[Athen] [EXTERNAL *] Re: Assessing quality of magnified text?

[Mark Weiler]

I was using ZoomText 2021.


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu> On Behalf Of Steve Green
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2021 6:40 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXTERNAL *] Re: Assessing quality of magnified text?

There are certainly no objective tests for font magnification quality in the web accessibility world. It’s possible that there are some such tests in other professions, but even if you find them you would need to work out how to apply them to websites.

Even if you have ClearType turned on in Windows, it is turned off automatically when ZoomText starts. I don’t know if other magnification software does that.

As mentioned in my previous email, the xFont smoothing for Internet Explorer is much better than the geometric smoothing for Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Your screenshots show that very clearly, and it’s what I would expect. What magnification software are you using?

Internet Explorer 11 will be retired in June 2022, at which time it will redirect to Edge, so you can still use it for another year. There are a few exceptions, such as Windows 7 and 8.1, which will still run Internet Explorer after that because you can’t install Edge on them. Edge will have an “Internet Explorer 11 mode”, but I don’t know if this will behave like Edge or Internet Explorer with regard to font magnification.

Steve


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Mark Weiler
Sent: 24 May 2021 21:25
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: Re: [Athen] [EXTERNAL *] Re: Assessing quality of magnified text?

Hi Steve,

Are you certain there are no tests? That could really leave the door wide open for just about any degraded font to get by since there’s no basis to say it’s unacceptable.  Perhaps optometrist have developed a suite of standards tests that could be used to define an accessible font magnification behavior.

I believe I had ClearFont turned on.  Perhaps though I’m missing something configurable.

I don’t have low vision but when I checked with Internet Explorer, it seems vastly better than Chrome or Edge! See the embedded images. The first one is from Internet Explorer and the font is easily perceivable, like perfectly formed braille dots.  The second image from Chrome or Edge, I can’t recall which one, communicates like Braille on light sandpaper.

I believe Internet Explorer will no longer be shipped with Windows 10.

Internet Explorer
[cid:image001.png at 01D750DA.E984B500]

Chrome or Edge (both were like this one)

[cid:image002.png at 01D750DA.E984B500]


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu>> On Behalf Of Steve Green
Sent: Friday, May 21, 2021 2:29 PM
To: Access Technology Higher Education Network <athen-list at u.washington.edu<mailto:athen-list at u.washington.edu>>
Subject: [EXTERNAL *] Re: [Athen] Assessing quality of magnified text?

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 01D750DA.E984B500]


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

[cid:image009.png at 01D750DA.E984B500]


Steve Green
Managing Director
Test Partners Ltd


From: athen-list <athen-list-bounces at mailman12.u.washington.edu<mailto: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<mailto: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.]



* ⚠ Notice: This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
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