I suspect the real problem is not just with IE9 but with all
applications that show text. Often when users get bigger monitors with
higher resolutions, they don't use that higher resolution to actually
increase granularity in painting objects on the screen. They leave the
DPI (dots per inch) at its standard 96 dpi setting. Yet if you increase
the resolution AND the size of the monitor then granularity for the text
is reduced. You're using the same number of pixels to paint the
character. You've wasted the increased resolution by not applying it to
the text. You'll notice that as you increase resolution that text gets
smaller on the screen.
Up the DPI setting in the Display applet. That gives more pixels per
inch to make sharper the display of text.
Also make sure the screen's resolution is set equal to the *native*
resolution of the monitor (I'm assuming this is for an LCD monitor and
not a CRT monitor). Anything other than using the native resolution of
an LCD monitor results in interpolation to paint nearby pixels and this
causes loss of focus, color tinging, and other video artifacts. If the
LCD monitor's native resolution is 1900x1080 then set the screen's
resolution to 1900x1080. Have the screen resolution the same as the
monitor's native resolution so the monitor doesn't have to interpolate.
However, many users find that objects (images and text) shrink too much
as they go to the high screen resolution. It's too hard to read because
it's too small. That's when you up the DPI setting to make bigger the
text. If you let an object reduce in size as you up the resolution then
you've gained nothing since density of pixels (DPI) for the text hasn't
changed. If you leave the DPI the same when going up in resolution, you
haven't increased sharpness but instead just made everything smaller and
harder to read. When increasing the resolution, increase the DPI.
Microsoft has their own recommendations as to when the DPI should be
changed (increased) based on the screen resolution; see
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-vista/Getting-the-best-display-on-your-monitor.
However, it's best to see what you like. Once I got above 1600 for
resolution, I upped the DPI from its 96 default to the 125 (or 120%)
setting. Then the text got easier for my eyes to read not only by
returning the text back to a readable size but while also incorporating
the increased resolution to make sharper the text.
If using the native resolution and upping the DPI (so text looks better
in all apps) still doesn't make text big enough in IE to easy
readability then up the zoom level in IE mentioned by others. First fix
readability everywhere and then address it in a particular app. While
you can change the zoom level while in IE, that's temporary and lost
when you exit and next reload IE. One way to permanently change the
default zoom level for IE is a registry edit:
Key: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Zoom
Data item: ZoomFactor
Data value: Change 80000 (decimal) to 100000 (decimal).
That sets 125% as the default zoom level when starting IE. Make it
bigger if you need a bigger default zoom level. You may also have to
set ResetZoomOnStartup2 to 0. You can also look at IE's options
(advanced tab); configure the "Reset text size ..." and "Reset zoom
level ..." options how you want IE to behave. If you disable the "Reset
zoom level ...", Windows will remember the last-used zoom level when you
exit IE when you next load IE. That means you won't necessarily be
using the default zoom level. It'll be whatever you used last time.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc849094(v=vs.85).aspx
Summary:
- Make sure the screen resolution is set to the LCD monitor's native
resolution. Anything else causes fuzziness and color tinge.
- Up the DPI setting to make use of more pixels to paint more pixels for
a character (and keep it at its original size than squash it down).
- Set IE to use a default zoom level that's comfortable for you. The
larger the zoom level the less of a page you'll see in the same-sized
window for the application (you'll have to scroll around more).
