Anything (apart from GDI++) to improve font rendering on Windows?
Since I was not satisfied by John Rudy's answer, I googled a bit and found some alternatives to the now extinct gdi++ project:
gdipp - Customizable Windows text renderers
The Inkstone Project
ezgdi - gdi++ alike advanced font rendering for 64-bit applications on Windows.
As both a Windows and OSX user, I find the ClearType rendering much inferior to the one used on OSX. And so I started to use gdipp - even considering some bugs, I still find it better than the default rendering engine used by windows. But, yes, it should be used cautiously - it is a hack.
Edit
As of september 2013, anybody interested about changing windows' font rendering should give Lưu Vĩnh Phúc's suggestion a try. In my defense, my answer is almost as old as gdipp, and Mactype simply didn't exist when I first wrote it... :-) (but be warned, it is still a hack).
GDI++ is old, very old; and hasn't been updated for several years. Therefore it doesn't work with many applications, especially ones that don't use the classic GDI API. Currently only Mactype is still in actively development. It works well with many modern programs that are not compatible with GDI++ and even supports applications that use the new DirectWrite API
Its source code can be found at https://github.com/snowie2000/MacType
What's new?
- Win10 compatible
- Traditional Chinese localization has been greatly improved thanks to GT Wang.
- MultiLang system improved.
- Better DirectWrite support thanks to しらいと.
- FreeType 2.8.0 included.
- Two-stage mactype loader introduced.
- Separate DirectWrite parameter adjustment.
- ClipboxFix is reverted to 0 by default to avoid some incompatibility issues.
- Added Korea localization, thanks to 조현희
Download the application from http://www.cobyx.com/software/gdi/ (600KB only) . It works very well, requires no install, does not write to the registry etc. It has three inbuilt settings, marked in Japanese, strong, medium and light effect. With Windows XP SP3 it works like a breeze. I highly recommend.