Recently my laptop caught a virus and needed to be re-formatted.  When I got it back after it was fixed, I wondered why text — not just web pages, but Word documents and spreadsheets — was hard to read.  Text looked faint & pixelated.  I tried tweaking all kinds of settings, and finally found the solution that worked for me.

Here are details on the setting I changed: Use ClearType to Enhance Screen Fonts in Windows XP. Try it out for yourself to see if it improves the readability of text on your computer monitor too.

► Windows Vista users: use the online tuner to turn on and tune ClearType settings from Internet Explorer.
► Windows 7 users: use the built-in ClearType tuner found in the Windows Control Panel under Appearance and Personalization to adjust ClearType settings.

Here are screenshots of before & after I switched to ClearType...

Before:

After:

Resources:
· Microsoft Typography > About fonts > ClearType information > What is ClearType
· Microsoft Typography > FAQs > ClearType FAQ
· Microsoft Typography > About fonts > ClearType information > ClearType Tuner
· Use ClearType to Enhance Screen Fonts in Windows XP