Ever wonder why everything just looks a little bit better on a Mac? That’s because Apple OS X uses a different font rendering technology than Windows. That can easily be changed though, and there’s a little program that can do it with ease.
Now before I open up this can of worms, people each have their preference, and we can argue for days about which one is better. Personally, I like the way the OS X looks. GDI++, a Japanese application, does just that. It takes just about 5mb of memory and sits in your task tray, rendering everything on your system in GDI++ instead of ClearType (the typical windows font rendering tool). And when you disable it, it just puts everything back to the way it was. It’s really easy to activate, and gets rid of jaggy fonts. Below is a before and after screenshot taken of craigslist with and without GDI++ enabled:
Before
After
Here are some instructions on how to get this working on your computer:
- Download GDI++.
- Extract this ZIP file in any directory, for example:
C:\gdi - Double-click the file:
gditray.exe - Now, your task bar you can note a “G”, like the image:
- Double-click it, it should start glowing green:
- Enjoy this beautiful font-smoothing.
Originally found at Estevao Mascarenhas.
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Comments ( 69 )
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GDI++ Adds OS X Font Rendering to Windows [Downloads] | Reviews Manual added these pithy words on Mar 30 09 at 5:43 pm[...] Make Windows fonts look as smooth as Mac OS X fonts Ever wonder why everything just looks a little bit better on a Mac? That’s because Apple OS X uses a different font rendering technology than Windows. That can easily be changed though, and there’s a little program that can do it with ease. (tags: fonts windows utilities) [...]
links for 2009-03-30 - graemef.com added these pithy words on Mar 30 09 at 6:00 pmAntyaliasing z Mac OS X do Windows…
Antyaliasing (ang. anti-aliasing) – zespół technik w informatyce służących zmniejszeniu błędów zniekształceniowych aliasing, powstających przy reprezentacji obrazu lub sygnału o wysokiej rozdzielczości w rozdzielczości mniejszej.
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Grzglo Tech Blog added these pithy words on Mar 31 09 at 2:41 amAntyaliasing w stylu Mac OS X pod Windows…
Antyaliasing (ang. anti-aliasing) – zespół technik w informatyce służących zmniejszeniu błędów zniekształceniowych aliasing, powstających przy reprezentacji obrazu lub sygnału o wysokiej rozdzielczości w rozdzielczości mniejszej.
W[…..
Grzglo Tech Blog added these pithy words on Mar 31 09 at 2:45 am[...] XP users should make sure to install the Powerpoint viewer to get Vista’s better fonts on XP. Make Windows fonts look as smooth as Mac OS X fonts [digital [...]
GDI++ Adds OS X Font Rendering to Windows [Downloads] | Smartlogix Technologies added these pithy words on Mar 31 09 at 3:14 am[...] Make Windows fonts look as smooth as Mac OS X fonts [...]
Online pe paine | Marius Sescu added these pithy words on Mar 31 09 at 5:55 am[...] Vía: Lifehacker vía Digital Parsimony [...]
GDI++ cambia el modo de “rasterizar” los fonts en Windows « Luisferfranco’s Weblog added these pithy words on Apr 15 09 at 11:03 am[...] on Windows (Safari uses the MacOS font technology). That is, until about a month ago, when I read this post about gdi++. I use gdi++ under Windows now, and am not forced to use Safari at all anymore. Now I am back to [...]
Apathy Online » Blog Archive » Make Windows Fonts Readable with gdi++ added these pithy words on Jul 17 09 at 1:34 pm[...] Make Windows fonts look as smooth as Mac OS X fonts | digital parsimony http://vladg.com/2009/03/make-windows-fonts-l…s-x-fonts/ в Любими преди 1 минута edno23.com Начало контакти [...]
ApoApostolov: Интересно: Make Windows fonts look as s.. - edno23.com added these pithy words on Jul 28 09 at 9:38 am[...] | Marcando diferencias > Digital Parsimony Enlace | [...]
Hola PO! » GDI++ trae a Windows el renderizado de fuentes de Mac OS X added these pithy words on Aug 09 09 at 7:49 pm[...] | Marcando diferencias > Digital Parsimony Enlace | [...]
GDI++ trae a Windows el renderizado de fuentes de Mac OS X : Blogografia added these pithy words on Aug 09 09 at 8:00 pm[...] | Marcando diferencias > Digital Parsimony Enlace | [...]
GDI++ trae a Windows el renderizado de fuentes de Mac OS X | Moova! News on the Move added these pithy words on Aug 09 09 at 8:39 pm[...] Marcando diferencias, Digital Parsimony y Genbeta Enlace: [...]
