Is it possible to include directwrite in chrome?

Question

I prefer google chrome in almost every way over IE10, but one thing I hate is that fonts look much better in IE10. This is especially noticeable when using small math fonts. They look like PDF quality in IE10.

After a short search, I found out that this is because IE10 uses DirectWrite in Windows 7/8 to render fonts. I was looking for whether chrome would support this in the future, and I found this information:

April 24, 2013 :

Update for anyone watching this:

Our processing of Windows fonts is being actively processed. Basic support for DirectWrite is now in Skia (for an update from comment No. 13). At the same time, GDI was deeply embedded in the Windows WebKit port and is still being rooted out. We hope to get something in a step or two with which developers can start playing. How quickly it comes to stable, as always, is all about how quickly we can eradicate and burn any regressions.

We will update the thread here if it is available beyond the runtime flag for y'all to try.

October 8, 2013

The next version refers to this error: http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink?view=rev&rev=159071 Modified paths: M http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/ platform / graphics / skia / FontCacheSkiaWin.cpp? r1 = 159071 & r2 = 159070 & pathrev = 159071 M http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/blink/trunk/Source/core/page/RuntimeEnabledFeatures.in?r1=159071&r2=v9070&re2 159071
Add Runtime Flag to Use DirectWrite for Windows
Add a runtime support function to use BackWrite skia backend on
window.
BUG = 25541 R=[e-mail] , [e-mail]
Review URL: https://codereview.chromium.org/26335002

I don’t even know what a runtime flag is, but it seems to me that it is possible to somehow include directwrite in chrome. It's true? Or should I wait a little longer before I can use directwrite font rendering in chrome?

Answer 1

Unfortunately, not yet (starting from 2013-10-31, no Chromium channels support this feature out of the box).

If you look at RuntimeEnabledFeatures.in , DirectWrite not assigned status . According to the Blink document , users cannot enable the function through about:flags unless status=experimental assigned.

But hopefully soon, so Windows users may be better off with web fonts :)

Update 2013-11-16 : latest version 25541 comment , it seems we are very close able to include DirectWrite in the Canary Islands.

Update 2014-01-04 . Canary build now has a command line switch that can enable the display of the DirectWrite font, but you need to disable sandbox mode (unsafe for everyday viewing). There are also several issues with displaying fonts associated with it. We hope that they can install them and add this function to about:flags in the near future.

Update 2014-05-09 : the latest Canary build (m36) now has proper DirectWrite support in sandbox mode (implemented through release 333029 ), which means developers can directly enable DW by going to about:flags#enable-direct-write . As for consumers, Google aims to release m37 .

Update 2014-08-09 : Beta version of Chrome 37 allows DirectWrite by default , assume that the official version of Chrome 37 defaults to it too.

Update 2014-08-31 : The stable version of Chrome 37 DirectWrite is enabled by default ! Just note that users can still disable it in about:flags (some of them use MacType instead).

Answer 2

Chrome 35 (beta) includes an option to render DirectWrite fonts for Windows. Paste the following command into your address bar and click "Enable":

 chrome://flags/#enable-direct-write 

Link: http://www.reddit.com/r/web_design/comments/22q9r9/chrome_35_beta_has_finally_fixed_windows_font/

Answer 3

It is currently being developed for Chrome on windows. http://www.chromestatus.com/features/4725550652325888

Answer 4

Update: On August 26, 2014, Google updated the stable version of its Chrome browser to version 37.0.2062.94 on Windows, OS X, and Linux. In this release, Chrome is moving from the rendering method of the Microsoft GUI interface to the Microsoft DirectWrite rendering API. Switching to DirectWrite has been requested by users on Windows for many years, and Google said it took a significant rewrite of its font rendering engine, so it took so long.

Answer 5

This is in Chrome as a flag with 33 (and at the time of writing), however, from what I understand, you still need to run it with an isolated sandbox using the command line --no-sandbox . It is not recommended for everyday use. You can enable the rendering flag, but it will only change if the sandbox is disabled.

(I would add this as a comment on @chickenbooze, but I switched SE accounts and have not yet gotten enough reputation :)