monopoly is dead.

Long live the monopoly !!

(I'm guessing this way of seeing things is less than obvious to most GOOGLE Chrome users...)

My opinion of Chrome and anything based upon it=>

1. It's hoggy & I avoid hoggy s/w.

2. It's from Google, which already controls too much stuff.

3. I find it visually difficult and really unappealing.

Must be time to bring back Netscape 3.03 Gold - and anything which refuses to render with that, I just don't need to look at after all !!

[dMog]

The monopoly is dead.

Long live the monopoly !!

(I'm guessing this way of seeing things is less than obvious to most GOOGLE Chrome users...)

My opinion of Chrome and anything based upon it=>

1. It's hoggy & I avoid hoggy s/w.

2. It's from Google, which already controls too much stuff.

3. I find it visually difficult and really unappealing.

Must be time to bring back Netscape 3.03 Gold - and anything which refuses to render with that, I just don't need to look at after all !!

and break out your 14.4 modem while you are at it along with booting up win95

[brain_death]

and break out your 14.4 modem while you are at it along with booting up win95

You laugh, but computing stretches way back before Windows 95, 3.11 or even 3.0. Try Lynx for instance, a text based browser and according to Wikipedia, the oldest web browser currently in general use and development. Bells and whistles it ain't, but it is still great for understanding how a search engine sees your site or for stripping out the text content only...

http://lynx.isc.org/release/

:spam:

[smallhagrid]

And, for those windows users desiring utter simplicity...:

You laugh, but computing stretches way back before Windows 95, 3.11 or even 3.0. Try Lynx for instance, a text based browser and according to Wikipedia, the oldest web browser currently in general use and development. Bells and whistles it ain't, but it is still great for understanding how a search engine sees your site or for stripping out the text content only...

http://lynx.isc.org/release/

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/lynx-portable

[brain_death]

And, for those windows users desiring utter simplicity...:

http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/lynx-portable

Thanks, but this is v.2.8.7...

Download the Windows setup from the official Lynx page, extract it using Universal Extractor and it's entirely portable too.

Plus it is v.2.8.8 !

;)

Edited July 24, 2014 by brain_death

[eilegz]

3 years late google

https://blog.mozilla.org/nattokirai/2011/08/11/directwrite-text-rendering-in-firefox-6/

and then people still insist how "advanced" and better is chrome over firefox.... its sad to see people switched to a buggy mess that google chrome is, the fact that forcing addons outside of the chrome store to use unstable version dont make them any better.

for those who want chrome but with more stable experience should try the new opera (which its chrome based sadly)

[dcs18]

The monopoly is dead.

Long live the monopoly !!

(I'm guessing this way of seeing things is less than obvious to most GOOGLE Chrome users...)

My opinion of Chrome and anything based upon it=>

1. It's hoggy & I avoid hoggy s/w.

2. It's from Google, which already controls too much stuff.

3. I find it visually difficult and really unappealing.

Must be time to bring back Netscape 3.03 Gold - and anything which refuses to render with that, I just don't need to look at after all !!

and break out your 14.4 modem while you are at it along with booting up win95

FWIW, in all likelihood - it must have been already broken . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . since 1995.

[smallhagrid]

Indeed:

Thanks, but this is v.2.8.7...

Download the Windows setup from the official Lynx page, extract it using Universal Extractor and it's entirely portable too.

Plus it is v.2.8.8 !

Got the installer here=>http://invisible-island.net/lynx/#installers, then:

I did that and followed the directions to open it using the .BAT file - but it didn't open until I ran lynx.exe directly.

So I tried the portable one I put a link to instead and it opened & ran fine.

So, having both is OK too especially when they are so very small !!

Thanks.

[DKT27]

I have always said, Chrome might have many features implemented, that too, faster than others, but Google somehow takes years to implement some basic features which have been a standard in other browsers for years.

[Zigen]

30 years ago? Wow... I think around that time it was windows 1.0? Wonder if chrome can run on that hahaha

[Ramouz]

*sigh. I am forced to use Google Chrome in one of my jobs here at home. Version 36 was ok but since I am on the beta channel, it switched me to v37 a few weeks ago and it looks terrible!!! It's not just the fonts, it's the whole UI, it's too big, it's no longer clear, the icons are blurry, even Gmail now has random lines that I never saw before and still don't see in my favorite browser, Firefox. I am assuming they did the same thing that Firefox did with the DPI adjustments that is based on resolution. I am using a 17 in. laptop with a 1080p display, so that's probably why Chrome is huge for no reason, even though it was perfectly fine before that.

In Firefox, it's an easy fix in about:Config but not sure how to change that in Chrome. Anyways, I hope to no longer use Chrome in the near future.

I did try the new Opera last year and while it is great, it has bad support for Chrome add-ons even when using the Chrome add-on extension that allows you to use any add-on. I'll try it again once they add true Bookmarks support and some other features (along with proper add-on support).

[CODYQX4]

.

Edited April 28, 2019 by CODYQX4

[Ramouz]

Yeah Windows 8 has ruined the way fonts are rendered. Especially with the resolution you mentioned.

Still now with 8.1 I am not fully satisfied but it's better, I think. Windows 8 Apps need improvement though! I'm assuming it uses another font rendering system and I don't think it looks good but messy.

Office 2013 though is another mess they created. I can't believe they removed truetype. It looks really bad. I use WPS Office now.

Edited August 5, 2014 by Ramouz