Microsoft has promised to make changes to Chromium to improve text rendering on Windows computers. After years of complaints, Chrome version 124 will finally support Windows ClearType Text Tuner’s contrast and gamma values for text rendering in Google Chrome.
This change should mean that Chrome will finally match the font and text rendering improvements Microsoft has made to Edge, so you can apply text contrast enhancement and gamma correction to improve the readability of text on web pages. Chrome uses Skia for text rendering and uses hard-coded contrast and gamma values, so it doesn’t get the improvements ClearType has to offer.
Kurt Catti-Schmidt, senior software development engineer at Microsoft, is leading the effort. In recent months, Catti-Schmidt has been working on improving text rendering on Chromium-based browsers, and regularly looks at accessibility improvements in Edge and Chrome.
These latest changes are part of Microsoft’s commitment to improving Chromium-based browsers on Windows after moving to Chromium in its own Edge browser more than five years ago. At the time, Microsoft said it would “deliver our Windows platform expertise to improve the experience for all Chromium-based browsers on Windows,” and that promise has been fulfilled. Microsoft helped improve Chrome’s scrolling, touch support, and more.