Editing ClearType (section)

==Background==
Computer displays where the positions of individual pixels are permanently fixed{{snd}} such as most modern flat panel displays{{snd}} can show saw-tooth edges when displaying small, high-contrast graphic elements, such as text. ClearType uses spatial [[anti-aliasing]] at the subpixel level to reduce visible artifacts on such displays when text is rendered, making the text appear "smoother" and less jagged. ClearType also uses very heavy font hinting to force the font to fit into the pixel grid. This increases edge contrast and readability of small fonts at the expense of font rendering fidelity and has been criticized by graphic designers for making different fonts look similar.

Like most other types of subpixel rendering, ClearType involves a compromise, sacrificing one aspect of image quality (color or ''[[chrominance]]'' detail) for another (light and dark or ''[[luminance]]'' detail). The compromise can improve text appearance when luminance detail is more important than chrominance.

Only user and system applications render the application of ClearType. ClearType does not alter other graphic display elements (including text already in [[bitmap]]s). For example, ClearType enhancement renders text on the screen in [[Microsoft Office Word|Microsoft Word]], but text placed in a bitmapped image in a program such as [[Photoshop|Adobe Photoshop]] is not. In theory, the method (called "RGB Decimation" internally) can enhance the [[anti-aliasing]] of any digital image.<ref>Betrisey et al., "Displaced Filtering for Patterned Displays", Proc. Society for Information Display Symposium, 2000</ref>

ClearType was invented in the Microsoft e-Books team by Bert Keely and Greg Hitchcock.  It was then analyzed by researchers in the company, and signal processing expert [[John Platt (Principal Researcher)|John Platt]] designed an improved version of the algorithm.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Platt |first=John |date=2000 |title=Optimal Filtering for Patterned Displays |url=http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/68972/optfilt.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140810202712/http://research.microsoft.com/pubs/68972/optfilt.pdf |archive-date=August 10, 2014}}</ref>  [[Dick Brass]], a vice president at Microsoft from 1997 to 2004, complained that the company was slow in moving ClearType to market in the portable computing field.<ref>[https://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/04/opinion/04brass.html?pagewanted=1&ref=opinion Microsoft’s Creative Destruction]</ref>