Personalization Use ClearType Text Tuner to Improve Text Readability in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you how to use ClearType Text Tuner to improve text readability on each display for your account in Windows 10 and Windows 11.

ClearType is a software technology developed by Microsoft that improves the readability of text on existing LCDs (Liquid Crystal Displays), such as laptop screens, Pocket PC screens, and flat panel monitors. With ClearType font technology, the words on your computer screen look almost as sharp and clear as those printed on a piece of paper.

ClearType works by accessing the individual vertical color stripe elements in every pixel of an LCD screen. Before ClearType, the smallest level of detail that a computer could display was a single pixel, but with ClearType running on an LCD monitor, we can now display features of text as small as a fraction of a pixel in width. The extra resolution increases the sharpness of the tiny details in text display, making it much easier to read over long durations.

ClearType is a form of sub-pixel font rendering that draws text using a pixel's red-green-blue (RGB) components separately instead of using the entire pixel. When the pixel is used in this way, horizontal resolution theoretically increases 300 percent.

Picture elements on an LCD screen are actually comprised of individual horizontally-oriented red, green and blue sub-pixels. For instance, an LCD screen that has a display resolution of 800x600 pixels actually has 2400x600 individual sub-pixels. The human eye is not capable of differentiating colors on such a small scale, so a combination of these three primary colors can emulate any intermediate color. Sub-pixel font rendering takes advantage of this by antialiasing at the sub-pixel level instead of at the pixel level.

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Here's How:

1 Open ClearType Text Tuner (cttune.exe).

2 Check (on - default) or uncheck (off) Turn on ClearType for what you want, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshots below)


3 If you have more than one display, perform one of the following actions for what you want: (see screenshots below)

• Select (dot) Yes, I want to tune all monitors now, and click/tap on Next.
• Select (dot) No, only tune the monitor that I select, select the display you want to tune, and click/tap on Next.

4 Perform one of the following actions depending on if the display is set to its native resolution or not: (see screenshots below)

• If display is set to its native resolution, click/tap on Next.
• If display is not set to its native resolution, select (dot) either Change to native resolution or Keep current resolution, click/tap on Next, and click/tap on Yes to confirm if prompted.

5 Click/tap on the text sample that looks best to you, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


6 Click/tap on the text sample that looks best to you, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


7 Click/tap on the text sample that looks best to you, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


8 Click/tap on the text sample that looks best to you, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


9 Click/tap on the text sample that looks best to you, and click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


10 Click/tap on Next. (see screenshot below)


11 If you have more than one display and selected Yes, I want to tune all monitors now at step 3, then you will repeat steps 4 to 10 for each other display.

12 When you have finished tuning the text on your monitor(s), click/tap on Finish. (see screenshots below)



That's it,
Shawn Brink