qd-oled Text Rendering

SpellowHouse

SpellowHouse

SpellowHouse

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I thought I would start a topic for this, to bring together what we know...

All monitors have a sub-pixel layout that can be visible as colour fringing around text. Sub-pixel layouts are compensated for by text renderers that are in Windows and other applications. They adjust the color or brightness of the individual pixels to minimise the colour fringing.

Monitors have the same sub-pixel layout with the exception of qd-oleds, so colour fringing is not corrected by windows. This is particularly noticeable with white text on a dark background.

The text rendered in Windows is ClearType. But to complicate matters, it is not the only one that is used by applications. Also, in Windows, the text renderer does not distinguish between monitors, if you plan on using more than one, or you plan on switching monitors frequently.

The current best solution for Windows is to disable ClearType and use MacType instead. This is achieved by searching for ClearType and clicking on Adjust ClearType and unticking the enable box. Search and download MacType. Then -

Go to the folder: Mactype-rc2-20220720.2/ini and edit any profile.
Set AntiAliasMode=2 for RGB sub pixel rendering
Under [General], add the line PixelLayout=-18,-11,2,22,16,-11

This improves the text for the qd-led monitor, however, it will of course cause issues with other monitors you may happen to use.

There are additional tweaks for Mactype here - https://github.com/snowie2000/mactype/wiki

Ultimately we are all waiting for Microsoft to hand us a better solution. It may take some time because each monitor needs to be handled differently.

Did I get anything wrong in that? Comments please.
 
EsaT said:
LG's OLED isn't even RGB with white subpixel included:
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Sorry no idea what that all means! I know the format of oled is different to normal monitors and I assume qd-oled is different again?
I was just asking if there was any similar changes to mactype which could be done for OLED monitors as well?
 
Greebo said:
does that info work for oled monitors as well or just qd-oled please? I am using mactype which is an improvement over cleartype but not perfect
Click to expand...

No, the settings are for qd-oled only. I don't know how to adjust Mactype but I am sure it would be possible to sort out some that would suit any oled.
 
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It is kind of annoying - even with the best tweaks the 43" QD-LED monitor I have you need to be some distance from it or text issues are plainly apparent and even at a distance it isn't 100% - fortunately I mostly use it for racing games, etc. rather than as a desktop monitor.

Display manufacturers need a slap around the head not just MS.
 
Greebo said:
Sorry no idea what that all means! I know the format of oled is different to normal monitors and I assume qd-oled is different again?
I was just asking if there was any similar changes to mactype which could be done for OLED monitors as well?
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That very non-standard subpixel layout basically breaks any renderer from achieving anything close to intended output.

Here are same images for standard RGB panel

At least lame panel upside down BGR could be solved by turning monitor to direction manufacturer should have done, but not LG's kludge.


Rroff said:
Display manufacturers need a slap around the head not just MS.
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You forgot "constructive criticism" in R Lee Ermey style.
 
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When people say they can’t see the fringing, to me it’s like someone saying they can’t tell the difference between SD and HD. Everything else is *chefs kiss* but then it’s ruined by that - for my usage anyway. Not got much faith in a software fix and even then I doubt I could download it on my work laptop since any updates are done in admin-land and I can’t make requests. Consequently I sit indecisively thinking whether I should suck it up and get a 4K Ultrawide for £££ and enjoy peasant 60hz scrolling on dated panel tech, or sit in hope someone comes out with a regular OLED panel display in the not-too-distant future.
 
Somnambulist said:
When people say they can’t see the fringing, to me it’s like someone saying they can’t tell the difference between SD and HD. Everything else is *chefs kiss* but then it’s ruined by that - for my usage anyway. Not got much faith in a software fix and even then I doubt I could download it on my work laptop since any updates are done in admin-land and I can’t make requests. Consequently I sit indecisively thinking whether I should suck it up and get a 4K Ultrawide for £££ and enjoy peasant 60hz scrolling on dated panel tech, or sit in hope someone comes out with a regular OLED panel display in the not-too-distant future.
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A software fix will do it, the problem is that we have no control over that and have no idea who will and who won't implement changes. Mactype is a good solution BUT not every app uses the windows text renderer and as I said before, we need a selection that is monitor based so windows uses the right renderer for the right monitor.
 
