Wednesday, November 15, 2006

They've messed up my email

Microsoft seems to be of the opinion that we should all own LCD monitors. I've owned my 17 inch CRT monitor for over 11 years and have no intention of swapping it for something that may well be programmed to self destruct on the very day the guarantee runs out. Many organisations and individuals still have CRT monitors.

I've turned off clear type but the installation of IE 7 changed the text in Outlook and my email is still hard to read.

IEBlog

Q1 Why is IE7 making this change?
A1 To improve the readability of text on the internet.

....blurb and excuses re everyone owning LCD monitors and how Microsoft know best ....

Q3 Why does text in Outlook Express still look blurry even when I turn off ClearType?
A3 This is a bug and it is known issue. We are working closely with the Outlook Express team to resolve this issue.

Thanks for your interest in the IE7 product and please let us know if you have any questions or comments.

Peter Gurevich, Internet Explorer Program Manager

Mr Gurevich must have imagined that if he put something between questions 1 and 3 no one would notice that he has destroyed the text for many of us.

5 comments:

Matt said...

I enjoyed your thoughtful posts and beautiful photographs. Thanks for sharing them.

kat said...

Hi Matt

Thanks for your comment. I try to get out walking at least once a month so if you drop in again you are likely to see more photos.

Anonymous said...

Well Kat, that explains why my text looked a little funny after switching to IE7. I have a 19" CRT but it still can be annoying. I thought it was just me (although I can be annoying

Anonymous said...

Really? I have refused to work on CRTs for years now when TFTs are so abundant and cheap. It's so much easier on the eyes, especially when I have to stare at it for hours at an end.
Wikipedia has a fun section that might make you reconsider the virtue of CRTs: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CRT_monitors#Health_danger

At work we blocked the rollout of IE7 on the domain level until we can determine whether it will work with our various web-based apps. I'm in no hurry to find out; I find the interface at best confusing and in general unfriendly. I'll stick with FF, and let the users plod on with IE6 which they know.

But coming back to your post, that is just like Microsoft to make that type of decision for you. If enough people complain about it and they'll probably backpaddle.

In the meantime, there are a couple of things you could try:
1) turn cleartype back on and then tweak it to fit your CRT with this tool: http://www.microsoft.com/typography/ClearTypePowerToy.mspx

2) Google around a bit for a hack (tricky), I found this tidbit: http://pointerx.net/blogs/glozano/archive/2006/03/20/31.aspx

3) Outlook is messed up because it uses IE's rendering engine to get the text on the screen. Maybe fiddle around with the default fonts?

kat said...

Thanks Michiel, I'll take a look at those links.