Text is rendered using the Microsoft ClearType antialiasing (smoothing) method when possible. The font quality is given more importance than maintaining the text size; thus, the text width can change. When using this mode for measuring and rendering, ensure that the application does not cache any layout information. If it does, remote users who do not have ClearType enabled will view different width and metrics.
ClearType
5
Microsoft Windows XP: Text is rendered using the ClearType antialiasing method when possible. The font quality is given less importance than maintaining the text size.
AntiAliased
4
Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and later: Font is antialiased, if it supports antialiasing and if its size falls within the accepted range.Windows 95 with Microsoft Plus!, Windows 98/Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me): The display must be greater than 8-bit color, must be a single plane device, cannot be a palette display, and cannot be part of a multiple-display monitor setup. In addition, a TrueType® font must be selected into a screen device context before it is used in a DIBSection (a structure that contains information about a device-independent bitmap); otherwise, antialiasing does not occur.
NonAntiAliased
3
Windows 95 with Plus!, Windows 98/Windows Me, Windows NT 4.0 and later: Font is never antialiased.
Proof
2
Font's character quality is given more importance than exact matching of the logical-font attributes. For Windows Graphics Device Interface (GDI) raster fonts, scaling is disabled and the font closest in size is chosen. Although this size might not correspond exactly when Proof is used, the font's quality is high and its appearance is not distorted. Bold, italic, underline, and strikeout fonts are synthesized if necessary.
Draft
1
Font's appearance is given less importance than when the Proof value is used. Scaling is enabled for GDI raster fonts, which means that more font sizes are available, but their quality might be lower. Bold, italic, underline, and strikeout fonts are synthesized if necessary.
Default
0
Font's appearance does not matter.
Remarks
In Windows XP, the following situations do not support ClearType antialiasing:
Text rendered on a printer.
A display set for 256 colors or less.
Text rendered on a Terminal Server client.
The font is not a TrueType font or an OpenType® font with TrueType outlines. For example, the following do not support ClearType antialiasing:
Type 1 fonts, Postscript OpenType® fonts without TrueType outlines, bitmap fonts, vector fonts, and device fonts.
The font has tuned embedded bitmaps only for the font sizes that contain the embedded bitmaps. For example, this occurs commonly in East Asian fonts.
