Bug 167611 - Unreadably Faint Text in Certain Windows on Windows; Dev Versions Cause Headaches Too; Skia Breaks Mactype Workaround
Summary: Unreadably Faint Text in Certain Windows on Windows; Dev Versions Cause Heada...
Status: UNCONFIRMED
Alias: None
Product: LibreOffice
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI (show other bugs)
Version:
(earliest affected)
unspecified
Hardware: All Windows (All)
: medium normal
Assignee: Not Assigned
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2025-07-21 03:45 UTC by MarjaE
Modified: 2025-10-10 20:53 UTC (History)
2 users (show)

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Description MarjaE 2025-07-21 03:45:38 UTC
Trying to set up LibreOffice on Windows. I opened Customization. I can't read text there because it's too faint. I also opened About LibreOffice. I can't read text there either, because it's too faint.

It's Windows so it's a system-wide problem and there doesn't seem to be a system-wide solution. Increasing font sizes, increasing scaling, and reducing resolution quickly run into limited screen space.
Comment 1 MarjaE 2025-07-21 03:57:01 UTC
Screen is 1920x1080.

I was using 100% text size, 150% scaling, 1920x1080. I use Mactype to try to bolden text, with mixed success.

It's just as unreadable if I use 100%, 100%, 1280x720.

I can't test 100%, 150%, 1280x720.
Comment 2 Buovjaga 2025-07-21 04:02:45 UTC
Please copy and paste here the content of your Help - About by clicking the copy button. This allows us to know more about your system.

Set to NEEDINFO.
Change back to UNCONFIRMED after you have provided the information.
Comment 3 MarjaE 2025-07-21 04:50:37 UTC
Version: 25.2.5.2 (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 03d19516eb2e1dd5d4ccd751a0d6f35f35e08022
CPU threads: 12; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (10.0 build 26100); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 4 MarjaE 2025-07-21 04:58:52 UTC
The bug also affects Options.

It seems to be triggered by "Use Skia for All Rendering." It doesn't seem to be affected by hardware acceleration or anti-aliasing.

But I get a lot of rapid flashing in the Customize menu after disabling Skia.
Comment 5 Buovjaga 2025-07-21 06:58:53 UTC
In the unreleased 26.2, Skia is the only rendering backend. There was a recent improvement to text rendering on Windows both in the UI and in documents. You could try Win-x86_64@tb77-TDF from https://dev-builds.libreoffice.org/daily/master/current.html

You might also check how forcing software rendering affects it.
Comment 6 MarjaE 2025-07-21 09:48:29 UTC
Instant stabby headache trigger.

Version: 26.2.0.0.alpha0+ (X86_64) / LibreOffice Community
Build ID: 49279f6a01c4f07b723072c068a9c1eab5b7f292
CPU threads: 12; OS: Windows 11 X86_64 (build 26100); UI render: Skia/Vulkan; VCL: win
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI: en-US
Calc: threaded
Comment 7 Buovjaga 2025-07-21 09:51:48 UTC
Do you mean the headache comes from faint text or some kind of flashing? Did you try with Skia/Raster by forcing software rendering?

In bug 166339 it was discussed that we should change the UI font family and size on Windows.
Comment 8 MarjaE 2025-07-21 10:09:00 UTC
Faint text.

I use Mactype to make Windows text readable. It turns out that changing Mactype settings changes the rendering without Skia, but changes nothing with Skia. So I suspect Skia is incompatible with Mactype. I don't know why the old version of Skia was just unreadable with eye strain and the new one is so much more painful. I tested the old version, so it's probably not the lighting.

Unfortunately, Windows lacks built-in solutions to make its text readable.

I'd suggest letting users pick interface fonts, perhaps using a drop-down list including semibold and bold options.
Comment 10 m_a_riosv 2025-07-21 21:48:22 UTC
Also you can test modifying some of the options in Menu>Tools>Options>LibreOffice>Appearance

Another option is to upgrade the graphics driver directly from the vendor.
Comment 11 MarjaE 2025-07-22 03:57:59 UTC
I've updated my graphics driver.

I've tried the options in the current version; they involve color customization, but don't seem to include font weight customization. I searched for "bold" and "readability" under themes, but found nothing.

I still can't see the options in the development version, so I don't know if there are new options.
Comment 12 MarjaE 2025-07-22 16:56:20 UTC
Bug 166399 complained that text wasn't faint enough, so I suspect the fix there pushed this from unreadable to painful.
Comment 13 MarjaE 2025-07-29 07:35:05 UTC
Skia also breaks the reduce-resolution workaround.
Comment 14 MarjaE 2025-10-10 20:53:20 UTC
Comment 12 should have referred to bug 166339.

The following workarounds *do* work with Skia:

* Reducing screen resolution, not just increasing scaling, since that doesn't work everywhere.

* Reducing gamma, using display settings and special color profiles. I have a Gamma 0.5 icc profile which goes a long way to fix File Explorer, LibreOffice, and other apps with new-style rendering. However, I need to use Gamma 1.0 or 1.5 for other apps.

* The combination of the blur at non-native resolution, and a low gamma, makes text somewhat bolder.

Still, it's far from ideal.

* Bug 166339 complained that Skia was using a low gamma, and asked it to recreate Windows-standard gamma.