Update: make text on your screen appear clearer.A few years ago Microsoft quietly introduced--but never promoted--a Windows utility designed to make the text on a computer screen appear clearer (JofA, Oct.03, page 88). What Microsoft didn't say was that the utility, ClearType, was really designed for liquid crystal displays (LCDs)--those newly popular flat screens. While the utility worked on conventional CRT (1) (C RunTime) See runtime library. (2) (Cathode Ray Tube) A vacuum tube used as a display screen in a computer monitor or TV. The viewing end of the tube is coated with phosphors, which emit light when struck by electrons. (cathode ray tube See CRT. (hardware) cathode ray tube - (CRT) An electrical device for displaying images by exciting phosphor dots with a scanned electron beam. CRTs are found in computer VDUs and monitors, televisions and oscilloscopes. ) screens, the improvement was marginal. Now that more users have adopted flat screens, Microsoft has improved the utility and renamed it ClearType Tuner Powertoy. To download it "Download It" is Clea's debut single. It was released in the UK on September 22, 2003 and missed the top 20 charting at #21. The single had average promotion, being performed in shows like Top of the Pops. , go to www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx.# Once loaded, it will appear as an icon (see screenshot See screen shot. below) in the Control Panel#. To bring up the Control Panel, click on Start#, Settings#, Control Panel#. When you click on the icon to launch it, a wizard steps you through the setup, giving you a choice of several samples of type (see screenshot below); picking the clearest triggers an automatic fine-tuning of your screen display. The one on the left is slightly clearer. Key to Instructions To help readers follow the instructions in this article, we use two different typefaces: * Boldface type is used to identify the names of icons, agendas and URLs. * Sans serif Short horizontal lines added to the tops and bottoms of traditional typefaces, such as Times Roman. Contrast with sans-serif.  type shows commands and instructions users should type into the computer and the names of files. Boldface type is indicated with #. Sans serif is indicated with **. [ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED] STANLEY ZAROWIN, a former JofA senior editor, is now a contributing editor A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. to the magazine. His e-mail address is zarowin@mindspring.com. |
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