[WildBill]

Oops! There was a bug in 1.0.4 where tasks weren't terminating properly. I've deleted it and uploaded a fixed version. The top post has an updated download link. Since 1.0.4 has been up for all of 30 minutes I decided to just re-upload it instead of making a 1.0.5.

This post has been edited by WildBill: 02 January 2010 - 11:20 PM

[Colonel O'Neill]

Heh, I managed to snag a copy of aforementioned 1.0.4... It's gonna be a rare copy now!

But WOW! I still haven't thought of a good style even with static images, and now I can consider animation!

It's just too much to handle! ^^

[WildBill]

Check out the alpha-blended tooltip



1.0.5 will have quite a few fixes and improvements.

EDIT: Revised the stretching parameters for the image to make it look a little better.

This post has been edited by WildBill: 07 January 2010 - 05:20 PM

[WildBill]

It wasn't easy, but now I've got alpha-blended popup menus working too.

[blackwingcat]

I used this version, and occured many memory leaks.
I uploaded log file here.

This Application freezed when I continual clicked several times short cut icon with ALT key.

WildBill, on Jan 3 2010, 02:19 PM, said:

Oops! There was a bug in 1.0.4 where tasks weren't terminating properly. I've deleted it and uploaded a fixed version. The top post has an updated download link. Since 1.0.4 has been up for all of 30 minutes I decided to just re-upload it instead of making a 1.0.5.

[Phenomic]

If you install Open Office 3.0 you get a font "DejaVu Sans" that gives you "universal" font smoothing. It's not subpixel antialiasing but it's close enough and it works. I'm curious what people think.

[WildBill]

I'm currently testing version 1.0.5 for imminent release. There is one intermittent startup bug that I don't care for (when it happens you have to kill Explorer and restart it), but otherwise it's performing very well so far. I've spent an enormous amount of time trying to make it really stable.

[WildBill]

Almost there, still whacking bugs. Note the Explorer icons, though...

This post has been edited by WildBill: 21 March 2010 - 06:40 PM

[WildBill]

A little testing with the Uber skin that comes with SmoothText. I still have a couple of issues to work through, but it's almost ready.

This post has been edited by WildBill: 25 March 2010 - 09:22 PM

[WildBill]

Another little update...I now have a virtual NT4 installation running on my Win2k box, and this has let me update SmoothText's NT4 support.

[WildBill]

Windows NT 4 support on SmoothText 1.0.5...note the skinning and the gradient-fill title bar



I still have one showstopper that I'd like to fix. Also, I'm working on a simple skin (shown here) that will work on NT4. Actually, the only restrictions for NT4 are that you can't have any alpha-blended windows, such as start button overlays, tooltips, and menus. You CAN otherwise use alpha-blended skin images, though.

P.S. Don't worry about the weird-looking calculator icon at the top. I have Daedalus off at the moment.

This post has been edited by WildBill: 03 April 2010 - 04:57 PM

[WildBill]

Most of the major bugs are fixed, and I decided to look into desktop icons. It turned out to be easier than I thought it would be...

[Tihiy]

There are some news about subpixel font rendering if someone is interested.
Pardon me if it's not the right place to share.
1) ClearType rasterizer from Microsoft Reader (which i use in RP9) is widely tweakable with registry settings and in fact gives results extremely close to Windows 7 output.
2) There is a full functioning ClearType rasterizer in gdiplus.dll which is artifically restricted by GetVersionEx check. It gives output extremely close to Windows XP output and has decent performance, but GDI+ text api is awkward.

And by extremely close i mean pixel perfect match with indistinguishable color or possible minor hinting differences.

[awergh]

NT4 Looks good it would be good to have a stable app that gives skinning everything I've tried on NT4 doesn't behave very well. Keep up the good work

[WildBill]

I'm still squashing bugs, but I've also added some new stuff. I've got rudimentary border skinning working, though I still need to refine it this week. I've also nearly completed a skin that will work on NT4 (shown here) and I have the beginning of another one. I don't know if I'll go to the trouble to complete both, but at the very least I want to have light and dark versions of the one shown here (needless to say, this is the dark version).

Things are progressing very well, now, though; while there are occasional visual glitches, SmoothText 1.0.5 is largely bug-free now.

[Svenne]

This looks absolutely amazing! I can't wait until 1.0.5 is out.
Anyway, do you take suggestions? If you do, here's a few:
* Try to integrate themes into the Appereance tab, just like in RP9.
* Use the ClearType rasterizer that's used in Revolutions Pack 9. The standard text smoothing gets blurry even on a TFT screen.
* Add an enable/disable ClearType checkbox to the Effects tab. Also add a button besides it that opens the configuration utility.
* Package the program into a real installer.
* Make the program start up automaticly using the registry.
* Finally, get rid of the tray icon.

[WildBill]

Thanks for the feedback. The more feedback I can get the better, though I can't guarantee which parts I'd eventually implement. Of course, SmoothText is open source, so there's nothing stopping anyone else from submitting changes.

I like the idea of using a real installer and I once investigated it, but I never settled on a good one. It would be nice if there was a free one that used Windows Installer.

I originally created SmoothText before Tihiy discovered how to use the real ClearType. I'm not sure if I want to make the switch, since that's owned by MS. The way that SmoothText is architected it might be possible to let it switch back and forth between the two, but I can't say it's a high priority. Of course, we can always improve SmoothText's rasterizer, too. I definitely like the idea of integrating into the Display Properties popup, though I'd need some help with that since I've never done that before.

Here's another screenshot to show where I am: I've been fixing bugs just about every day (including a major one that took me by surprise tonight). It's almost ready, now.

[Svenne]

Hot.
Anyway, the only installation packager that I know of is Install Creator, but I'm not sure if it can add registry values; at least not the free version.

[WildBill]

FINALLY!

I know better to claim that version 1.0.5 is perfect, but I think I've gotten rid of the major showstoppers and I feel comfortable enough with it to release it. I've updated the download link at the top and added the list of changes. With all that's new in this one, I could use all the feedback I can get.

Enjoy, everyone. It's been a long road to get here.

[WildBill]

One important thing for NT4 users: it's important to set up font substitution for things like menus to come up properly: