Blurry Web Font Problem in Internet Explorer 7

This afternoon, I helped Mum out with a problem she was having in Internet Explorer 7.  While Mum was checking over her latest blog post, she noticed all the apostrophes in her posts were looking like they were coloured blue.  I had installed Internet Explorer 7 on Mum's computer on yesterday and she really liked it, but she told me that, apart from the apostrophes being a blue colour, she has also noticed the font on most sites appeared blurry.  Having a visual impairment, I had never noticed it and, being that I'm mainly a Mozilla Firefox user and rarely go into IE 7 apart from when I need to, it's never been a problem for me.

 

After comparing the differences on both of our computers using IE7 (they looked the same, but when you zoom anywhere above 100%, the apostrophes looked like normal black, but when we put it back to 100%, it looked blue.  I figured it was the blurry font Mum was on about, so I did a Google search on "Blurry text in Internet Explorer 7" and it showed me a link to a Microsoft Support page explaining what to do.  I followed the instructions on my own computer and Mum's computer and when I restarted IE 7, Mum didn't have the blue apostrophes any more and web fonts were no longer blurry.  A huge thanks to Google for making it sooooo easy to solve problems!!!!

 

Anyway, in case you're interested, I've noted the fix below.  Apparently, it's all because of ClearType technology.  I don't exactly know what it is, but all I know is that it makes text on LCD screens look much more smoother with no jagged edges (well, it's supposed to do that).

 

In Internet Explorer 7, click on the Tools menu (if the menu bar is hidden, there should be a Tools option with an arrow beside it under the Search box)

 

1. Click on Internet Options,
2. Click on the Advanced tab,
3. Under Multimedia (in the section that allows you to check/uncheck options), uncheck the option marked Always Use ClearType for HTML,
4. Click OK, that won't change anything yet,
5. Close and restart Internet Explorer 7.  You should notice a BIG difference!

 

I do hope you find this information handy, it really helped me and Mum out!  Don't you just hate it when you come across an annoying problem with computers?  I'm sure most people do.

Book Review: Inkheart by Cornelia Funke

This picture is courtesy of Fishpond.com.au

 

Well everyone, last month, I have managed to finish reading a book that my sister, Michelle, and her boyfriend, Alex, got me for my birthday in August!  The book is called Inkheart and written by Cornelia Funke and, I can tell you now, I'm as big a fan of it as I am of The Chronicles Of Narnia and Harry Potter!  In case many of you have never read the book before, I won't spoil it for you because, lets face it, we all hate it when someone tells us the story in the books before we read it......it's a spoiler for me because it takes away the excitement of not knowing.

 

Even though I can't tell you about what the book contains, I'll just tell you enough to get you interested if you have never heard of it.  The story is about a girl named Meggie and her father called Mo.  Both Meggie and Mo love reading books, but Mo has never read aloud to Meggie since her mother disappeared years ago in a mysterious way.  One night, a stranger shows up at their house and gives Mo a warning, which gives Mo no choice but to reveal a secret to Meggie, and it is that secret that will change their lives forever!  Something happens when Mo reads aloud, see if you can guess what it is before Mo tells Meggie, that is, if you do read the story!

 

Inkheart is the first book in the Inkheart Trilogy and I have to say I really enjoyed every bit of the book.  I enjoyed it so much, I rate it 5 stars on a scale from 1 to 5!  The thing I love about my copy of Inkheart is that at the end of the main story, it contains two sneak preview chapters from the next book in the series, which is Inkspell and I can tell you now, after reading those two chapters, I want to get Inkspell very badly, I can't wait to read it!  The third book in the Trilogy, Inkdeath, got released on Monday, October 6!

 

Hey, I almost forgot to mention that Inkheart has been made into a movie!  How great is that?  I can't wait to see it, I reckon it's going to be pretty good, but I don't think it'll be as good as the book.  I think it's being released in January 2009 in the US, but I don't know about the UK or Australian release, I hope it'll be around the same time as the US release.  If you'd like to see the trailer for the movie, head over to the Inkheart movie site and you'll find it there!  You'll find other Inkheart related sites in my links bar at the side!   I strongly recommend Inkheart and you can watch this space for my reviews of Inkspell and Inkdeath, the two remaining books in the series, which I just recently purchased!