Maya Lab » Blog Archive » GDI++ trae a Windows el renderizado de fuentes de Mac OS X added these pithy words on Aug 10 09 at 10:30 pm[...] Vía | Marcando diferencias > Digital Parsimony [...]
GDI++ trae a Windows el renderizado de fuentes de Mac OS X | Ricón de Ocio added these pithy words on Sep 18 09 at 5:00 am[...] http://vladg.com/2009/03/make-windows-fonts-look-as-smooth-as-mac-os-x-fonts/ [...]
revuooooooooos of theeeeeeeeengs added these pithy words on Oct 05 09 at 5:49 am[...] digital parsomony: Make Windows fonts look as smooth as Mac OS X fonts [...]
¿Fuentes en Windows tan suaves como en Mac OS X? Con GDI++, es posible. added these pithy words on Nov 28 09 at 9:02 pm[...] er hentet fra digital posimony. Stikkord: cleartype, font, gdi, mac, smooth, tekst, typo, windows Skrevet 13. januar 2010 kl. [...]
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Windows lettertypes zo smooth maken als Mac OS X dat doet | WordPress Dimensie added these pithy words on Jan 14 10 at 11:09 am[...] (the particular executable is called ‘gditray.exe’). You can read more on the utility here. Here is what the rendering looks like with GDI++ enabled and disabled on [...]
Typekit and Apple Font Rendering on Windows « Hamagudi added these pithy words on Jan 27 10 at 12:11 am[...] GDI++ [...]
Freeware Files: Build the Best Features of OSX into Windows! : Test Drive added these pithy words on May 11 10 at 2:03 am[...] GDI++ [...]
Freeware Files: Build the Best Features of OSX into Windows! | ModCool added these pithy words on May 11 10 at 10:00 am[...] GDI++ [...]
Freeware Files: Build the Best Features of OSX into Windows! | Tech News Ninja added these pithy words on May 11 10 at 10:01 am[...] GDI++ [...]
Freeware Files: Build the Best Features of OSX into Windows! « AccessTech News added these pithy words on May 11 10 at 11:55 am[...] GDI++ [...]
Freeware Files: Build the Best Features of OSX into Windows! « The BAT Channel added these pithy words on May 11 10 at 11:59 am[...] digital parsomony: Make Windows fonts look as smooth as Mac OS X fonts etiquetas: fuentes, tipografia, windows Comparte esta entrada: [...]
¿Fuentes en Windows tan suaves como en Mac OS X? Con GDI++, es posible. | fernastro.com added these pithy words on May 12 10 at 1:45 am[...] GDI++ Prefer the look of fonts on OSX versus Windows’ Cleartype rendering? There’s one way to adjust that and it won’t cost you the price of a brand-new operating system. Grab the freeware application GDI++ and run it. A little icon pops up in the corner of your system tray. Double-click it to activate it, turning the icon green, and your screen’s fonts will be rendered in–what else–GDI++ instead of Cleartype. Double-click the icon again to deactivate the new rendering and return to Windows’ default look. [...]
Freeware Files: Build the Best Features of OSX into Windows! | TechFreq News=- added these pithy words on May 28 10 at 1:56 pmThis experiment concludes that Windows’ font look better at smaller sizes, which is exactly what ClearType is good at. OSX had to adjust its fallacy of anti-aliasing by making the text of the whole system bigger.
Thanks for the tool nevertheless. I’m sure people who like to dress their Windows like a Mac will be happy.
Pak-Kei added these pithy words on
Mar 30 09 at
3:36 pm
I’ll have to go on and say that ClearType is waay easier on the eyes. But Mac’s fonts are way more sexy, too.
Victor Vasconcelos added these pithy words on
Mar 30 09 at
3:38 pm
I think the osx rendering is a lot better, that text stands out more, its softer smoother. Give it a day of use and then turn it off, you’ll soon go back.
Simon added these pithy words on
Mar 30 09 at
3:49 pm
Works well on Windows 7 too. Some of the kerning at small font sizes is pretty poor, but I’ll give it a try for a day or two anyway. Thanks!
Graeme added these pithy words on
Mar 30 09 at
3:56 pm
Tryed in vista home premium sp1 x64 with windows classic theme and it sucks! it looks really promising but it needs more work, cheers.
fejorca added these pithy words on
Mar 30 09 at
4:01 pm
I think at first it’s pretty painful for the eyes, but after a day of using it I got really used to it.
I keep switching back and forth. When I see large print using Georgia, I cringe at Windows font rendering. But when it comes to tiny Arial, it’s fine. The GDI++ seems to be vice versa.
