[Athen] Assessing quality of magnified text?

[Steve Green]

You won't be able to do a test and apply the results generally. It will depend on the nature and severity of each person's visual condition.

There is more to magnification and font smoothing than most people are probably aware of. I am no expert, but I did a little research last year and sent the following message to my team. Apologies for the repeated mention of my company - this was an internal email that I didn't expect to share publicly.

When using ZoomText and Windows, there are at least 3 different types of font smoothing, so it is important that you understand them. The following is my current understanding, but there may be even more to it than this. In particular, these notes only refer to websites, not desktop applications or Windows itself.

ClearType
This is the native font smoothing that is built into Windows, and it is turned on by default. You will find it under Settings > Personalisation > Fonts.

[A screenshot of a cell phone  Description automatically generated]

ZoomText automatically turns ClearType off when it launches, but ClearType is not turned back on when ZoomText closes. The following screenshots show the same text with ClearType turned on and off.

[A close up of a logo  Description automatically generated]

[A close up of a logo  Description automatically generated]


ZoomText font smoothing
ZoomText uses two different types of font smoothing (xFont and Geometric) depending on the browser. These are controlled via the ZoomText > Preferences > Smoothing dialog.

[A screenshot of a cell phone  Description automatically generated]

[A screenshot of a cell phone  Description automatically generated]


xFont Magnification
xFont Magnification is used for Internet Explorer and results in extremely smooth characters, assuming the font is supported.

[cid:image008.png at 01D74E77.9335CB90]


Geometric Smoothing
Geometric Smoothing is used for Chrome and Firefox and results in a "wobbly" outline to the text.

[cid:image009.png at 01D74E77.9335CB90]


Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Mark Weiler
Sent: 21 May 2021 17:36
To: athen-list at u.washington.edu
Subject: [Athen] Assessing quality of magnified text?

Does anyone know of quality assurance testing to determine whether magnified font is usable by people with low vision who require magnification?

Here are two magnified texts that have differences.

[The word public that is very readable. Like  very readable Braille.]



[The word public that is has blurry edges. I imagine it's a bit like readable Braille on sandpaper.]


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