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OK, experiment one! I was playing with Cleartype and unfortunately if you switch it off for the qd-oled you switch it off permenantly and any other monitor that is plugged in gets no ClearType either. So when you enable MacType it must perform the job of text rendering on all your monitors, TV's etc.

Nope, MacType can't do it either.
 
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Unfortunately this issue does limit the suitability of many OLED displays for desktop use and productivity apps. It is possible make OLED monitors with a more standard sub-pixel layout, but so far these have been rather expensive; e.g. LG UltraFine OLED Pro.
 
IT Troll said:
Unfortunately this issue does limit the suitability of many OLED displays for desktop use and productivity apps. It is possible make OLED monitors with a more standard sub-pixel layout, but so far these have been rather expensive; e.g. LG UltraFine OLED Pro.
Click to expand...

Yep, this is why I kept my other monitor. Having said that, many people don't care about the fringing on the qd-oleds.
 
I think having a brighter picture with little to no likelyhood of burn in is probably a good trade off for a text issue I can't even notice.

It would be nice if Microsoft could get off their butts and tackle this, I would assume it's not even an especially difficult problem for them to resolve with Cleartype and would remove the one small downside of these screens.
 
DeathStorm said:
I think having a brighter picture with little to no likelyhood of burn in is probably a good trade off for a text issue I can't even notice.

It would be nice if Microsoft could get off their butts and tackle this, I would assume it's not even an especially difficult problem for them to resolve with Cleartype and would remove the one small downside of these screens.
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Absolutely. Mactype cures most of the problems for me. It resolves most things in Firefox too. The only downside at the moment is that I have two monitors and none of the text renderers allow you to choose different settings for your monitors. But this really would be very simple for Microsoft to do. They just need a mactype slection for different oleds and the ability to use different settings for each monitor you have.
 
With different sub-pixel layouts being used with different OLED panel, the ideal would be if this information was available to the O/S along with the other capabilities as part of the VESA EDID. Windows could then automatically adjust text rendering to the most suitable option. However, being able to manually configure this on a per monitor basis would be a start. I guess things get a bit trickier though when you add display mirroring and screen casting into the mix.
 
Somnambulist said:
When people say they can’t see the fringing, to me it’s like someone saying they can’t tell the difference between SD and HD. Everything else is *chefs kiss* but then it’s ruined by that - for my usage anyway. Not got much faith in a software fix and even then I doubt I could download it on my work laptop since any updates are done in admin-land and I can’t make requests. Consequently I sit indecisively thinking whether I should suck it up and get a 4K Ultrawide for £££ and enjoy peasant 60hz scrolling on dated panel tech, or sit in hope someone comes out with a regular OLED panel display in the not-too-distant future.
Click to expand...

well, i use my 3423 for gaming mostly, but also for home office. i do see the fringing, but for me it's the case of "the longer you look at it, the less it bothers you" - i.e. a matter of getting used to. i only did the "better cleartype" workaround and waiting for microsoft to patch the windows built in crap.
 
I've been looking to get an Oled/QD-Oled which would be used for work/productivity and gaming/media consumption but was worried by the fringing issues. My work involves looking at seismic data but also using the Office suite so I was concerned that fringing on text and anything colour related could be problematic when interpreting data.

So today, I decided to test the effect on my LG C1. Fringing on text was definitely noticeable on Windows although not as bad as I thought, especially if viewed from a sensible distance. What surprised me though is that when I connect to my remote node (linux machine) for work via Vmware, I see no fringing at all! Text looks sharp, no issues on seismic data, and if I compare an identical web page toggling between Windows and the Virtual machine, the difference was noticeable. Could someone explain why text on the remote node would look fine? Is that because the text is rendered remotely and I only see an *image* of it?

Based on this, I'm thinking I should be fine with an Oled for work although I'm still curious if the sub-pixel layout of the QD-Oled would make things worse.
 
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