Vlad added these pithy words on
Mar 30 09 at
5:07 pm
r.müntinga added these pithy words on 
Are there any settings to tweak antialiasing strenght?
asmodeus added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
12:09 am
“Could not load gdi++.dll” – Not missing any files, I’ve tried re-dl’ing it several times, and I’m unzipping it with 7z.
What am I doing wrong?
Erik Lundmark added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
2:50 am
I like it, but the kerning of the letter “w” is quite more expanded than it needs to be.
It looks like “w e” insted of “we”
Manuel added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
10:50 am
This is an old version of GDI++. If you get the latest version, you can tweak the antialiasing settings quite a bit, though you will likely have to do a lot of experimentation to get something you like.
Fei Long added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
1:09 pm
This works great for me, especially good-looking at medium setting (中) No kerning problems so far. Got some major problems in Firefox when I tried the latest version, so sticking with this one.
McKack added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
4:08 pm
@Fei Long, I knew I saw a new version somewhere, but I remember it required hacking up some files and overwriting stuff in the directory. After I did that I remember some of the options not being easy to access. I’ll see if I can combine the new GDI++ source files with the ones I have and update the ZIP file.
Vlad added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
9:50 pm
@Erik Lundmark, I don’t know why it’s not loading. Is the DLL present? What OS are you on? Vista/XP/2000/7?
Vlad added these pithy words on
Mar 31 09 at
9:52 pm
I’m getting the same message as Eric there: Could not load gdi++.dll
I’m on XP Pro SP2 (it actually worked earlier today on my work PC which is also XP Pro SP2).
I disabled the guard function on my Avira AV. Same result. DLL is there. Files are fine.
Do you need some sort of a debug log? Is there a way to produce one?
kompuntu added these pithy words on
Apr 06 09 at
8:12 pm
thank you so much. that is that thing I was waiting for. the biggest improvement of my windows experience i can remember;)
davidope added these pithy words on
Apr 07 09 at
9:45 am
Anonymous added these pithy words on Is it just me, or does the top one look better? If you want AA enabled fonts on your browser, just download Safari for Windows.
Jesse added these pithy words on
Apr 28 09 at
1:49 pm
You are not alone in thinking the top one is better. The only reason anyone would not think the top one was better is if they spent half their lives reading only screens that look like the bottom one.
There is some objective proof that that the Windows font smoothing algorithm Clear Type is easier to read. Which one can be read at a greater distance. The simple test is put on your glasses if you need and set a Windows machine running Clear Type next to the newest Mac you can get. Run equally small font in say the same web page same DPI etc (Both must be LCD screens).
I love my mac but I can move at least two feet further away than I can read my Mac and still easily read my windows / Clear Type screen.
Proof two is simple look at letters such as lower case l llllllllllllllllllllllllllllll
On a Mac about 60 % of them will look fuzzy and gray while some will look really sharp. Now do the same on a windows screen running Clear Type. Every one will look the same very sharp.Some Mac enthusiasts bring up an argument which is completely in error. They say windows fonts are meant to look good on screen and Mac fonts are meant to look like the printed page. The truth is all font smoothing systems windows or Mac are meant to make a low res device, monitors are 72 to 120DPI, look more like a high res device print 600 to 1200+ DPI. Its plain simple truth Clear Type wins that contest by a landslide.
GARY0 added these pithy words on
May 27 09 at
8:53 pm
This is really a function over form argument. I definitely agree with you on the fact that you can read ClearType further away, but that isn’t the point. I rarely stand 15 feet away from my MacBook. I also notice GDI++ renders a bit differently than Apple’s closed-source font rendering, as well as the program having slightly different results on different operating systems.
Vlad added these pithy words on
May 27 09 at
9:05 pm
While the memory footprint is little, expect heavy processor load. I’ve it for a while on my little tablet PC, and it really gets sluggish after opening more than 2-3 windows. But for latest dual core processors, maybe the load becomes insignificant.
gdi++ really makes a difference on Japanese display. The default cleartype looks horrible due to inconsistencies in stroke width.
syockit added these pithy words on
Jun 06 09 at
10:28 pm
I’m also getting the “Could not load gdi++.dll” message, I’m on xp sp3, can anyone help?
generalpp10 added these pithy words on
Jun 11 09 at
10:30 pm
great man.. nice.. i like it..
i had been looking for the font used in mac as flash scripting.. i found that.. but it was not exactly looking like, as it looks in mac… then i got realized… there must be some rendering differnece.. as in safari, or IE, and FF happends…
.. great me..
lovely.
mfarooqi added these pithy words on
Jul 04 09 at
3:20 am
Is there a way to disable font smoothing on the titlebar? I’ve followed every guide out there but Windows insists on using its own rendering for the titlebar, taskbar, and parts of the control panel.
