IE8: Disable cleartype?

Daniel Sloof picture Daniel Sloof · Jun 23, 2009 · Viewed 21k times · Source

For IE7, it's possible to add

filter: none;

to the body css to disable cleartype on fonts through CSS. I don't like the fuzzy look it gives, and it isn't really consistent across browsers. IE; Firefox and IE6 show it differently.

IE8 however, seems to ignore the css option, even when forcing the browser into IE7 compatibility mode using:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="IE=7" />


TL;DR: How do I disable clear-type fonts in IE8 through CSS?

Answer

rpetrich picture rpetrich · Jun 23, 2009

From what I recall, Internet Explorer 7+ disables ClearType when a filter is set on an element

#target {
    -ms-filter:"progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=99)";
    filter:progid:DXImageTransform.Microsoft.Alpha(opacity=99);
}

Also, do consider that many users may find disabling ClearType to be annoying. Use sparingly!