title bar text not rendering cleanly

from Stardock Forums
Can't seem to get title bar text rendering cleanly.

I thought it was my use of transparency but even on a completely opaque border, the font rendering is ugly. Any advice? I've set anti-aliased to enabled. I have latest version of WB5 and SkinStudio as of yesterday.

windowblinds
5,585 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hello rrawlins,

I will pass this on over to our technical support, and they will get back to you as soon as possible.

Thanks!
Jenny
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

rrawlins: Could it be the font that you're working with? Which skin do you currently have loaded? I'd be interested to see how this looks on a few of my test machines here.

Could you please copy/paste the information from the System Information section located within the WindowBlinds Configuration window?
Please also let us know the version of your video drivers.

Thank you,

-Mike
[Stardock Support]

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
The skin is my first creation. It's a work in progress, however if I could upload it privately somewhere I'd be happy to do so. I DOUBT it's the video driver, if I switch to a normal Visual Style like Windows Classic, Luna everything is crisp so ClearType is working. You can also see this from the Windows client area in the screenshot above. There are newer video drivers for this chipset but they are slower and cause other problems.

WindowBlinds should be the latest version. I use your Stardock Central utility to update it.

WindowBlinds 5.0 System Information Report:

STATUS : WB+ SRV+ HLP+ UI+ TRAY+

WindowBlinds is installed correctly on this PC.

WindowBlinds appears to be activated on this PC

Your machine supports per pixel borders on WindowBlinds skins.

You have one monitor in total.

(Dell 2007FP (Digital)) 1 is attached to NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT

Wblind.dll 2006/08/09 18:09:02
Wbsrv.dll 2006/08/09 18:14:26
Wbconfig.exe 2006/07/13 18:37:40
Wbload.exe 2006/03/13 17:54:12
Wbhelp.dll 2004/09/18 16:37:00
Wbui.dll 2005/12/06 21:29:06
Tray.dll 2006/04/13 17:29:04



--------[ Windows Video ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT ]

Video Adapter Properties:
Device Description NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
Adapter String GeForce 7600 GT
BIOS String Version 5.73.22.18.01
Chip Type GeForce 7600 GT
DAC Type Integrated RAMDAC
Installed Drivers nv4_disp (6.14.10.8421 - nVIDIA ForceWare 84.21)
Memory Size 256 MB


--------[ PCI / AGP Video ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT Video Adapter
nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 3D Accelerator


--------[ GPU ]---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ PCI Express x16: nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT ]

Graphics Processor Properties:
Video Adapter nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT
GPU Code Name G73GT
PCI Device 10DE-0391 / 3842-C553
Transistors 177 million
Process Technology 90 nm
Die Size 127 mm2
Bus Type PCI Express x16 @ x16
Memory Size 256 MB
GPU Clock 580 MHz
RAMDAC Clock 400 MHz
Pixel Pipelines 12
TMU Per Pipeline 1
Vertex Shaders 5 (v3.0)
Pixel Shaders 12 (v3.0)
DirectX Hardware Support DirectX v9.0c
Pixel Fillrate 6960 MPixel/s
Texel Fillrate 6960 MTexel/s

Memory Bus Properties:
Bus Type DDR2
Bus Width 128-bit
Real Clock 747 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 1494 MHz
Bandwidth 23.3 GB/s

nVIDIA ForceWare Clocks:
Standard 2D GPU: 580 MHz, Memory: 750 MHz
Low-Power 3D GPU: 580 MHz, Memory: 750 MHz
Performance 3D GPU: 580 MHz, Memory: 750 MHz

Graphics Processor Manufacturer:
Company Name NVIDIA Corporation
Product Information http://www.nvidia.com/page/products.html
Driver Download http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp
Driver Update http://driveragent.com?ref=59

nVIDIA GPU Registers:
nv-000000 04B100A2
nv-0010F0 00007FFF
nv-001218 00010000
nv-001540 73F31F0B
nv-0015F4 800000F2
nv-0015F8 000002B4
nv-004000 C0000000
nv-004004 17050E03
nv-004008 03310000
nv-004020 A4301000
nv-004024 00005303
nv-004028 00000000
nv-00C040 3C0303FF
nv-100000 00000000
nv-100200 43006371
nv-10020C 10000000
nv-100474 22222212
nv-101000 A340DE87
nv-680500 00000000
nv-680504 00000000
nv-680570 00000000
nv-680574 00000000
nv-68057C 80001C08


--------[ Desktop ]-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Desktop Properties:
Device Technology Raster Display
Resolution 1280 x 1024
Color Depth 32-bit
Color Planes 1
Font Resolution 96 dpi
Pixel Width / Height 36 / 36
Pixel Diagonal 51
Vertical Refresh Rate 75 Hz

Desktop Effects:
Combo-Box Animation Enabled
Drop Shadow Effect Enabled
Flat Menu Effect Enabled
Font Smoothing Enabled
Full Window Dragging Enabled
Gradient Window Title Bars Enabled
Hide Menu Access Keys Enabled
Hot Tracking Effect Disabled
Icon Title Wrapping Enabled
List-Box Smooth Scrolling Enabled
Menu Animation Enabled
Menu Fade Effect Enabled
Minimize/Restore Animation Enabled
Mouse Cursor Shadow Disabled
Selection Fade Effect Enabled
ShowSounds Accessibility Feature Disabled
ToolTip Animation Enabled
ToolTip Fade Effect Enabled
Windows Plus! Extension Disabled

Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm using Segoe UI font which renders very crisply when using non-WB themes. I also tried other Tahoma and Verdana and same issue.
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

On parts with almost 100% transparency you may find fonts look blocky.  This is due to limitations in the Windows OS and how text destroys the alpha channel.  WB attempts to fix it, but the fix is not perfect.

You may find using shadow on the text improves matters.

This only applies to semi transparent menus & titlebars in WB.

Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Thanks Neil that helped, much better. Why do buttons work though? Look at the taskbar. I'm using Segoe UI there and it's clean on a transparent button.