George Jetson added these pithy words on
Aug 08 09 at
9:17 pm
I hate to bust your bubble, but there is no need for GDI++ font smoother. In Windows XP, just right click the desktop, select properties -> appearance -> effects -> and change the drop down menu for “Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts:” change from Standard to ClearType.
I’ve compared the two, and the Windows ClearType is better than the GDI++ font. The GDI++ font crams the letters in a bit, and the Windows ClearType gives them slightly more spacing, making it easier on the eyes and easier to read fonts. Now you can have the smooth font without having to run 3rd party software in the background!
Josh added these pithy words on
Aug 13 09 at
11:32 am
also, if you want to custom tweak your Windows ClearType font, download the ClearType tuner PowerToy: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx
i prefer to use the smoothest and boldest options. but use whatever you like!
Josh added these pithy words on
Aug 13 09 at
12:09 pm
When I install this on my work computer it’s fine. When I get home and installed it no programs seem to want to open while it’s active. Is there a fix for this. I am running Windows XP, SP3.
Wayne Dupree added these pithy words on
Oct 01 09 at
7:21 am
dont use this program at all. just enable ClearType font in Windows display settings under the Appearance tab. it’s smoother and better looking than GDI and unlike GDI you dont have to run extra software in the background. why run extra 3rd party software in the background when it doesn’t look as good as how windows’ option does? no reason to use this anymore fellas.
Josh added these pithy words on
Oct 01 09 at
10:48 pm
I think we need a 64-bit version of this – I’m trying this out and only the fonts in 32-bit applications are being smoothed.
Keep up the good work here, though.
eX.A.K.R. added these pithy words on
Nov 19 09 at
9:15 am
Not quite there yet, but definitely an awesome effort !!!!
Ameya added these pithy words on
Nov 30 09 at
3:35 pm
great program but doesn’t affect all the places eg menu line, context menus are not anti-aliased. I hope the next version will be fine. In the other hand i wonder why microsoft doesn’t support different antialiasing modes. they have stolen from mac os a lot already, so maybe one little thing more … ;P more usefull than stupid gadgets that doesn’t even properly sometimes
matt added these pithy words on
Dec 08 09 at
10:51 am
I’m getting the same message:
GDI++ Controller
Could not load gdi++.dllAny suggestions?
Hadee added these pithy words on
Dec 31 09 at
8:28 pm
for me, when I do all the steps from 1 – 4… my G doesn’t turn green when I double click it. It says when I mouse gover over it, “GDI++ is halt”
brent added these pithy words on
Jan 26 10 at
8:20 am
@GARY0: No. The MacOS X and GDI++ font renderer is trying to make the fonts as they were supposed to look like. ClearType tries to squeeze the fonts around until they work on screen. It’s a different philosophy. I prefer Apple’s philosophy, and since I switched to GDI++ fonts look so beautiful it makes me want to read a lot on screen.
You can experiment with the GDI++ settings a lot, like adjust the amount of hinting (beating the fonts into shape for the screen) you want. Just experiment with it. And no, you can not achieve the same effect with ClearType or any tool for ClearType, because Microsoft follows a different philosophy.
kadajawi added these pithy words on
Mar 07 10 at
7:52 am
Yeah, whatever, it would be nice if:
A.) It would work,
B.) There were instructions,
C.) Those instructions were in $%&*ing English.Solution: Revo Uninstaller!!!
spk2629 added these pithy words on
Mar 31 10 at
2:12 pm
Doesn’t do anything when I double click on it (I’m using Windows 7 64bit).
Mike added these pithy words on
May 11 10 at
2:51 pm
Doesn’t do anything when I double click on it (I’m using Windows 7 64bit). me too…
kim added these pithy words on
Jun 01 10 at
4:52 am
Before finding this website & software, I was seriously thinking to purchase the macbook just because of fonts I like to work with. Now I don’t wast my money to sell my Lenovo laptop and buy apple . . . thank you so much for saving my life!! (Just one thing concerned – I use the Vista 32 bit and this program is working well, but the “G” icon on the tasktray looks blue, not green. I don’t think it matters though . . .
Shinji added these pithy words on
Jun 27 10 at
2:43 pm
Doesn’t this Doesn’t that… why should it? If your that interested and boy you are. Lets not pretend if you had bought your macbook it would of been a better summer.
malean added these pithy words on
Jul 27 10 at
7:19 pm
